How a scientist quite accidentally invented the microwave oven during the further development of radar technology.

 

Percy Lebaron Spencer, an American engineer and inventor, was working in 1945 on magnetic field tubes for the emission of microwaves used in radar.

 

During wartime, the development of radar was incredibly important.

Spencer was standing next to a magnetron when he noticed that the chocolate bar in his hand began to melt. He then experimented with other foods and found that the microwaves from the magnetron heated them.

The first microwave oven was about the size of a refrigerator and weighed over 300kg.