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Speaker 1: Brain with today's question, how does a toaster work? If
Speaker 1: you eat bread? Chances are that you have a toaster.
Speaker 1: Nearly every household has one. It's a device with amazing
Speaker 1: market penetration. Have you ever wondered how your toaster works?
Speaker 1: And before answering that question, have you ever wondered why
Speaker 1: human beings like toast? What makes toasted bread so popular? Bread,
Speaker 1: of course is nice. It's soft, chewy, delicious, a good
Speaker 1: way to enjoy we But that softness creates a structural
Speaker 1: problem that toast can solve. Dipping a piece of normal
Speaker 1: white bread in soup usually results in a saggy mess.
Speaker 1: Toast is much stronger, so it can hold up to
Speaker 1: soup dipping without difficulty. The other reason for toast has
Speaker 1: to do with flavor. When you make toast, you're activating
Speaker 1: something called the mayor reaction on the surface of the bread.
Speaker 1: This reaction is what causes the browning to occur. The
Speaker 1: heat inside the toaster boils off the moisture from the
Speaker 1: surface of the bread, and then the surface gets hot
Speaker 1: enough for the reaction to take place. It is a
Speaker 1: reaction that appeals to the senses we see. The result
Speaker 1: of the reaction is browning, sugars and proteins combined together
Speaker 1: to create the pleasant flavors and smells that we associate
Speaker 1: with toast. A toaster gives us an automatic and convenient
Speaker 1: way to activate this reaction whenever we need it. The
Speaker 1: convenience is the key to a toaster's appeal. You could,
Speaker 1: if you were patient, just hold a slice of bread
Speaker 1: over a hot stove burner with a fork to toast it,
Speaker 1: but that would be a lot of bother So to
Speaker 1: make an automatic toaster, you need four things. First, you
Speaker 1: need a source of heat similar to a stove burner. Second,
Speaker 1: you need a switch that turns on that source of heat. Third,
Speaker 1: you need a timer to turn off the source of heat.
Speaker 1: And then you need a mechanism to hold and pop
Speaker 1: up the toast. The source of heat is almost always
Speaker 1: created by running electricity through something called nichrome wire. Nichrome
Speaker 1: wire is an alloy made of nickel and chromium, and
Speaker 1: it has two important features. First, when you pass electricity
Speaker 1: through this wire, the wire heats up red hot. When
Speaker 1: you look inside your toaster and see the glowing red coils,
Speaker 1: you are seeing the result of electricity running through nichrome wire. Second,
Speaker 1: nichrome wire does not corrode from the heat like many
Speaker 1: other metals would. The simplicity and durability of nichrome wire
Speaker 1: makes it a common source of heat and everything from
Speaker 1: blow dryers to space heaters. If you were to take
Speaker 1: a coil of nichrome wire and plug it straight into
Speaker 1: a wall socket, it would glow red hot. If you
Speaker 1: wrap it around something that can handle heat, like glass
Speaker 1: or ceramic, you have the heating element. In a toaster.
Speaker 1: A simple vertical tray in a spring can lower the
Speaker 1: bread down between the toasters heating elements. When the tray
Speaker 1: hits the bottom, it can flip a switch that turns
Speaker 1: on the electricity and starts the toasting process. Now, we
Speaker 1: need a way to keep the tray down. In most
Speaker 1: modern toasters, this involves an electromagnet. The same switch that
Speaker 1: activates the heating elements also turns on this electromagnet. It's
Speaker 1: magnetic field holds the tray down until the toasting process
Speaker 1: is complete. And finally, there's a timer. When you set
Speaker 1: the dial on the toaster, that dial controls the amount
Speaker 1: of time that the tray stays down. Once time is up,
Speaker 1: the timer flips the switch off. This takes the power
Speaker 1: away from the heating elements as well as from the electromagnet.
Speaker 1: Without the magnetic field to hold the tray down, the
Speaker 1: spring pops the tray up and your toast is served.
Speaker 1: The next time you make a slice of toast, you
Speaker 1: will now know what goes into it. A simple piece
Speaker 1: of wire is creating the heat. An electromagnet keeps the
Speaker 1: toast in place. A timer turns off both the heat
Speaker 1: and the magnetic field, so your toast pops up automatically
Speaker 1: with a spring, and it's all happening to activate the
Speaker 1: mayor reaction, a reaction that creates taste and smells that
Speaker 1: many people enjoy. For more on this and thousands of
Speaker 1: other topics. Because it hostof works dot com streaming TV
Speaker 1: shows and movies directly to your home is a breeze
Speaker 1: with Netflix. As a Netflix Member, you can instantly watch
Speaker 1: TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device, or
Speaker 1: right on your television. Get a free thirty day trial membership.
Speaker 1: Go to Netflix dot com slash brain stuff and sign
Speaker 1: up today.