A Brief History of Microwave Ovens | The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation
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Published 2019-11-09
Microwave technology was discovered by accident by engineer Percy Spencer. It came out of the research being done on radar during World War II. After Percy Spencer discovered a melted chocolate bar in his pocket when walking by a magnetron — a device that produced electromagnetic waves — he realized the potential of using tiny electromagnetic waves to heat food.
Microwave ovens gained popularity in the 1970s, becoming all but standard in American kitchens by the mid-1980s. These new appliances cooked food differently than conventional stovetop or oven methods, which worked by surrounding food with heat. In a microwave oven, electromagnetic waves caused food molecules to vibrate, creating heat that transferred from the outside to the center of the food.
Today, microwave ovens have entered the digital era, using computer chips to expand the types of cooking and defrosting that a microwave can do.
Learn how cookbooks helped Americans adapt to microwave cooking www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/americans-adjust…
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All Comments (11)
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The 57 RCA whirlpool microwave wasn’t a “commercial microwave oven” that was a residential microwave! They started selling residential microwave ovens in 1955. I have a working 1957 and 1962 tappan microwaves both came out of houses of upper middle class people. You can see them work in my videos.
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the engineer walked by and his chocolate melted and his retina evaporated and he loved it lol
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Very nice video but there was one big noticeable inaccuracy. That 1957 RCA Whirlpool was NOT a commercial model it was a model that household consumers could have in their kitchens. The first microwave ovens for home use were offered by Tappan in 1955. The Tappan microwave oven was also built under the RCA Whirlpool and Westinghouse names. These early microwaves were powered by 220 volts of electricity and cost approximately $1500 or the price of a of Chevy 150 sedan hence installation of microwaves in the home were not very common through the mid 1960's and most sales were to restaurants, cafeteria's etc. It was not until Raytheon acquired Amana in 1965 that work was finally started on developing a counter top RadarRange that could be plugged into a 110 Volt outlet. It was introduced in 1967 as the Amana RadarRange and the price was dropped to around $500 and that is when the microwave oven began to take off in sales.
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Cool
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Pop some corn
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damn and I thought my old microwave was heavy
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now i see why sometimes i feel abit heat and discomfort in my pocket .
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There's actually a lot of factual errors in this video. Do your job, lady.
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The beginning of globesity lol
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You should never pop corn in your microwave oven for the same reason you never run your microwave oven when it is empty, it can shorten the life of the magnetron tube. Microwaves are absorbed by and excite the water molecules in food and that is how microwaves are used to cook food. Popcorn has virtually no moisture content and so most the microwaves produced by the magnetron tube have no place to go and that can cause the magnetron tube to overheat thus shortening its life.
