Adam Smith has his epiphany about the civilizational good that was the new, infant, capitalism arising around him in Scotland and England when he considered a pin factory – a small manufacturing facility where 10 skilled workers with special tools produced about 48,000 straight pins per day to be used mostly for sewing clothes.
Smith saw that not only did the price of pins drop so much that even poor seamstresses could afford them, sales would increase due to the lower price and the making of clothes would rise along with the quality of life for thousands of families.
Since I was a boy, I have been toasting slices of bread in toasters without ever asking who invented the toaster. It was and still is a remarkable convenience to have at home – easy to toast bread, easy to use and very safe – even little kids can use them.
In our local newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, there was a story by Mary Divine that the toaster was invented in a town in Minnesota in 1919:
“Stillwater master mechanic Charles P. Strite reportedly invented the pop-up toaster in 1919 because he was tired of the burnt toast served in his company’s cafeteria.
To circumvent the need for continual human attention in the making of toast, Strite designed an electric toaster that “featured heating elements that simultaneously toasted both sides of the bread, a timer that automatically turned off the heat, and springs that pushed up multiple pieces of perfectly browned toast,” according to the Minnesota Historical Society.
A Toastmaster pop-up bread toaster, invented by Stillwater factory worker Charles P. Strite and manufactured in Minneapolis by the Waters-Genter Company in 1921 (courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society).
Strite filed the patent for his pop-up bread toaster in 1920.”
Here are pictures of two of his toasters:
Thus, the gift of capitalism – invention, more products, lower prices, happier people – keeps on giving. Today, we are anticipating that this beneficial process will be jump started once again by AI.