![]() ![]() In short, they don’t do a great job of either defrosting or cooking. They even have an acoustic sensor that listens to the sound of popping corn and turns off the magnetron when its fully popped.īut they still can’t replace every type of cooking appliance, are too small to cook a turkey, heat unevenly, thaw foods disastrously, can cause a miniature firework display when a fork is left inside, steal moisture from food, and remove some of its original nutrients. The microwave oven state-of-the-art is exemplified by products like some from KitchenAid that also steam food based on its type and desired “doneness,” and use the steam to help remove stains from the oven as well. Today even a high-end microwave oven complete with fan-forced convection for crispy skin and assorted features like multiple cooking settings and a humidity sensor costs less than $500. A Raytheon Radarange was installed on the NS Savannah nuclear-powered cargo ship (now a museum ship) in 196.1 (Source: Wikipedia) They devoured 3 kW of power from 120 VAC, and had to be water cooled (Fig. high, weighed 750 lb., and cost about $5,000 ($54,000 in today’s dollars). Microwave ovens have come a very long way from the Amana Radarange that resulted from what (legend has it) was a candy bar melting in Spencer’s pocket while he was tweaking a powered-up magnetron. ![]() Fortunately, nearly three quarters of a century after Raytheon filed a patent covering Spencer’s invention (for which he received the company’s customary $2), the microwave oven is finally getting a thorough 21 st Century overhaul. Unfortunately, it’s the magnetron that has kept the microwave oven from becoming more than a way to make popcorn, defrost prepackaged foods, and reheat coffee. It put Percy Spencer in the history books, although this master of the magnetron would’ve wound up there anyway with more than 150 patents to his credit. Silicon Valley may be the acknowledged birthplace of high-tech, but the microwave oven-arguably one of most useful products ever created-was developed in Waltham, Mass. ![]()
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