![sunbeam radiant control toaster sunbeam radiant control toaster](https://i.etsystatic.com/18960061/r/il/9fc48b/2957873521/il_fullxfull.2957873521_5n80.jpg)
It all works perfectly and quietly and must have greatly impressed consumers when introduced in 1949 as the T-20. They shrink just a small amount, but with the correct leverage, you can do some amazing things. Instead the toaster uses the force of the contracting ni-chrome heating elements as they cool after toasting, multiplied through classic levers, to raise the finished product. One might think that the weight of the bread also compresses a spring to be used to raise the toast, but that’s not how Sunbeam did it. The bread is lowered by its own weight, which also triggers a lever operated power contact that turns on the heating elements.
Sunbeam radiant control toaster license#
As far as I’ve been able to determine, Sunbeam never used the Toastmaster brand for Koci’s invention nor did it license the technology to McGraw.Įverything in the Radiant Control toaster works because of physics and mechanical levers, not powered motive devices. Toastmaster was a brand name of the McGraw Electric company, a Sunbeam competitor, which introduced the first automatic pop-up toaster in 1926. Ironically, and erroneously, in that obituary, Koci’s daughter refered to his invention as the “Sunbeam Toastmaster”. His son, Ludvik Frank Koci, had a long career as an engineer and executive at General Motors, eventually running its Detroit Diesel subsidiary. He also experimented with electric cars in his 60s. According to his obituary, he also invented and held patents on an early electric iron, Sunbeam’s first electric coffee percolator, and the first electric frying pan, along with electric shavers and electric blankets. Koci, who worked for Sunbeam and its antecedant company for 37 years. The Radiant Control toaster was the creation of a prolific inventor named Ludvik J. Impressively, the technology was developed back in the 1930s and 1940s and even more impressively, it uses no motors or solenoids. Isn’t that cool? When you’re half awake and waiting for your coffee to brew would you rather be startled by the jarring, spring loaded action of a pop-up toaster, or be gently alerted by a quiet click, followed by your toast being elevated, as gentle as sunrise?
![sunbeam radiant control toaster sunbeam radiant control toaster](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/25/b4/a2/25b4a29a6434b226de0258d20ba1281a.jpg)
After the bread is lowered, you can skip to about 40 seconds in to watch the magic happen as it shuts off and raises the toast.
![sunbeam radiant control toaster sunbeam radiant control toaster](https://img0.etsystatic.com/055/1/6346898/il_570xN.713847380_qfrk.jpg)
Here’s a short video of the Radiant Control toaster in action. The bread goes down automatically, the heating elements turn on and toast your bread, which then rises, quietly and gently, when done. You see, with the Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster, you just set your slice of bread (or bagel, this old school toaster has slots that can accommodate fairly thick slices) in the slot, adjust the doneness setting, and the toaster does the rest. You provide all the force needed, and you turn on the toaster.Ī cool piece of kit, no doubt, but compared to a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster even the most modern, digitally controlled pop-up toaster is Model T primative when put up against the the SRC’s mechanical elegance. An electromagnetic latch releases when a mechanical timer, bimetal thermostat, or logic circuit decides that the toast is done to your setting. Isn’t every pop-up toaster you can buy at Target’s housewares section automatic? Don’t they pop up your toast automatically when it is done? Well, yes, they do, rather suddenly and violently compared to the T-35’s genteel action, but you first have to put the bread in and depress the plunger to lower the bread into the toaster, which puts tension on the lifting springs, and energizes the heating elements. While America was busy making rockets and inventing solid state integrated circuits to put men on the moon, an appliance company was using basic physics and mechanics to make an automatic toaster the likes of which has never been improved upon. While both of those will char bread quite adequately, I prefer to use the best bread toaster ever made, a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster, in my case a model T-35, made sometime between 19, close to my own vintage. To make toast these days, most folks either use a toaster oven, which to me seems like overkill for just a couple of slices, or a pop-up electric toaster. I also love me some toasted bread, though I actually prefer egg challah with sweet butter and strawberry preserves, to dry, white toast. Being a harmonica enthusiast isn’t the only thing I have in common with Elwood Blues.