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November 1939. "Slicing bread at bakery. San Angelo, Texas." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Still in business, it started in Grand Rapids building high quality woodworking tools. After about 100 years of ownership by the Oliver family, it was sold.
But I thought Oliver Crumbwell was a person.
Anyways, I was just thinking about this the past week. Hearing the saying so much, I was thinking about how did they go about slicing it and exactly how excited people were to get bread you didn't have to slice yourself anymore, this photo cures my curiosity and confirms my suspicion.
I KNEW I'd seen one of those machines before.
Here's an Oliver bread slicer being operated by an Alcatraz convict in the penitentiary kitchen circa 1945.
I literally laughed out loud. Well done.
[Please, no applause. Just throw money! - Dave]
The greatest thing? "Preslicely" what I was thinking!
Oliver is the same brand of slicing machine I see used in Panera today.
This bread slicer looks exactly the same as the one at our local supermarket, Dorothy Lane.
It is a specialty store with the best homemade bread and the bread slicer looks just like this one.
Ok, just can't resist this!
I wonder how much DOUGH this guy makes at his job? Hope he isn't too CRUSTY after a hard day's work. Well at least this photo is a look at a SLICE of pre WWII life.
That slicer uses the same type of slicing blades as the new machine in my local bakery. The new one has added safety features, of course. I guess it was a great thing!
Yep, he's putting his bare hands onto each sliced loaf. And he has enough grease in his hair to lubricate the machine if it starts to seize up.
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