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

Khalid Elhassan October 16, 2019 34 min

33. A Melted Chocolate Bar Leads to the Invention of the Microwave Oven

Raytheon’s first commercially successful microwave oven, the Radar Range III, which debuted in 1955. IEEE Spectrum

When America joined WWII, Percy Spencer was working for defense contractor Raytheon as head of its power tube division. His expertise earned Raytheon contracts to produce radars for the military – the second highest priority after the Manhattan Project. One day, while standing in front of an active radar, Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted.

He investigated, and began experimenting with food, including popcorn – resulting in the world’s first microwaved popcorn. He eventually attached an electromagnetic field generator to an enclosed box, and thus created the world’s first microwave oven, which Raytheon patented in 1945. Spencer’s only reward was a one-time $2 gratuity from Raytheon, a standard token payment the company paid all inventors on its payroll back then.

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.