The Glide ceramic, toast-propelling, open-type toaster. Looks like what Apple would build, price high and the run ads for mocking anyone dull enough to use the old boring type of toaster.
Naturally, it was designed for a competition and it does not appear anyone is actually manufacturing them. Darn it. And the prototype appears to be actually working. Double-darn it!
Second place, the Dualit Vario, starting at $230, American. But all manner of kewl. And it's British, so you know it will run and run but the crumb tray (she says fondly, thinking of her long-neglected '74 MGB) will always leak.
PS: also want this. It's a gooood surprise, just go there and enjoy! Absolutely brilliant.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
12 comments:
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Russell Hobbs motorized toaster. Never thought I'd spend $80 on a TOASTER, but it makes the best toast in the world, handling all sizes of bread, with multiple browning settings and a little rack to warm up things in there as well.
When I clicked the link in the "P.S." and saw something from my own gallery show up, I think the neighbors heard me squeal! And to think I was afraid no one would get the joke.
You're pretty serious about this toaster thing, eh?
Well, I don't care much for microprocessors in simple appliances either. Sorta looks like the CPT-160BCH from Cuisinart has just a simple dial control. And Sunbeam makes a "Heritage" model that looks pretty simple as well.
I think if I were going to shell out the bucks for my ideal toaster, it'd be something like the KitchenAide Pro-Line mentioned at Slate, now available as a refurb for under $100 through Amazon. I'd pay that, because I think it'd be the last toaster I'd ever have to buy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrF_K1w2haE
Nuff said
With the Glide, you wind up with toast cold at one end, hot at the other.
How would you manage to butter such? Which end would you start with? Or, would you be satisfied with not-consistently-buttered toast?
(Only engineers and geeks worry about such things.)
Rickn8or, you'd be surprised -- fine British toast is generally served at or just above room temperature. I most often use toast with bacon'n'egg sammiches, a once-a-week indulgence; if the filling is hot enough, the toast will warm back up. (Pepper bacon, egg with yolk fried out, maybe a slice of Muenster, all on rye bread. Little margarine and some hot sauce, ahhh, prefection! YM -- of course -- MV).
Kelly, you cannot have squealed much more loudly than I chortled when I discovered it on your site -- it's marvelous! You're among the kewl kids here: we do get it.
Toasterwise: presently torn between the Russell Hobbs (backordered everywhere, a good sign) and the fab-simple DeLonghi Aluminium. KitchenAide is a close third.
Vinnie: it's fine musical taste y'have there, I must say!
Remember a lot of British electrics are made by Lucas.
I've always got on smashingly with Lucas electrics. The main problem with 'em is they do not seem to have been designed by people who did automotive systems; most of what Lucas does makes perfects sense to me (with a background in applied electronics) and would work pretty well, too -- if they could be as sure of actual ground connections as they expect. Rust isn't a great conductor and air, well, air is plain terrible. --Lucas tends to be optimistic about the integrity of connections, too. Perhaps it's the climate difference. ("You mean they drive them outdoors?") :)
My little MGB's electrics include all of six (6) fuses, two of which are for optional equipment (and nowhere near the fuse block). You can just about draw it on the back of an envelope.
The big "stardrive" rigs are originally British; their massive high-power IOT tubes and the tuned cavities -- beautiful examples of machining -- still are made in the UK. Works a treat, too -- usually sideways and backwards to how anyone else would do it (except the French, who will have found a much more elegantly difficult way).
I have personally never had a problem repairing Lucas electrics on vehicles (maybe that's why I always got stuck with them). The PROBLEM seemed to be KEEPING them repaired. Under-engineered for a vehicle, but perfectly fine for a desk-bound transceiver.
I always adopted a British accent and used the 'Poke and curse' diagnostic method. Grounded in rust is the honest truth....
Hahaha! You said "British vehicle" and "keeping it repaired" in the same paragraph!
Most of 'em are designed assuming a far greater regularity and frequency of maintenance that American and Japanese cars. Maybe it's to keep employment up?
I tried to treat my MGB almost as if it were a light aircraft: preflight inspection, scheduled maintenance based on hours of operation, etc. This avoided no end of frustration.
Fifty four years ago come June 14 my boss gave my wife a Classic Sunbeam for a wedding present. It still works, and Appliance Parts (APCO) still has the wherewith to fix the trivial stuff that breaks. Three cords and one piece of nichrome wire, so far.
The old squatty Sunbeams are out of production but I bet there are at least twenty working samples in Indy area thrift shops. And several times than many in antique shops.
Any smart lady who can change a klystron can easily keep the worlds most durable toaster going.
73 Pete Allen
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