This was obviously the most radical change in cooking food since
the discovery of fire! Most references credit Dr. Percy Spencer, an
engineer with Raytheon. He stumbled onto the idea of microwave
cooking when he inadvertently melted some candy in his pocket while
testing a special radar tube called a magnetron. This happened back
in 1946.

After he melted the candy, he put some popcorn kernels in the beam
and they popped all over his lab. From this beginning, Raytheon
created a product called the Radar Range. The first home unit was
available in 1952.

These stories are typical of corporate histories written around
various popular consumer products and ultimately become part of
U.S. industrial legend.

However, I have some inside information. During WWII, my father
was a young engineer in his early 20s working for General Electric
of Bridgeport, CT. They would take large trailers with radar sets
up to a remote place in Trumbull called Tashua Hill. They would go
up there for several days and run secret tests on various military
aircraft flying around Southern New England. Ten years later he
told me on how they used to cook hot dogs by holding them on long
sticks in the radar beam coming from the dish antennas. Thus,
microwave cooking was already going on at least several years
before the Raytheon “discovery” in 1946. Actually, it was well know
even before the war that radio waves could heat up various objects.

As with most commercial products, Raytheon deserves credit for
recognizing the commercial value of microwave cooking devices.