50th Birthday of the counter-top microwave oven

[Skip Lackie]

50 years ago Amana introduced the Radarange, the first small counter-top microwave oven. Hardly any kitchen in the western world is without one.

The microwave oven had actually been produced before that, but they were large and heavy and not appropriate for home use. Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Corporation invented the microwave oven in the late 1940s, based on radar research conducted by Raytheon for the Army and Navy during WWII.

[ddub]

I first encountered a microwave in 1959 in the break room of the paper mill where I worked. There was a vending machine with various snacks and a large microwave oven next to it. In my first use, I put in a sweet roll, took it out an took a bite and seared the roof of my mouth on the really hot icing on the roll. It only took once to learn the lesson.

[DEEPNHOCK]

My favorite (True) story involving a microwave is when my good friend, a long time police officer, used to confiscate illegal fireworks.
The department had a 55 gallon drum of water next to the station/dumpster.
They'd toss the fireworks in the barrell and soak them before throwing them out.
My friend, working overnight shift, saw a gool looking silver rocket gizmo floating in the barrell.
He tossed it in the trunk of his squad car.....
Being the good officer he is, he used to get free coffee at the local 7-11...
So.... At about 3am, he and his partner went in to get some free coffee.
He decides to try and dry off the rocket in their microwave.
Put it in... Punched the button.... Waited...
Then the piercing scream of the rocket motor breaks the 7-11 Musak...
And milliseconds later, the starburst expolsion blows the microwave door off and accross the aisle.
The professional team of police officers could not perform small appliance repairs.
The manager of the 7-11 was yelling in some stange language....
The gendaerms retreated to the safety of their squad car....

[studegary]

In the early 1960s we bought a new top of the line GE kitchen range. It had some sort of futuristic name that I can not recall and it was very expensive. It had a microwave oven built into the conventional oven. You could use one, the other or both together. It was still in use in the house when we sold the house in 1991.

[48skyliner]

Percy Spencer's claim to have "discovered" the microwave effect of heating food in 1945 is just not true. He may not have known what others had discovered several years earlier. I read somewhere in the history of the RADLAB at MIT in about 1941 the very primitive radar was being tested on the rooftop of the lab, and supposedly one of the guards, who were always on duty, laid his lunch on the railing that surrounded the roof, directly in front of the antenna. After the testing was done, he retrieved his lunch and it was "too hot to touch". This interesting phenomenon was not pursued for commercial reasons because the focus was on winning the war.

Later in the war, after numerous radar systems had been developed and were being put into production, the RADLAB director, Alfred Loomis, released many of his scientists to go and work for Robert Oppenheimer on another secret project.

[raprice]

I remember a demonstration of a microwave oven at the NY World's Fair in 1964. I believe it was in the GE exhibit, but I'm not sure.
Rog

[GrumpyOne]

If not for the microwave, I would not be doing any "cooking" at all...

[studegary]

I remember a demonstration of a microwave oven at the NY World's Fair in 1964. I believe it was in the GE exhibit, but I'm not sure.
Rog

I mostly remember the Charger II show car from that World's Fair. I spent a lot of time talking to the factory rep. After I told him that I drove to the Fair in my 1965 Sport Fury, he listened more. I could see that the show car did not need much modification (lop off the extended rear) to be a production model. I pestered our local Dodge dealers until the car was announced. I ordered mine and took delivery of the first one in the area. I kept that car nine years and 150K miles.

[skyway]

My earliest memory of a microwave cooker was not until the summer of 1973.
There was an outfit in St. Louis named Lakeshire that sold readi-made sandwiches wrapped in cellophane.
Next to the sandwiches the company provided an oven that heated the sandwich you just bought by (can't quite remember) lightbulbs or radient elements.
No attendant; guess the company had contracts to place their stuff in lunchrooms?
Of course folks knew this and often used the oven to warm the lunch they brought from home.

Anyway, I had a summer job at St. Louis Ship (built tows & barges) working with lots of homegrown fitters and welders and other pretty handy guys.
One day Lakeshire had placed a new oven, along with those signs warning folks with pacemakers.

Yup, you've guess it; one of those guys put some sort of metal plate or bowl in that oven, and the fireworks commenced!

[Gunslinger]

Back in college there was a microwave in the game room in the dorm basement. I never used it...too many experiments were being done with flies and other bugs and who knows what else were being done in it.

[8E45E]

I always liked them for their convenience, but my mom never cared for microwave ovens. She did not like them as they did not 'brown' any food cooked in it at all, although they later came out with cookware that had tin-oxide particles embedded in it to generate local heat, such as for pizza crust. I bought one a year or two before she decided it was worth having one.

A one-page history from the Amana Cookbook that came with my 1981 Radarange RR10A:



Craig

[jnormanh]

50 years ago Amana introduced the Radarange, the first small counter-top microwave oven. Hardly any kitchen in the western world is without one.

The microwave oven had actually been produced before that, but they were large and heavy and not appropriate for home use. Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Corporation invented the microwave oven in the late 1940s, based on radar research conducted by Raytheon for the Army and Navy during WWII.

Actually a bit more than 50 years. We had our Amana Radarange in 1975. It must have weighed nearly 50#. cost a lot of monry, and didn't have much power.

[studegary]

Actually a bit more than 50 years. We had our Amana Radarange in 1975. It must have weighed nearly 50#. cost a lot of monry, and didn't have much power.

Am I missing something? 1975 was 42 years ago (not more than 50). As I stated earlier, we got ours in the mid-1960s.

[jnormanh]

Am I missing something? 1975 was 42 years ago (not more than 50). As I stated earlier, we got ours in the mid-1960s.

You're not missing anything, but my math skills are suspect.