Percy Spencer and the Microwave Oven

Percy L. Spencer and the Microwave Oven

Percy Lebaron Spencer is known as an “electronic genius” and a “war hero”. He had about 300 patents during his entire career at Raytheon. Although he had a rough childhood, he still grew up filled with curiosity. He greatly helped Britain during their war. He invented the microwave oven, which is known today as “the number one technology that makes our lives easier”. He even has a building named after him where he used to work. Percy L. Spencer was an “electronic genius” because of his itch to know, great ideas, and rough childhood, which probably was the source of his curiosity.

Percy Spencer was working on magnetrons one day in 1946. One day at work, he found that a peanut candy bar in his pocket had melted. He realized that the microwaves he was working on had made it melt. So of course, being Percy Spencer, he was very curious on how the microwaves had cooked his candy bar. So he sent a boy for a bag of popcorn. Not because he was hungry, but to see what would happen. Sure enough, the popcorn

Bonham 2

popped and scattered throughout the laboratory. Then the next day, he brought a kettle and an egg to work. He placed the egg in the

bottom of the kettle (shell and all) and held it near a magnetron. A skeptical engineer that worked with him looked down the hole of the kettle at the egg. He ended up with a face full of hot egg, because the microwaves had cooked the inside faster than the outside, causing it to pop. After investigating and experimenting, he found that the microwave would cook foods faster than conventional ovens that used heat to cook.

While the Battle of Britain was furious, the United States received a model of a high frequency magnetron from the British. This was supposedly a weapon of incredible helpfulness, because the magnetron is the power tube in the center of a radar set. They needed to solve the problem on how to mass produce it. It had to be made out of solid copper. It usually took a master machinist a week to make only one, and thousands were needed for the war. Percy Spencer worked tirelessly night and day to speed up production. When his first magnetrons were sent to England, the kill rate went up. When we entered World War II, 15 of his radar sets were