The Toaster Project: Or a Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from Scratch

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I would also recommend “The Toaster Project” to anybody that likes to build objects. This is because, “the Toaster Project” is a journey to building a toaster from scratch. “I dissect my patient into 157 separate parts, but these parts are made up of sub-parts, which are themselves made up of sub-parts.” (18). The author took an object, and he broke it down into many tiny parts. Throughout the book, it follows these different parts, and completely breaks down the process of how he got each part, and how he used it. People who like to build things know how much effort goes into simple projects, so they would read this book and relate with Thomas Thwaites on how complicated building and assembling is.

The process of human flight followed a similar path. We typically credit Orville and Wilbur Wright as the inventors of modern flight. However, we seldom discuss the aviation pioneers who preceded them like Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, and Octave Chanute. The Wright brothers learned from and built upon the work of these people during their quest to create the world’s first flying machine. The Toaster Project helps us reflect on the costs and perils of our cheap consumer culture and the ridiculousness of churning out millions of toasters and other products at the expense of the environment. If products were designed more efficiently, with fewer parts that are easier to recycle, we would end up with objects that last longer and we would generate less waste altogether. As well as visiting disused mines in the Forest of Dean, England, the Knoydart Peninsula in Scotland and the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, he has consulted experts in mining, oil drilling and recycling (as well as a drunken deer stalker) to turn his vision of a making a toaster from scratch into a reality. years later I'm staring at the dome of the Pantheon, the largest concrete dome in the world, and frescos of a spherical earth from ancient Rome. All knowledge, that was once lost or disputed: concrete construction and science. I realized it could be lost and that all knowledge is institutional and incremental. When it came time to create the plastic case for his toaster, Thwaites realized he would need crude oil to make the plastic. This time, he called up BP and asked if they would fly him out to an oil rig and lend him some oil for the project. They immediately refused. It seems oil companies aren’t nearly as generous as iron mines.What you get is mainly a story of exploration and adventure into sourcing the basic raw materials to build a toaster, told from a design student's perspective. This means a lot of detail is missing or skipped, while at the same time the book contains lots of anecdotes, verbatim conversations, etc. I found it a bit disappointing that the author's aim was to reproduce a 'modern' toaster from raw materials, which turned out to be quite impossible from early on in the book. The author then goes on to cut quite a few corners to 'sort of' make a modern toaster out of raw materials, and the conclusion is rather ambiguous as to the success of his endeavour.

If you’re wondering what the puddle of goo is lying on the floor beside me, it’s what’s left of my broken brain. Yes, this book mushed my head up like it was making Kool-Aid. Finding ways to process the raw materials on a domestic scale is also an issue. For example, my first attempt to extract metal involved a chimney pot, some hair-dryers, a leaf blower, and a methodology from the 15th century – this is about the level of technology we can manage when we're acting alone. I failed to get pure enough iron in this way, though if I'd tried a few more times and refined my technique and knowledge of the process I probably would've managed in the end. Instead I found a 2001 patent about industrial smelting of Iron ores using microwave energy. The practical aspects of the project are rather a lot of fun. They also serve as a vehicle through which theoretical issues can be raised and investigated. Commercial extraction and processing of the necessary materials happens on a scale that is difficult to resolve into the domestic toaster. Graham, Chris (28 May 2016). "No kidding: Why Thomas Thwaites lived as a goat in Switzerland". The Telegraph . Retrieved 15 January 2017.I have mixed feelings about this book. The concept of a man making a toaster completely from scratch is definitely interesting, and the author is quite entertaining in his writing. The Toaster Project takes the reader on Thwaites s journey from dismantling the cheapest toaster he can find in London to researching how to smelt metal in a fifteenth-century treatise. His incisive restrictions all parts of the toaster must be made from scratch and Thwaites had to make the toaster himself made his task difficult, but not impossible. It took nine months and cost 250 times more than the toaster he bought at the store. In the end, Thwaites reveals the true ingredients in the products we use every day. Most interesting is not the final creation but the lesson learned.

The project is a reaction to the idea that it's possible or desirable to be self-sufficient, but also to the view that having more stuff, more cheaply is better. Part of the project consists of finding the places where it's possible to dig up these raw materials. Mining no longer happens in the UK, but the country is dotted with abandoned mines, some having been worked since before the 'UK' existed, but all currently uneconomical. The Toaster Project is a wonderfully written story about Thomas Thwaites’s journey about making a toaster from scratch. The adventure takes place over a nine month period where Thomas follows a set of three rules on a death defying journey. British designer Thwaites in 2011 at Poptech in Maine Toaster and casing from "The Toaster Project", on display in the V&A in September 2022So, firstly, yes, I realise toasting bread over a fire would’ve been a lot easier. But was a piece of toast (or designing a better toaster) really the point of this project?

Daily updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. Plus occasional news. Dezeen Jobs Weekly Much has been said elsewhere about The Toaster Project, which I’m really pleased about! I’ll not try and reproduce it here, except to answer some questions and criticisms (which for the most part are totally welcome). We‘ve all externalited most of reality in our hyperconnected, modern world. Not just Toasters, but all kinds of products seem to appear like from nowhere. We have turned our socieites into a global „cargo cult“ awaiting gadgets, gifts, and food to almost rain from the sky. The true cost (not just financially, but also socially, environmentally, and in terms of human and animal suffering) is invisible to us. I heard about your book on NPR this morning. At first blush its an interesting idea. Though carrying it further if you are bound and determined to make an electric toaster from scratch, would you not also have to generate electricity to power it?Fairs personally guides readers through the wonders of innovations like a balancing barn, a textile-skinned car, and the first aesthetically pleasing CFL — all of which share an 'I wish I’d thought of that' awe factor" - Sight Unseen The contrast in scale between between consumer products we use in the home and the industry that produces them is I think absurd – massive industrial activity devoted to making objects which enable us, the consumer, to toast bread more efficiently. These items betray no trace of their provenance. People have toasted (and baked for that matter) bread for centuries long before electricity was conceived. First impressions aren’t everything. The Toaster Project’s title, cover, and the toaster itself don’t showcase the stories true potential . The Toaster Project was definitely more than an attempt at making a homemade toaster. I would call this adventurous nonfiction a success.