It once lead time and tradition to make a bagel . A baker had to roll the dough , coil it into circles , seethe it , and pop the ware into an oven until the bagels were shining and brown . And not just any medium Joe could make the chewy treat . recipe were passed down through Jewish families , and youhad to be a memberof the International Beigel Bakers Union to sell them to the masses .
For these reasons , you were n’t likely to see beigel unless you lived in a townspeople with a sizeable Jewish population . However , a man name Daniel Thompson commute all that with a exclusive invention : the beigel machine .
TheNew York Timesrecently memorializedThompson , who died earlier this calendar month at the eld of 94 . Thompson was a math teacher , an discoverer , and the son of a beigel bread maker . In 1953 , hecrafteda literally game - changing conception : the fold up Ping - Pong board with roulette wheel . However , he ’s most unremarkably remembered for revolutionizing the mid-20thcentury American dieting with the bagel - make car he created in the late 1950s .
The machine was originally conceived by Thompson ’s father , who expend years tinkering with various unsuccessful models , reports theLos Angeles Times . However , it was Thompson whoperfected thefinal product . The car ’s main use was dim-witted : it stray and work the bagel dough . However , the speed is what count : by some reports , the largest beigel - making motorcar could churn out 5,000 bagels in an minute , whereas a single baker could only grow a fraction of that telephone number .
Soon after the machine ’s excogitation , Thompson and his married woman , Ada , launch the Thompson Bagel Machine Manufacturing Corporation . They began leasing out Thompson Bagel Machines to bagel company such as Lender ’s Bagels — the famous beigel bakery in New Haven , Connecticutthat sold thenation ’s first frosty bagels . Before you could say “ Would you like a schmear with that , ” pre - made and package beigel were deck the shelves of food markets across the country .
While Thompson democratize — and some would say elevated — the lowly bagel into a bite - time basic , some purists were bitter that people manufacturing transformed the crusty , savour - pack bite into a softer , more bland , moreAmericanproduct . The beigel was no longer a sign of Jewish identity — it now belonged to the body politic .
So next meter you bite into a beigel , remember Thompson — and the fact that 60 long time ago , the tasty treat was far hard to find .
[ h / tNew York Times ]
