Modern microwave ovens make it so simple to prepare food like reheating especially cooking frozen food, where the process will only take a couple of minutes. Today, built in microwave oven is an equipment most people have in their kitchen. But how was the microwave oven invented?

An Accidental Invention

During the time of World War II, the US military used magnetrons that can generate microwaves in order to be used or short-range military radar. One of the biggest manufacturer of magnetrons back then was a company called Raytheon.

One of the scientists that was tasked to work on this project was an engineer named Percy Spencer. While he was working on testing the radar’s power tubes, Spencer noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted. While other engineers think it was only a coincidence, Spencer was intrigued and curious.

After that, the history of built in microwave oven started. Spencer then experimented with a bag of corn kernels by placing it near the magnetrons, and the corn kernels exploded into popcorns. After that, especially after the war ended and the military didn’t need magnetrons anymore, Spencer focused on developing his new cooking machine.

Commercialization

Spencer filled the patent for his invention in 1946, but there was a lot of work to be done. The first few decades after the invention, microwave oven was big, heavy, and really expensive, so only commercial establishment like big hotels and restaurants were able to afford it.

Relatively small and affordable microwave was only developed around the year 1967, making it more accessible for families across the United States. Decades of improvement making built in microwave ovens cheaper and offer more features, so by 1990s through 2000s, approximately nine out of ten US families have microwave oven in their house.