Did you know that the microwave oven wasn’t actually invented until after World War II?Given the tone of this line, it's clear that the author can hardly expect the audience to know when was WWII.
My Grandfather paid big bux for an early model ‘Amana Radar Range’ as they were called back then :-)
“they can produce harmful radiation, so they should not be used in close proximity to human beings or pets. “
that’s why mine is in my storage barn and has a remote start on it so i can get a running start away from it before it starts up ... i know my method is safe because i don’t glow in the dark ...
Crazy to bake a potato in 4 minutes. But in the end...it's all about the butter and sour cream.
When mom did them in the oven, she always rolled them in salt first. Ummmmm good....crispy salted skins.
Worked with an engineer had some involvement in early oven design.
Apparently it took some serious work to radiate a magnetron into a closed metal box without destroying it from reflected power.
The article reads like a sixth grade assignment.
(Paraphrasing):
“Microwave ovens can cook foods faster. In addition they can also save time. “
I had always heard the chocolate bar story.
Is that an urban legend?
I saw a vintage first gen Radar Range at a thrift shop the other day.
It is fun what you can see there sometimes
I just remember the story of the guy working on a radar and discovered that his chocolate bar had melted in his pocket while he was working on it.
I got one in 1980. Expensive, heavy and no turntable on the first ones. But it was great for warming up our newborn daughter’s bottle.
I recall my mom taking us to a home show, about 1958, at our local YMCA and there was one. They showed how fast a hot dog can be cooked. To the 7 year old me, it was magic!
Microwave ovens were first used by NASA astronauts put in quarantine after space missions. The one used by the Apollo 11 crew is still in the Smithsonian Institution.
Personal memory: My parents grocery-shopped in Maynard, Massachusetts, when I was small. Maynard was pretty close to Hanscom AFB in Bedford, home of what we knew as the MIT “RadLab”, where the British experiments with radar were brought over to when it wasn’t a sure bet that Britain would survive.
I must have been no more than 10 when the adjacent hardware store had a radar cooking demonstration. They were heating hot dogs in seconds and handing them out. That would have been 1955 or so. I have the idea that the demo was by Raytheon, but after 65 years.......
A legend has it that the concept of cooking food was triggered by radar operators noticing that birds who flew in front of a powerful radar dropped dead instantly. Flash cooked as it were.
My wife and I have not had a microwave oven in the house for years. Everything is much better cooked on stovetop, oven or grill. Even heated up. For example, compare reheated pizza in microwave vs reheated pizza in oven. There is no comparison. The reheated oven pizza tastes just like when you got it. The microwave reheated pizza is a disgusting, soggy mess.
https://www.edn.com/1st-domestic-microwave-is-sold-october-25-1955/
I remember Dad getting a replacement one for Mom for Christmas. She wasn’t happy.
as a teenager in the 60s I was a dishwasher in a restaurant. They had a couple of microwave ovens and I was amazed at how fast a meal could be heated. I was told they cost several thousand dollars each ... which made them unaffordable to homeowners. That’s why I had never heard of them until then.
I swear I heard something back in the 80’s about a microwave home water heater. Then nothing.
My brother as stationed with a Hawk missile battery near the DMZ (life expectancy measured in seconds). He said they would cook hotdogs on a stick held up to the radar dish.
Just don’t put metal in one. My neighbor did that an hour ago and started a fire. My first clue was the rumble of a diesel engine, which in my 55+ community at 8:15 pm can mean only one thing...emergency vehicles. Five in total. Destroyed the microwave. Only casualty was the popcorn. That’s the difference between Arizona and Alaska. When I’m in Arizona and I hear the rumble of a diesel at night it’s emergency vehicles. When I’m in Alaska the rumble of a diesel at night means someone is driving by in their pickup truck.