Whence
Microwave oven
Invention

Where does Microwave oven come from?

The microwave oven comes from the Boston area of Massachusetts. In 1945 the radar engineer Percy Spencer found that microwaves could cook food, and his employer, Raytheon, brought out the first microwave oven in 1947.

A melting chocolate bar

Spencer, born in Howland, Maine, in 1894, never finished grammar school and taught himself physics and mathematics while serving as a navy radio operator. During the Second World War he led Raytheon's power tube division and found a way to mass-produce magnetrons, the tubes that generate microwaves for radar, raising output to 2,600 a day. In 1945, the well-known story goes, he was standing by an active radar set when he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Others had noticed the effect, but he was the first to investigate it.

Popcorn first, then an egg

The first food Spencer cooked on purpose was popcorn. The second was an egg, which exploded in the face of a co-worker. He then fed microwaves from a magnetron into a closed metal box, and food placed inside heated up fast. Raytheon applied for a patent on 8 October 1945, and a test oven went into a Boston restaurant. The first commercial model followed in 1947: almost 1.8 metres tall, it weighed 340 kg, was water-cooled, and was leased to hotels and restaurants.

Why people think of Japan

Japan does have a place in the story. A Japanese electronics company began making microwave ovens in 1961 and, between 1964 and 1966, introduced the first model with a turntable, which heats food more evenly. Microwaves for the home came slowly in America: Raytheon's first popular countertop model appeared in 1967 at $495. In 1971 only about 1% of US households had a microwave oven; by 1997 more than 90% did. But the idea itself began beside a radar set in Massachusetts.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Microwave oven ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Percy Spencer ↗ · lemelson.mit.edu ↗ · invent.org ↗

More Inventions

Hei-tiki (greenstone pendant)
Invention

Hei-tiki (greenstone pendant)

📍 New Zealand (Aotearoa)

The hei-tiki, a figure worn around the neck ('hei'), is a Māori treasure from New Zealand. The finest are carved from tough greenstone, pounamu, slowly shaped by rubbing with stone, sticks and water, and handed down through families as heirlooms.

Electric battery (voltaic pile)
Invention

Electric battery (voltaic pile)

📍 Lombardy (Pavia & Como), Italy

The first electric battery was a stack of zinc and copper discs separated by brine-soaked cloth, built by Alessandro Volta in Lombardy in 1799. It grew out of his argument with Luigi Galvani over twitching frog legs.

Fileteado (sign painting)
Invention

Fileteado (sign painting)

📍 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fileteado, swirling scrolls, flowers and bright fancy lettering, began in Buenos Aires in the late 1800s on the horse-drawn carts that delivered milk, bread and fruit. Italian immigrants shaped the style, and UNESCO listed it in 2015.

More from North America

Candlepin bowling
Game

Candlepin bowling

📍 Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Candlepin bowling, with thin pins and a ball that fits in your palm, began around 1880 in Worcester, Massachusetts. You get three rolls per frame, and the knocked-down pins stay on the lane.

Anorak (the word)
Word

Anorak (the word)

📍 Greenland

Anorak comes from Greenlandic anoraq, a hooded, waterproof jacket. English took it up through accounts of polar expeditions (dictionaries date it from 1877 to 1924), and by the 1980s British slang also used it for a socially awkward nerd.

Plumeria (frangipani)
Plant

Plumeria (frangipani)

📍 Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean

Hawaii's favourite garland flower is a newcomer: plumeria is native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and a German doctor, William Hillebrand, brought it over in 1860. Its other name, frangipani, comes from an Italian marquis's perfume.