For more than a decade, a Wikipedia article for “Alan MacMasters” told the story of a 19th century inventor of the toaster, complete with a photo and the tale of a drunken epiphany. According to the (now removed) article for Alan MacMasters, he lived from 1865 to 1927; he attended the University of Edinburgh; he studied in the Department of Natural Philosophy. It seemed relatively plausible. It had a handful of citations. But it was completely made up.
