Until 1928, every loaf of bread was sold whole. If you wanted slices, you had to cut them yourself with a bread knife, usually in different sizes and at slightly weird angles. A man named Otto Frederick Rohwedder spent years building a machine that could slice a whole loaf and then wrap it before it dried out.
The first loaf of machine-sliced bread went on sale in Chillicothe, Missouri, on July 7, 1928. Customers were so excited that the bakery’s sales jumped by 2,000% in just a few weeks. Bakeries across America bought the machines, and even the famous Wonder Bread brand picked it up by 1930.
People at the time really did call it the greatest thing in baking history, and the phrase “the best thing since sliced bread” stuck. In 1943 the US briefly banned pre-sliced bread to save metal for the war effort. Public outcry was so loud that the ban was reversed in less than two months.
