The toaster project

20 cm, 192 pages

English language

Published Sept. 28, 2011 by Princeton Architectural Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-56898-997-6

(2 reviews)

"Hello, my name is Thomas Thwaites, and I have made a toaster." So begins The Toaster Project, the author's nine-month-long journey from his local appliance store to remote mines in the UK to his mother's backyard, where he creates a crude foundry. Along the way, he learns that an ordinary toaster is made up of 404 separate parts, that the best way to smelt metal at home is by using a method found in a fifteenth-century treatise, and that plastic is almost impossible to make from scratch. In the end, Thwaites's homemade toaster--a haunting and strangely beautiful object--cost 250 times more than the toaster he bought at the store and involved close to two thousand miles of travel to some of Britain's remotest locations. The Toaster Project may seem foolish, even insane. Yet, Thwaites's quixotic tale, told with self-deprecating wit, helps us reflect on the costs and perils of our …

"Hello, my name is Thomas Thwaites, and I have made a toaster." So begins The Toaster Project, the author's nine-month-long journey from his local appliance store to remote mines in the UK to his mother's backyard, where he creates a crude foundry. Along the way, he learns that an ordinary toaster is made up of 404 separate parts, that the best way to smelt metal at home is by using a method found in a fifteenth-century treatise, and that plastic is almost impossible to make from scratch. In the end, Thwaites's homemade toaster--a haunting and strangely beautiful object--cost 250 times more than the toaster he bought at the store and involved close to two thousand miles of travel to some of Britain's remotest locations. The Toaster Project may seem foolish, even insane. Yet, Thwaites's quixotic tale, told with self-deprecating wit, helps us reflect on the costs and perils of our cheap consumer culture, and in so doing reveals much about the organization of the modern world.

1 edition

Balise reviewed The toaster project by Thomas Thwaites

Review of 'The toaster project' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

So this guy just woke up one morning (or not far from it) and decided to make a toaster from scratch. And by from scratch, he means getting the metal, plastic and making the whole thing from, basically, raw material. Which is crazy, but awesome crazy, as far as I'm concerned. This small book (I read it in a single day, part of the reason was because I actually read more than I would typically had on that day, but part of the reason is that... it's a short book :P) tells about his story, successes and fails. It's very funny, I laughed more than a few times - and it does give some perspective, in particular on the question "how is it even remotely possible to sell a toaster for less than 4 GBP" ;) The whole engineering and process is pretty cool, in any case.

The end is …

So this guy just woke up one morning (or not far from it) and decided to make a toaster from scratch. And by from scratch, he means getting the metal, plastic and making the whole thing from, basically, raw material. Which is crazy, but awesome crazy, as far as I'm concerned. This small book (I read it in a single day, part of the reason was because I actually read more than I would typically had on that day, but part of the reason is that... it's a short book :P) tells about his story, successes and fails. It's very funny, I laughed more than a few times - and it does give some perspective, in particular on the question "how is it even remotely possible to sell a toaster for less than 4 GBP" ;) The whole engineering and process is pretty cool, in any case.

The end is more philosophical/trying to ask/answer questions about the consumer society we live in - while these are definitely valid questions and points, it was, to me, kind of a letdown after the awesome quest for the manufacturing of a toaster \o/

Still, a short, fun and interesting read :)

Matthew M. Conroy

rated it

March 17, 2018

Subjects

DIY
Manufactures -- Miscellanea
Electric apparatus and appliances
Design