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1933
At Chicago World’s Fair, Westinghouse cooked steak and potatoes in minutes by placing them between two metal plates attached to a 10-kilowatt shortwave transmitter. -
1945
Percy Spencer, employee of Raytheon (a radar company), was accidentally standing in front of an active radar set and noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted! Spencer wasn’t the first to notice something like this with radars, but he was the first to investigate it. He then tried to intentionally heat different foods, first starting with a cob of corn. Voilà! Popcorn was born. -
October 8, 1945
Raytheon filed for a patent; first commercially produced microwave called the “Radarange.” It was 6 feet tall, 750 pounds and cost close to $5000, which is equivalent to $66,000 today! It was only sold in limited quantities, mainly to restaurants and commercial kitchens. -
1955
Raytheon marketed a smaller 220 volt wall unit (priced at $1295- equivalent to $11,440 today), but didn’t sell well. -
1961
In the meantime, a company in Japan, Sharp, had also developed its first microwave oven, called the R-10. Sharp began pass producing these microwave ovens- the first company to do so! [you can include this if you want to discuss the idea of global competition/globalization and interdependence] -
1967
(Raytheon acquired an appliance company Amana at this point) Amana produced and sold its first home microwave oven. It was a 110 volt countertop model to be used in home kitchens. It measured at 40 cm tall, 50 cm wide and 30 cm deep and sold for $495 (which is about $3,515 today) -
1975
1 million microwaves sold per year in the United States -
1986
25% of American households owned a microwave oven -
1997
90% of American households owned a microwave oven, average price: $200 -
2014
Microwave sales continued to increase, but at a decreasing rate. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 90% of American Households own a microwave. (It stayed at 90% for several reasons- population increase, popularity of microwaves has decreased)
