The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread!

I'm sure all of us have heard and/or used this expression before, "This is the best thing since sliced bread!" Well, what exactly does this mean and who was the genious that created sliced bread? I will share my knowledge on this great mark in history.

In the early 1900s, most households baked their own bread, so there was no need to buy pre-sliced bread. However, if bread was purchased, it was always sold as a whole loaf. In the early 1920s, Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the bread slicer, designed to slice loaves of bread into equal, even pieces. Bakers scoffed at his idea, convinced that pre-slicing bread would cause it to go stale. So Rohwedder attempted to keep the bread together with hat pins after sliicing it, but they just fell off.

Finally in 1928, Rohwedder designed his bread slicer to slice the bread and then wrap it in waxed paper, which prevented it from becoming stale. People were still skeptical of this idea, but Rohwedder's invention gained popularity anyway. His sliced bread eventually hit store shelves, and in 1930, Wonder Bread began commercially producing the pre-sliced bread we are still familiar with today.

We still use this expression today because sliced bread quickly gained popularity with consumers and everyone marvelled at such a genious idea. Today, most households buy numerous loaves of sliced bread every week. Pre-sliced bread has become a staple we just cannot live without!

“History of Sliced Bread.” http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/qt/slicedbread.htm. About.com, n.d. Saturday, August 6, 2011.