Irrelevant
Business Breakfast need to do their homework
Portable toasters patented since 1969
Occasionally, I listen in to the Business Breakfast on 103.8FM. Well, up until the reception goes bad on the way up to TECOM. While one would understand the occasional PR stunt, there was no excuse for today’s Westin Hotel interview about their invention of the world’s first battery-operated toaster. Right.
Brandy and Malcolm should both have known better than to put up an interview like that. A simple search for it would have revealed the following:
A housing having a generally upwardly directed slot therein for receiving a slice of bread, with rechargeable battery-powered heating elements therein for toasting a slice of bread inserted within said slot.
Filing Date: 8/13/1969
You can read all about the patent here. I would hope that the Business Breakfast team does not disappoint again with such carelessness.
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3 comments for “Business Breakfast need to do their homework”
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Dear Dubaibizniz,
firstly, thanks for listening.
secondly, the Westin have in fact invented the worlds first temperature controlled battery operated toaster.
When the guest slot was pitched to me i was extremely dubious as it did not seem possible that no one has yet invented such a thing. after extensive research into a topic that i really have no interest in whatsoever (toasters), i found no such example of a toaster that works in the way the Westin’s machine does.
I emailed the PR to double check my findings and after about a week i was sent a reply that included a conversation involving many Westin staff members - the email confirmed the toaster is in fact a first.
yes, there are battery operated toasters on the internet in many forms but deeper reading will tell you they are unreliable and therefore have never been made for general consumption. have you ever seen a battery operated toaster for sale?
re the patent linked to above, i did find that particular page and whilst the patent appears to stand the product does not - whether the Westin has broken patent laws would be a subject for someone other than me to deal with.
Thanks
(our signal will be back to full strength soon by the way, our combiner is under repair)
Alan,
Executive Producer
Business Breakfast
Hi Alan,
Thanks for dropping by. Allow me to answer you with the following:
1. The fact that it has been patented since 1969 means it has already been invented. Inventions do not necessarily mean commercial viability. Westin did not invent a portable battery-operated toaster. That’s just a fact.
2. I have yet to find the need to shop for a portable toaster and such would imagine most people don’t look for them. This would explain why you are unable to easily locate a reliable one.
3. If Westin wanted their guests to have freshly toasted bread, they could have fitted rooms with a toaster. This is purely a PR stunt and you know it.
4. I don’t mind the PR part of it, it’s okay… let’s just call a spade a spade, shall we? Westin were the first hotel (I know of) to use a reliable battery-operated toaster that is customized for their guests.
How about that?
P.S. I hope the signal gets back to normal, despite my critique, I enjoy the program
Sometimes PR stunts are entertaining and make nice changes to subprime problems or food price rises - and all critique is welcome