The Man Who Didn’t Invent the Toaster: The Alan MacMasters Internet Myth

How an Internet Joke Became a “Historical Fact” — and Then Fell Apart

If you’ve ever searched for who invented the toaster, chances are you’ve come across the name Alan MacMasters.
But did he really invent the electric toaster?

The short answer is no.
The long answer is far more interesting — and surprisingly revealing about how information spreads online.

This story isn’t just about toast. It’s about how easily a good story can replace the truth when we stop asking questions.

Let’s be clear from the start: Alan MacMasters did not invent the toaster.

What we’re dealing with here is a classic internet hoax.

In 2012, a group of British university students edited a Wikipedia article as part of a joke. They claimed that a Scottish inventor named Alan MacMasters had created the electric toaster in 1893. The story included fabricated details and even a manipulated image.

At first, it seemed harmless.
Just a bit of fun.

But the internet doesn’t always know when to stop.

Once the claim appeared on Wikipedia, it gained an automatic sense of credibility.

Other websites copied it.
Blogs repeated it.
Articles referenced one another.

Before long, the same false information appeared in dozens of places — all citing each other as proof.

This is a textbook example of circular reporting:
information looks reliable because it appears everywhere, even though it all comes from the same false source.

And for years, hardly anyone questioned it.

Eventually, editors and researchers started digging deeper.

They found no patents.
No historical records.
No credible documentation connecting Alan MacMasters to the invention of the toaster.

The Wikipedia page was corrected.
The hoax was exposed.

But by then, the myth had already taken on a life of its own.

Honestly, it’s easy to see why this story worked so well.

• It had a specific name

• A clear invention date

• A national backstory (Scotland, inventors, the late 1800s)

• And a device we all use every day

We like neat origin stories.
We like the idea that one clever person changed the world with a single invention.

Reality, however, is rarely that simple.

Here’s where things get more accurate — and more interesting.

The Toaster Was Not a Single Invention

The electric toaster didn’t appear overnight, and it wasn’t the work of one individual.

It evolved gradually.

Early electrical heating elements were unreliable.
They burned out quickly.
They were unsafe.

Everything changed with the development of nichrome, a metal alloy that could withstand high temperatures without degrading.

That breakthrough made electric toasters possible.

In the early 1900s, companies began producing practical electric toasters for home use. One of the most important players in this stage was General Electric.

These early models worked — but only barely.

You had to watch the bread constantly.
There was no automatic shut-off.
Burnt toast was common.

Progress, but not perfection.

The toaster as we recognize it today arrived in the early 1920s.

That’s when Charles Strite introduced the automatic pop-up toaster.

His design included:

• A timer

• An automatic shut-off

• A spring mechanism that popped the toast up when ready

For the first time, people could make toast without standing next to the appliance.

That invention truly transformed the toaster from a novelty into a kitchen staple.

At this point, you might wonder:
Why does any of this matter?

Because this story highlights something bigger than toast.

It shows how:

• False information can spread quickly

• Trusted platforms can still be wrong

• Repetition can replace verification

And once a myth becomes popular, correcting it is much harder than creating it.

There are a few simple takeaways worth remembering:

Good stories are not always true.
Popular information is not the same as verified information.
Wikipedia is a starting point — not a final authority.

And perhaps most importantly:

Technological progress is usually collaborative, messy, and gradual — not the result of one brilliant moment by one forgotten genius.

• Early 1900s – Experiments with electric heating elements

• 1909 – First commercially viable electric toasters

• 1921 – Automatic pop-up toaster patented by Charles Strite

No Alan MacMasters.
No single dramatic invention moment.
Just steady improvement over time.

The next time you drop bread into a toaster and hear that familiar pop, remember this:

Your morning toast is the result of decades of experimentation, engineering breakthroughs, and incremental design improvements — not one fictional inventor invented in a Wikipedia prank.

And if someone ever tells you,
“Did you know Alan MacMasters invented the toaster?”

You can smile and say:

That’s actually one of the internet’s most famous hoaxes.