Electronics Blog

A microwave oven can be used for cooking, baking, boiling water and also heating food cooked earlier. It is one of the most versatile household article and a truly great invention. Let us take a look at the man who invented this magnificent apparatus and how he went about putting together his ideas.

Dr Percy Spencer was an engineer working at Raytheon Corporation. In 1946, he was heading a research project about radars. While he was working on the project and a new vacuum tube ‘magnetron’, he found that the candy bar in his pocket had melted due to the heat produced.

Surprised by the outcome, be began to study in detail about the process that happened and did several other experiments. One of the experiment was that he put some popcorn kernels near the tube and was surprised to see the popcorn cracking and scattered all over the room.

In yet another experiment, he placed an egg near the magnetron tube and asked another colleague to witness what happened with him. The egg, reacting to the application of extreme pressure, began to tremble. The temperature inside the egg caused the egg to explode, sending yoke all over the lab.

Due to extreme pressure the egg began to shake. The heat inside the egg rose so much that it exploded. The yolk was scattered all over his colleagues face. Thus they realized that other food articles can be cooked using low density microwave energy.

After a lot of research work Dr. Spencer created a metal box and the box was connected to microwave power. It was designed in such a way when the door of the box was opened the microwave power will heat the inside of the box and when the door was closed, the heat created will be retained inside. This was enough to cook the food that Dr.Spencer had placed inside, within seconds. That was the first time food was cooked in a microwave oven.

Shortly thereafter, other experiments were made to refine the techniques. In 1946, the Raytheon Company offered a proposed patent for this new invention. Another oven that was similar to that invented by Dr. Spencer was placed in a Boston restaurant and was successfully tested.

In 1947, the first microwave oven was launched in the market. The earlier models were very big and very heavy. They were also very expensive, costing almost $5000. Also the ovens were getting over-heated and needed to be water cooled. Initially, the manufacturers installed spiral coils around the oven. Water was circulated through these coils and hence the oven was cooled.

If you’d like to learn more about this, then you need to check out Panasonic Stainless Steel Microwaves.