How We Got The Commercial Microwave

How We Got The Commercial Microwave

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Today we take microwave ovens for granted. They take the worst part out of cooking - that is, the waiting. What would we have done if Percy's chocolate bar hadn't started leaking into his trouser pocket?

Commercial microwave ovens were brought about by accident in 1940 by Mr. Percy Spencer, who was working with an active radar machine when he noticed the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Raytheon, Spencer's employer at the time of discovery, patented this new fangled microwave cooking process in 1945, and by 1947 the world's first commercial microwave was brought to market.

This fantastic new device was called the Radarange and weighed 750 pounds. Unlike the compact plastic versions we enjoy today, the Radarange was 6 foot tall. The domain of the more well heeled, it came in at a handsome $5000. Keeping up with the Jone's certainly cost a pretty penny in 1947.

But now of course, you can pick up a good microwave for less than a day's wages. And in 1947, commercial microwave ovens did not have the vast range of comestibles to throw in it as we do now. Today we have every imaginable foodstuff specially made for the device - although the quality is seldom as mouth watering as the exciting photography suggests. They are however, undeniably, the most convenient of food heating contraptions.

Despite being an essentially war-time invention, the commercial microwave oven did not start to achieve worldwide success until the seventies. Sales grew from 40,000 in 1970 to a whopping 1 million in 1975. This exponential growth continued: in 1986 25 per cent of Americans owned a microwave oven.

Some people were scared of the microwave, principally because its name, and that fact that an even more feared word - radiation - was used in reference to it. It is little wonder, perhaps, that a commercial microwave oven took a while to take off. The first model, after all, came out just two years after the Americans dropped 2 nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Radiation had understandably developed a bad reputation, namely for killing people in vast numbers.

But thankfully, the domestic uses of commercial microwave ovens came to the notice of most people, completing with the conventional oven.

Where the conventional oven loses out in time, the commercial microwave oven cannot complete in terms of traditional cooking effects. Both caremelisation and the browning effect are not possible using microwave technology. It also presents some unique hazards not found with the gas or electric cooker. These are namely the extra risk of a metal element being placed accidentally (or on purpose!) in the microwave's cavity. Electric arcs - or sparks - can result from this. Forks are thought to be particularly prone to conducting electricity.

In terms of preserving the nutrients present in foods, the results are mixed when comparing conventional ovens to microwaves. Microwaves reduce the level of cancer-causing nitrosamines present in bacon significantly more than standard cooking. Another advantage is found in the cooking of spinach - which benefits from microwave cooking in that much of its nutritional value is preserved. The old fashioned boiling process normally used with spinach, however, removes a great deal of nutrients. In the cooking of many other foods however, conventional cooking is generally regarded as superior in terms of keeping nutrients.

However we use them, microwaves have become a mainstay of many kitchens around the globe.

About the Author:
Anna Stenning is an expert on commercial microwave ovens and indeed many other kitchen appliances.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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