America 250 Candidate: Automatic Pop-Up Toaster
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AUTOMATION HISTORY · AMERICA 250 · REPLACEMENT CANDIDATE
Automatic Pop-Up Toaster
American milestone: 1921 patent; commercial development in the 1920s · Charles P. Strite · Minnesota
Status: Replacement candidate. Final number pending chronology audit.
Why it belongs in America 250
Charles Strite patented an automatic bread toaster that timed the heating cycle and released the toast without requiring constant supervision. Later Toastmaster models helped popularize automatic pop-up operation.
Connection to automation
The toaster combined electric heating, timing and automatic mechanical release—an early household example of a controlled process completing itself.