Dr. Jon Platt

The Most Important Invention in the Last Century?

Ninety-one years ago today a patent was issued on an invention so important that it has been the yardstick against which all subsequent inventions have been compared. On July 12, 1932, the USPTO issued to O.F. Rodwedder, U.S. Patent 1,867,377, “Machine for Slicing an Entire Loaf of Bread at a Single Operation.”

Mr. Rodwedder was a jeweler by trade, and sold the three jewelry stores he owned to pursue his dream of perfecting a bread slicing machine. After over a decade of work, including a fire in his factory which destroyed his prototype and its blueprints, he finally reached the point in 1928 where he was able to apply for a patent on a machine that not only sliced a whole loaf of bread, but also placed it in a wrapper. After four years his patent was issued, and his machine was adopted with such rapidity that by the following year (1933) American bakeries for the first time sold more sliced than unsliced loaves of bread.

Today, when “the best thing since sliced bread” has become a common expression indicating an innovation of particular impact or importance, we remember O.F. Rohwedder, the inventor who brought us mass-produced sliced bread.   

Read The Patent here.