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Sliced bread.

Sliced bread is a loaf of bread which has been pre-sliced and packaged for convenience. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped."^[1] This led to the popular phrase, "the greatest thing since sliced bread".

[edit] History

This photograph depicts a "new electrical bread slicing machine" in use by an unnamed bakery in St. Louis in 1930 and may well show Rohwedder's machine in use by the Papendick Bakery Company.

The multiple cutting bands in Rohwedder's 1928 slicer are shown in this diagram from his patent.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa invented the first loaf-at-a-time bread-slicing machine. A prototype he built in 1912 was destroyed in a fire^[2] and it was not until 1928 that Rohwedder had a fully working machine ready. The first commercial use of the machine was by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, which produced their first slices on July 7, 1928.^[3] Their product, "Kleen Maid Sliced Bread", proved a success. Battle Creek, Michigan has a competing claim as the first city to sell bread presliced by Rohwedder's machine; however, historians have produced no documentation backing up Battle Creek's claim.^[4] The bread was advertised as, "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped."^[5]

St. Louis baker Gustav Papendick bought Rohwedder's second bread slicer and set out to improve it by devising a way to keep the slices together at least long enough to allow the loaves to be wrapped.^[6] After failures trying rubber bands and metal pins, he settled on placing the slices into a cardboard tray. The tray aligned the slices, allowing mechanized wrapping machines to function.^[7]

W.E. Long, who promoted the Holsum Bread brand, used by various independent bakers around the country, pioneered and promoted the packaging of sliced bread beginning in 1928.^[8] In 1930 Wonder Bread, first sold in 1925, started marketing sliced bread nationwide.

[edit] The greatest thing since sliced bread

The phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread" (and variations thereof) is a commonly used hyperbolic means of praising an invention or development. Sliced bread appears to be something of an arbitrary selection as the benchmark against which later inventions should be judged. It has been said that "the phrase is the ultimate depiction of innovative achievement and American know-how",^[9] although it is commonly used in the United Kingdom as well.

The popular use of the phrase derives from the fact that Wonder Bread, the first mass-marketer of sliced bread as a product, launched a 1930s ad campaign touting the innovation.^[10]

[edit] The 1943 U.S. ban on sliced bread

During 1943, U. S. officials imposed a short-lived ban on sliced bread as a wartime conservation measure.^[11][12] The ban was ordered by Claude R. Wickard who held the position of Food Administrator, and took effect on January 18, 1943. According to the New York Times, officials explained that "the ready-sliced loaf must have a heavier wrapping than an unsliced one if it is not to dry out." It was also intended to counteract a rise in the price of bread, caused by the Office of Price Administration's authorization of a ten percent increase in flour prices.^[13]

In a Sunday radio address on January 24, Mayor LaGuardia suggested that bakeries that had their own bread-slicing machines should be allowed to continue to use them, and on January 26, 1943, a letter appeared in the New York Times from a distraught housewife:

I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that's ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!^[14]

On January 26, however, John F. Conaboy, the New York Area Supervisor of the Food Distribution Administration, warned bakeries, delicatessens, and other stores that were continuing to slice bread to stop, saying that "to protect the cooperating bakeries against the unfair competition of those who continue to slice their own bread... we are prepared to take stern measures if necessary."^[15]

On March 8, 1943, the ban was rescinded. Wickard stated that "Our experience with the order, however, leads us to believe that the savings are not as much as we expected, and the War Production Board tells us that sufficient wax paper to wrap sliced bread for four months is in the hands of paper processor and the baking industry.^[13]

[edit] Around the world

Because of its convenience, sliced bread is popular in many parts of the world.

In Ireland, the most popular bread type is known as "sliced pan",^[16][17] sold in 800g loaves (often also available in 400g loaves), wrapped in wax paper, with the slices conveniently sized for making sandwiches and toast.

[edit] References and notes

• Burton, Bill. "Liberty: Best Thing Since Sliced Bread". Bay City Weekly, January 25, 2001
• Hammack, William. (2003). Commentary from Bill Hammack's Engineering and Life radio program. Text available from Engineerguy.com. Retrieved September 21, 2006.
• Levenstein, Harvey (2003). Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America. University of California Press.
• Longden, Tom. "Famous Iowans: Otto Rohwedder". Des Moines Register extra. Retrieved September 6, 2006.
• Wenske, Paul. "History of sliced bread little known on 75th anniversary". Kansas City Star. Retrieved September 7, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Best thing since sliced bread
• U.S. Patent 1,867,377: Rohwedder's 1928 bread slicer. (TIFF viewer required. See USPO help topic.)