Microwave Oven History

Today, a microwave oven (or simply microwave as we refer it today) is an indispensable part of our kitchen. Most of us consider the invention of the microwave oven as one of the most magnificent scientific inventions of the twentieth century. Microwave cooking has provided us a faster way to prepare food. The heating technique of the oven is quite unique. It uses dielectric heating to heat water and other such polarized molecules present in the food material, and helps in uniform heating of the food. The microwave oven's history began way back in the era of World War II. Since then, it has undergone many changes before we got the present working model.

Invention

We can say that the invention of the microwave oven happened by chance. The credit for inventing this oven goes to Dr. Percy Spencer, an engineer with Raytheon Corporation. He invented this amazing kitchen appliance in the year 1946 while working on a research project of radar. While conducting a test for a special kind of vacuum tube called a magnetron, he found that a candy bar kept in his pocket had melted. He got curious to know whether it happened due to the heat generated by the magnetron tube or not. So he placed some popcorn kernels close to the tube and observed it closely. After a few minutes, he surprisingly found that the popcorn started cracking and popping all over the laboratory.

The very next day, he and his colleague came up with the idea of placing an egg in front of the magnetron tube. Again, they found that in no time the egg started moving because of high internal pressure caused due to rapid rise in temperature inside it. Finally, the egg exploded and splattered all over the face of his colleague. Thus, he concluded that the low density microwave energy can be used to cook food. For the final inference of his observation, Dr. Spencer used a metal box in which he fed microwave power in order to create a high density electromagnetic field. The food was placed inside the box, and as usual the temperature of the food went up rapidly.

The First Model

The work for the first model of the first microwave oven started soon after Dr. Spencer's invention. Raytheon Corporation filed for its US patent for Spencer's microwave method of cooking on October 8, 1945. A specimen of the oven that can heat food with the help of microwave energy was kept in the Boston restaurant for the purpose of testing. In 1947, Raytheon Corporation developed the first microwave oven of the world and named it Radarange. It was of huge size much larger than its present form. It was about 1.8 m (6 feet) tall and 750 pounds or 340 kg in weight. The cost of the machine was $5,000. The magnetron tube of the oven needed water cooling, hence, plumbing installations was also included in the oven. Power required to run the microwave oven was as high as 3 kilowatts!

Evolution

The first commercial model of the microwave oven came up in 1954, but it did not do well in terms of sale. In the year 1965, Amana Corporation was acquired by Raytheon, and they developed the first home model of Radarange in 1967. It was priced at US $495, and it became quite popular despite the fact that the sales were quite slow in the beginning. This marked the beginning of a whole new concept of microwave cooking.

In the 1960s, another company called Litton, came up with a new model of microwave ovens, which were short and wide in shape, and looked quite similar to the present model of microwaves. This model was constructed with a unique magnetron feed which helped it to support itself in a no-load condition for an indefinite period. It was first exhibited in a trade show in Chicago, and as a result, its sales grew at a very rapid pace. In the 1970s, the sales of microwaves grew at a much faster rate and touched one million in the US market by the end of 1975. Japan developed a much cheaper variety of microwaves around this time, as they used a re-engineered magnetron which was less costly. In the late 1970s, more number of companies joined the market and started building microwave ovens with improved technology, and the price of such ovens began to fall. Till date, the market is expanding continuously and you can get a wide variety of microwaves as per your requirement of features, size, shape, color, style, budget, etc.

From the microwave oven history, we have found that the appliance which was once used for the purpose of industrial applications, has now become a necessity of contemporary kitchens worldwide. This is simply because of its many advantages. It saves both our time and energy to a great extent. Thus, it perfectly suits the cooking habits of the fast paced world of today.