Martedì, 18 Maggio, 2004 | Posted by Lionel Gerkin at 08:31

At the Dance Factory, my role is as head of the Toaster production line. Toasters have become a little passe these days, but they are still a marvel of modern engineering. People just see the colour of the bread that is popped out and its shade of brown.

They fail to see the magic that goes on within the chrome exterior.

I tried to explain this once to Silvia. It's just a simple story of finding a role for something that doesn't work as efficiently as it should.

Let me explain, the basic premise of a toaster it to expose extreme heat to a piece of bread so that it can be "toasted" to a golden brown colour.

Plug a toaster in and it'll run electricity through a special mixture of metals. One of these metals is Nichrome wire which is an alloy of nickel and chromium.

And here's the magic. Electricity finds it difficult to pass through nichrome. Not that it's dangerous or anything, it's just that it's not an efficient carrier. It slows down the flow holding up the current.

So, what happens? The electrons are running around like crazy trying to get through, the metal is slowing them down, friction is increasing and the wires are starting to really heat up.

And they glow with the heat required to toast your morning breakfast.

I looked over at Silvia and noticed she was attacking her fingernails with an emery board. "Can I have marmalade with that toast?" she said.