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Mistakes That Helped Shape U.S. into What it Is Today

Khalid Elhassan October 16, 2019 34 min

34. The Accident That Revolutionized American Eating Habits

Percy Spencer (1894 – 1970) was not highly educated – he quit school in fifth grade – but that did not stop him from patenting inventions that contributed to America’s victory in WWII. Nor did it stop him from inventing the microwave oven. As an MIT scientist put it: “The educated scientist knows many things won’t work. Percy doesn’t know what can’t be done“.

Spencer dropped out of school in fifth grade to work in a mill. In his teens, he became fascinated by the then-new phenomenon of electricity, and became an electrician. He joined the US Navy at 18, made himself an expert on radio technology, and by 1939, he was one of the world’s leading experts in radar tube design. It was that expertise that got Spencer to (accidentally) invent the microwave oven.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.