Q. What is the history of the invention of the microwave oven?
A. In 1946, an engineer named Percy Spencer was studying electromagnetic radiation which had been harnessed in WWII. One day he discovered that a Mr. Goodyear candy bar that he had in his pocket to nosh on in the afternoon, had melted. It gave him an idea, and he and his colleagues at Raytheon (where he worked ) set about to build an oven that generated heat from this source.
By 1961 they had succeeded, but its size (six feet tall and weighing 350 pounds) made it suboptimal for distribution and widespread use. Subsequently many others joined in the search and, by 1974, an oven similar to what we use today had been constructed.
A recent poll concluded that about 90% of American homes now have a microwave.
Contributed by Norman Sissman