"The greatest thing since sliced bread" = since July 7, 1928.

[Fletch]

It was 80 years ago today that the Chillicothe (Mo.) Bakery Co. put the first commercial bread slicer into operation. The invention was the work of Otto Rohwedder, an Iowa-born jeweler and entrepreneur.

 

[alexandra]

I went through a phase as a young teenager where I planned to name my future son after this man

 

[TheDutchess]

Thank you Otto for making my ham n' cheese sammiches oh so tasty.

 

[sixsexsix]

I actually prefer non-sliced bread! I like having the control of deciding just how thick my slice is going to be.
I can see where is can be convenient though

 

[shortbow]

Hey, is that baker talking on a cell phone? I didn't realize they came out that early.

 

[Charlie Noodles]

A candlestick cell would be nifty.

 

[Roger]

What seemed so simple was quite complex.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was in the second grade, we went on a field trip to the Nissen bakery in Portland, and saw an entire row of Rohwedder machines in action -- wicked impressive! We then got a freshly-sliced freshly wrapped loaf of bread to take home as a souvenir of the trip, and I ate all of mine, right down to the heeltack, on the bus on the way home.

Balloon bread. Mmmmmmmm.

 

[pgoat]

I actually prefer non-sliced bread! I like having the control of deciding just how thick my slice is going to be.

Just what I was thinking - we always have to stop people from throwing the loaf in the slicer at bakeries....

but I could see how they'd be a big hit on the school trip!

 

[Fletch]

We then got a freshly-sliced freshly wrapped loaf of bread to take home as a souvenir of the trip, and I ate all of mine, right down to the heeltack, on the bus on the way home.

Oh bad, bad, BAD Lizzie. Did you spoil your supper and have to sit at the table till you felt like eating again?

I dunnohwedder da Rohwedder originally had the variable-thickness slicing feature like the ones today. Somebody wanna go look up U.S. Patent #1,867,377 and find out?