When we ask our readers what they think of Centives they normally smile, pat us on the head, and tell us that at least we’re trying. Someday though they will universally stop to say that this website is the best thing since sliced bread. Because, well, sliced bread is pretty awesome, as Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg writes.

Someday.

• It took 13 years of design and perfection to invent the first commercial automatic bread slicing machine.
• Bakers hated it saying that it was a bad idea since selling sliced bread would mean the bread would go stale faster.
• Yet when it was finally released in 1928 it was a hit – so much so that it made the front page of the local paper.
• During WW2 the government tried to ban bread-slicing machines, saying that the country needed blades more than sliced bread. In light of public outcry though the ban was soon dropped.

To read more including the historical origins of the machine, what the original patent looks like, and links to other interesting articles about the history of sliced bread, as well as a video from 1946 about the baking industry, click here.

Source: The Atlantic

Via: Kottke