Modern life is full of conveniences but few things are as convenient as sliced bread.
Just think about it.
Its almost funny that it took humans more than two thousand years to figure that out.
Now imagine someone trying to take away this great invention.
The United States Government attempted to do that in 1943.
Food was one of them.
An ad for sliced bread by the Continental Baking Company, one of first bakeries to sell pre-sliced bread.
Its most important job was to prevent food wastage.
He got this great ideaban sliced bread because it was making Americans eat more.
So Rohwedder put together a brief questionnaire and placed it as an ad in several large newspapers.
Over the course of a few months, more than 30,000 housewives responded with their choice of slice thickness.
A bread slicing machine at Chillicothe Baking Company.
To this day Chillicothe calls itself the home of sliced bread.
The Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, was the first to use Rohwedders bread slicing machine.
Within weeks, bread sales shot through the roof.
Americans were eating bread like never before.
The idea was that stale bread would be less appetizing, and so people would eat less of it.
British propaganda posters during World War 1.
Besides, the ban could have been directed towards the machines instead of their product.
Whatever might have been the reason, the ban was poorly thought out, and didnt last long.
One distraught housewife wrote a letter of protest to the New York Times.
My husband and four children are all in a rush before, during and after breakfast.
Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast two pieces for each one thats ten.
For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece.
Afterward I make my own toast.
Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry.
They look less appetizing than the bakers neat, even pieces.
Havent the bakers already their bread-slicing machines and for thousands of loaves?
Finally, on March 8, 1943, the ban was lifted.
Sources:Archival Ramblings/Priceonomics/Wikipedia/Culinary Lore
