Art student Thomas Thwaites created a lofty personal challenge: remake a £3.99 toaster he bought new at a shop from scratch. This corded glob is what he came up with…and while it’s a bit different from the model, it works.
(The original Argos Value Range 2 Slice Toaster)
A perfect replica was quickly found to be impossible, or at least implausible, as the original toaster was found to have 100 different materials inside to be collected and refined. So Thwaites built his version with just five: Iron, copper, plastic, nickel and mica—actually taking steps like mining his own iron ore and smelting it in his microwave…a process that ultimately cost him £1187.
Points of sustainability aside, the industrial society of today is a remarkable machine. [Dezeen via Treehugger]
