The Bins yield odd treasure. This time it was a late-50s vintage McGraw Electric Co. Toastmaster model 1C5. I couldn’t turn it down for three bucks.

Three slots for toast seemed a little bit odd, and I found out this model is actually kinda rare. Apparently they made three slot toasters for a brief period to cash in on the popularity of the club sandwich. Who knew?

This one didn’t seem to have been used much, but I still took it apart and cleaned it up. The bottom door was held closed with a few pieces of electric tape but it just needed to be adjusted a little bit to catch the latch.

The automatic release mechanism is way more complex that I would have assumed. Was also interested to find that the heating elements are woven around some kind of fibrous board of some sort. Hopefully nothing now known to be toxic…

Some links I found while researching it:
Garage Sale Finds – Odd Man Out
Toaster.org collection featuring the same model with black trim
Fluff article about a toaster collector, mentioning their unusual three slot toaster