Homemade Toaster

Thomas Thwaites, of the U.K., last year brought to life the complexity of one of our simplest machines through a very unique DIY project: he had set out to build his own toaster from scratch.

"Now, hold on a minute," you might say. "What's so great about that?" To which I reply: well, when I say "from scratch" I mean, "he went out to mine ore and minerals to build a toaster encased in plastic." Watch the video below, and within about 30 seconds the apparent complexity of such a simple and ubiquitous device in our American culture will become self-evident:

Homemade or do-it-yourself projects have always fascinated me, because every time I see the insides of some previously seemingly simple device (i.e., a toaster), I am undeniably dumbfounded by how little that I know about the things that I use in the world around me, as well as how much we simply rely on the knowledge of those who have gone before us to make our lives mo

I learned to love to cook for this precise reason: everything that is now prepackaged or frozen food (what most of us here have grown up on or at least around), at one time, HAD to have been made in someone's kitchen and tasted almost identical to what you find in a pre

formed meal. Someone once had the idea to make pasta using eggs and flour. To bake bread into a loaf shape and then slice it. And then to eventually toast it. If all of these things once had to be performed by hand, and the product was proven to be of equal or greater value than those we now see today (assuming, of course, that quality control and R&D has done an on-par job of recreating the prototype), then why do we not learn these skills in case they become no longer available? Indeed, are we destined to become as Arthur Dent, who could only make sandwiches to impress future civilizations? I pray that we do

not.re pleasant. I fear that we are akin to the sedentary and hedonistic when we cease to seek out and strive to learn more about the world around us; children have this vision, so why can't we as adults?

Below are some of the things that I have found fascinating in my life re

cently, many of which I have no REAL idea as to how they work beyond a vague Wikipedia-based knowledge and some generic cookbooks....uh, I mean, textbooks...as a guide.

I have no idea how this knows when

my clothes are dry (I think it does, and

it just taunts me with wet clothes):

Breadmakers are pure magic: Clocks remain forever a mystery:

Space pens work by pressurized Nitrogen capsules...but normal pens? Gravity? So simple, yet so complex.