Talking about and demonstrating my mid-1920s Toastmaster commercial 4-slice toaster, manufactured under the Strite patent for an automatic toaster that would turn the heat off and raise the toast automatically after a set time. When this was manufactured, automatic toasters had not yet made it into the household, so this was strictly a commercial appliance made for restaurants, hotels, etc. where its high price ($100 at the time, equivalent to around $1,600 today) was justified by saving the wages of a dedicated toast-maker, as it freed the employee to perform other tasks instead of watching to make sure the toast didn't burn! It took a bit of doing for me to understand how this machine works and get it to operate again, as well as to look (semi) presentable.
