Microwaves introduced to kitchens everywhere

Consider that one of the most widely-used items in your kitchen was an accidental discovery. Dr. Percy Spencer’s work on radar system with Raytheon took him to testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, a considerable improvement over the previous versions. It turned out to have yet another, unforeseen, effect. In an otherwise routine set of experiments, Spencer happened one day to pause in front of a magnetron and notice the candy bar in his pocket had just melted. Intrigued, he set up a series of further experiment with popcorn and eggs to see whether they too would be heated. So the microwave oven was born.

On this day, October 25, in 1955, the Tappan Stove Company in Mansfield, Ohio, introduced the first microwave oven for home use. The patent went not to Spencer, who only conceived of an industrial-scale microwave, heating food on a conveyor belt, but to two of his co-workers, who came up with enclosing the magnetrons in an oven.

Raytheon first tried to adapt the technology themselves, with less than spectacular results. Their first microwave, the Radarange, was as big as a refrigerator and required water-cooled pipes for the magnetron. Priced at the 1945 equivalent of $16,000 to $24,000, it was also far out of the price range of home users.  By the mid 1950s, Raytheon decided to license the technology to the Tappan Stove Company, which came up with a 220V wall version, priced at half of the Radarange.