[throwawaykf03]

Instead of hand-waving about the conductivity of air, what would have helped is a citation that clearly states how hot the heating element of toasters themselves get. (Really. Because I could not find a good cite either :-P)

The best I coud do was wiki answers: The heating element of toasters reaches 1100 - 1200 F [1].

If the answers.com link is not trustworthy, consider this: The most common alloy used for the heating elements in toasters is Nichrome [2]. Nichrome is used because it has a "high" melting point of 2550 F [3].

Not only does the temperature range required by this patent not make toast, it would melt the heating element in most toasters. The spec of the patent itself requires some kind of halogen lamp heaters.

It's pretty clearly not a "patent on toast". "Burnt to a crisp" toast, maybe, but not toast.

1. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_hot_does_a_toaster_get

2. http://www.toaster.org/works.html

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichrome