A couple of days ago I was posting about giant microwave ovens and how they are used to process food. Just today there was a news article about the accidental invention of the microwave oven.
Get this, Percy Spencer, a Raytheon engineer (working for the company that aquired Penta in 1973) was testing one of the mangetrons, when he realized to his dismay that the candy bar he had in his pocket had been completely metled. Magnetrons are a type of electron tube that emits microwave radiation, so the engineer hypothesized that it was the magnetron that had done the melting. He tested his theory by placing popcorn kernels, followed by an egg near the magnetron. Both items cooked with incredible speed. In fact the egg blew up (perhaps where the expression, "egg on your face," comes from?).
It took a year to trap the microwave rays in a way that was useful for cooking. And now, are there foods that we don't microwave?
You can read all about it, and see a picture of one of the first commerical microwave ovens here.
Incidentally, would you cook in something called the "Radarange?"
Photo courtesy jmv
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