In 1928, an Iowa-born jeweler unveiled a revolutionary invention. The machine Otto Frederick Rohwedder had created was the best thing since… well, that cliche wasn’t available yet. Because what Rohwedder invented was the automatic bread slicer.
Born in 1880, Rohwedder grew up in Davenport, where he attended school and apprenticed as a jeweler. After high school, he moved to Chicago to study at the Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Otology, where he earned a degree in optics. Rohwedder then pursued a career as a jeweler, eventually owning three jewelry stores in St. Joseph, Missouri.
As his jewelry business grew, Rohwedder tinkered with inventions on the side. Around 1912, he started thinking about an automatic bread-slicing machine that could be used in commercial bakeries. Risking everything, Rohwedder sold his three stores in 1916, and moved his family back to Davenport to work on the bread slicer.
But disaster struck. In 1917, a fire in the factory Rohwedder was working in destroyed his prototype machines and all his blueprints. Rohwedder lost everything.
It would take a decade for Rohwedder to recreate everything he’d lost, and during that time he had to take a job as an investment agent to support his family. But he never lost faith in his idea, and in 1928, the finished machine earned him his place in history. He convinced his friend and investor Frank Bench to install the first machine in his bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri. It quickly increased bread sales by 2,000 percent, breaking down after six months of heavy use. The second machine, residing today in the Smithsonian Institution, was used at Korn’s Bakery in Davenport.
Rohwedder patented his design and produced the bread slicer through his Davenport company Mac-Roh Sales and Manufacturing. In 1932, he sold the patent to Micro-Westco Co. in Bettendorf, where Rohwedder served as vice president and sales manager until he retired at the age of 71.
At first, bread consumers worried that pre-sliced bread would go stale faster, so Rohwedder invented a U-shaped clip for bread bags. Over time, as popular brands like Wonder Bread began using pre-sliced bread, it became the new standard. Newspaper articles parodied the mania around bread slicers when WWII rationing prevented their widespread use.
After retiring, Rohwedder would move to Michigan with his wife, Carrie. The two are buried at Riverside Cemetery in Albion, Michigan.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s December 2023 issue as a part of Peak Iowa, a collection of fascinating state stories, sites and people.