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Charles Perkins STRITE
1921 - Charles Strite of Minnesota patented the pop-up toaster.

Charles received U.S. patent #1,394,450 on October 18, 1921 for the pop-up bread toaster.

He formed the Waters Genter company and started selling the "Toastmaster".

"... The first toaster came along around 1909, though there are conflicting claims as to who was actually the first. Inventors at three different companies - General Electric, Simplex and Pacific Electric Heating Co. - all applied for patents at about the the same time for very similar looking inventions...

The automatic 'pop-up' mechanism in today's toasters was invented in 1919 by Charles Strite, a man who... was tired of eating burnt toast at his company cantina (in Stillwater, Minnesota).

It took seven more years though, for the first commercial pop-up toaster to appear on the market.

The Toastmaster was smaller than many manual models, but more expensive - $13-14 on average, compared with $1 for the cheapest manuals."

The Dispatch
Lexington, North Carolina
September 6, 2002



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