The Invention of the Microwave

The most important kitchen device on the planet, the microwave, exists because a radar system experiment backfired. Here's how it happened. It all starts with this guy during World War II. He's an engineer working for Raytheon, a company that builds radar systems for the military. So Percy's working on a critical part of the radar system called the magnetron. But what is it? Well, it's this device that creates microwave radiation and sends it out in pulses. It's what makes radars work. So one day, Percy's doing his thing, running tests on the magnetron, when something strange happens. The chocolate bar in his pocket, well, it melts. Not because of the heat in the room. Nope, something about the magnetron is causing it. Now, most would be mad if you had a gooey brown mess in your pants, right? But not Percy. He starts thinking, "Is the energy from this magnetron what's heating the chocolate?" And he grabs some popcorn kernels to test it out. He puts them near the magnetron and fires it up, and next thing he's got popcorn right on his workbench. So he takes his discovery to Raytheon, and they build a giant box around it. And today, there's billions of microwaves in homes around the world.