52ºc, New York
History & Origin of Microwaves
Who needs an oven these days, very powerful microwave!
As a student, I have found that microwaves are incredibly useful and much better than ovens.
If I could give away a gold star, it would belong to Percy Spencer, because he is the master behind this genius invention.
Microwave heating or cooking was mistakenly discovered by Percy Spencer, an engineer in the early 1940s, who was building magnetrons for radar sets with a company called Raytheon.
He was working on a strange radar set when he noticed that a bar of chocolate in his pocket had melted, this was because the radar emitted a microwave wave.
The first microwave oven was built in 1947 and was called "Radarange".
It is 1.8m tall, weighs 340 kg and each costs more than £ 3,300.
They are water-cooled and consume 3 kilowatts, almost three times more than today's microwaves.
Not bad for an accidental discovery.
Why aren't anyone these days unintentionally making great inventions?
