Sliced Bread

A jeweller's idea

Otto Frederick Rohwedder, a jeweller from Iowa, spent years working on a machine that could slice a whole loaf of bread at once. A fire destroyed his early prototype and plans, but he kept going. Bakers worried that sliced bread would go stale quickly, so his final design also wrapped the loaf after slicing.

First sale

On July 7, 1928, the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri began selling Kleen Maid Sliced Bread made on Rohwedder's machine. A local newspaper praised it, and sales grew fast. Chillicothe now calls itself the home of sliced bread.

Spreading across America

In 1930 the Wonder Bread brand began selling sliced loaves nationwide, and sliced bread soon became normal. Uniform slices also helped the popularity of pop-up toasters, which needed even thickness to work well.

The saying

The phrase the greatest thing since sliced bread, meaning an excellent new idea, became popular in the decades after. It shows how quickly the convenience was taken for granted. Today, bakeries still sell unsliced loaves for people who prefer to cut their own thickness.

How it changed everyday life

Pre-sliced loaves changed breakfast and lunch routines. Sandwiches for school and work became faster to make, and toast became a daily habit as electric pop-up toasters spread through homes in the 1930s. Bakeries had to rethink packaging to keep sliced bread fresh, which led to better wrapping. Sliced bread also became part of a wider shift toward convenience food in the 20th century, alongside canned soup, breakfast cereal and frozen meals. Some home bakers still prefer slicing their own loaf, and bread knives with serrated edges were designed with that job in mind.

Did you know?

Rohwedder's original 1928 machine is in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

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