Microwave ovens (aka radar cooking)
Like fire, the microwave oven cookery was discovered by accident. Follow the fascinating journey from science lab to American
home kitchens:
[1942]
[1947]
"A group of gourmets sampled the first radar-cooked dinner in American history here yesterday after watching a manufactureing company's
food consultant whip up a banquet on a radar range in what must be record time. Eat and run advocates among the diners were well
pleased not only with the food but by the fact cooking required only 3 minutes 45 seconds. Baked lobster needed 2 minutes 15
seconds. Broiled sirloin steak with bernaise sauce was prepared in 50 seconds. Grilled ham steaks were given 1 minute in the
oven. Hot fresh apple pie with melted cheese came out of the oven in 10 seconds."
"The housewife of 1952 will be able to stick a raw steak on a dinner plate, slide it in an oven that isn't hot and serve it, cooked
and simmering, 30 seconds later. And, in that not too distant golden age, there will be no need for potholders, tin pans and
aprons. The food gets very hot but the plates stay cool. There is no grease splattering and tin pans just won't work in the
new 'Radarrange'--a radar cooker. Its manufacturers say the device is the 'only new heat application to cooking since the
discovery of fire over 2,000 years ago.'...There are only a few in existence...because improvements are being made so fast that
a model can be obsolete in a couple of months. These few are on lease to hotels in Boston, Washington, Cleveland and
Buffalo. The company is working on models for Navy ships and Army airplanes and expects to have one ready for homes in three to
five years. Newsmen here saw--and enjoyed the results--of a radar range that turns out baked stuffed lobster and broiled chicken
in 2 1/2 minutes instead of 30. Diced potatoes take 25 seconds. Vegetables need no water and corn-on-the-cob needs only 40 seconds.
The not-quite obsolete model now is aobut the size of a domestic refrigerator and lined with aluminum. There's room for
eight chickens inside and a clockwatch button that automatically turns off when the cooking time is up."
[1949]
[1952]
[1953]
[1956]
[1959]
[1963]
[1965]
[1966]
RADAR BURGERS?
[1968]
Who was Percy Spencer?
"In 1942, a Raytheon inventor, Percy L. Spencer,
noted that a chocolate bar melted in his pocket while he was testing a radar tube. The then cut a hole in a kettle,
inserted an electron tube and by 1949 Raytheon patented its 'Radarrange." Designed for restaurants, the early 1953 models
were oversized, cost about $3,000 and turned out bilious grey meat and limp french fries. They were duds for about a
decade, remaining alien to many consumers. The Irish cook of Charles Adams, Raytheon's chairman who turned his kitchen
into a proving ground, called the ovens 'black magic' and quit."
---"A Micro Wave of the Future, 1964," Wall Street Journal, September 14, 1989 (p. B1)
"Radar, the war-time magic ear, now is ready to move into the kitchens of America in the form of electronics cooking. Cleveland
newsmen were given a preview of the raytheon radarange by the Brandt Company, the first distributor of the
revolutionary oven which prepares food in a fraction of a jiffy...a raytheon magnetron tube is the heart of the
radarange. It is the same tube found in all radar sets. Since the cooking is done by radio frequency energy, the
radarange has a band of frequencies between 2,400 and 2,500 megacycles, authorized by the federal communcations
commission. Whereas radiant heating cooks from the surface inward, the radarange cooks all parts of the food
simultaneously. The rapid cooking does not permit natural oils and flavoring to esacape. There is no grease, smoke or
odors. The Brandt Company plans to lease the radarange to restaurants and hotel at first. But it probably won't be long before
mother can wait until she hears father come in the door evenings, then she pops the food in the radarange and has it on the
table ready to eat by the time her husband has his coat off."
---"Radar Range Time Saver," Marysville Tribune [OH], May 12, 1947 (p. 1)
---"Radar-cooked Dinner Pleases Gourmets," Times-Record [New York], May 21, 1947 (p. 1)
---"Radar Cooker Prepares Meal Without Heat," Anniston Star [Alabama], September 5, 1947 (p. 2)
"Radar cooking is being tested in Cornell's home economics college in a research project sponsored by the navy. The process
actually is dielectric or high frequency cooking but is popularly called 'radar' cooking because it operates on the same
principle. Results have been highly successful so far...The oven, all metal, has a glass window at the rear which admits high
frequency waves which are circulated by revolving antennae at the top of the oven. The product cooks all at once as the high
frequency waves set up friction within the molecules of the food. Oven glass or pottery containers must be used in radar cooking
because metal reflects the waves, sending them away from the food. With this unusual cooking method, the oven always is cool and
pot holders are not used. Pencil size holes in the oven door afford the cook an opportunity to watch progress of the food, but are
so sized and spaced that the high frequency waves cannot escape. The navy has contracted with Miss Kathryn Causey, research
associated of the school of nutrition, to test palatability, nutritive value, weight losses and bacterial count of ground
beef, lamb and pork cooked in the radar oven, as compared with those meats cooked by usual methods. So far, she reports, there is
little difference, except the radar oven doesn't brown meat...Baked goods such as bread and cake are a failure in the radar
oven. They rise so quickly the baking powder doesn't have time to act. Several flour mills are working on recipes adapted to high
frequency baking. Boiling eggs in a radar oven is disastrous. The eggs explode in three seconds. Miss Causey believes radar cooking
must undergo many revisions before the homemaker can use it. So far the equipment is too costly. An oven rents for $5 a day and will
retail at about $2,600. On to of that, timing is very important. Ten seconds over or under cooking may ruin the food."
---"Cornell Experimenting With Radar Wave Oven," Post-Standard [Syracuse NY], May 8, 1949 b(p. 2)
"Cook a Steak in 30 Seconds--The Raytheon Radarange uses radar magnetron tube to cook food in seconds instead of minutes,
minutes instead of hours. Food retain all their flavor, taste, natural juiciness and nutrietents. Radaranges are used by
the Pennsylvania Railroad and United States Lines--will be available for hotels, restaurants, lunch counters."
---Display ad, New York Times, October 29, 1952 (p. 17)
"Mansfielders enjoyed the treat of a lifetime last week at the opening of Tom McNew's restaurant at Fourth and Walnut. The
finest dinners and sandwiches were served lightning fast. McNew's has the distinction of being the first restaurant in
Mansfield with radar cooking...The new restaurant is open 24 hours a day every day except Tuesday...Kosher corned beef,
Virginia ham and prime ribs of beef are delicacies it is sometimes hard to find but not at Tom McNew's...McNew's restaurant is
completely different for it cobines the features of a cafeteria, sandwich shop and restaurant into one big establishment...The
McNew slogan 'A Meal a Minute' is a fact as you will discover..."
---"McNew's First With Radar Cooking," Mansfield News Journal [OH], May 4, 1953 (p. 13)
"Electronic heating, or microwave cooking, is only two years old, commercially speaking...It was long known by little used
induction heating....In 1953 Raytheon's engineers had adapted the electronic force that made radar to a range that will
cut hours from the housewife's cooking day. The company put out a 'radarrange' for restaurants, hotels and other
commercial establishments. It sold for $2,975--a tidy sum for a stove. Last year Raytheon licensed the Tappan Stove
Company to make the first domestic model. This year a license agreement was signed with the General Electric Company's
Hotpoint affiliate. Prices will run from $1,000 to $1,200. This is still high, but prices should drop as mass production
gets going."
---"What's Cooking? Electronics, Now," Alfred R. Ripser, New York Times, March 4, 1956 (p. F1)
"Just completed at the Robson's restaurant, 440-442 Main St. is the installation of the latest method of cooking equipment under the
direction of H.E. 'T' Robson, owner and operator of the popular eating establishment. Much of the cooking now at the local
restaurant is being done in a radar range...Every safety precaution has been taken by the manufactuer [Raytheon] so that
users of the equipment are in no danger from contact with the potent waves. When the door of the radar stove is opened the
equipment turns itself off automatically. It is the first such installation in this area of the state...Because of the newness
of the readar cooking method and its radical difference in applicaton, cooks at the local restaurant have gone through a
training program to acquaint them with the stove...Another innovation at the eating place was the installation of a new open
hearth broiler, which will serve as a companion for the new radar range."
---"Robson Restaurants Using New Radar Cooking Units," Conshocton Tribune [OH]. Jne 21, 1959 (p. 8)
"Talk story about the first self-service, microwave restaurant in the world- Tad's, at 18 East 42nd St. The patrons put
frozen food into a tableside microwave oven. The average length of time a customer will have to wait for the food to be
reconstituted is two minutes. Mr. Neal Townsend, one of the owners of the restaurant, predicted that a few years from now
there'll only be two kinds of restaurants left -very expensive ones, like the Four Seasons, and microwave reastaurants,
like this one, whose prices compare favorably with ordinary cafeteria prices."
---Brendan Gill, The Talk of the Town, “Self-Help,” The New Yorker, March 9, 1963 (p. 34)
"A single slice of piping hot apple pie topped with a wedge of melting cheese served 15 seconds after being ordered or a
complete turkey platter ready to eat less than to minutes after removal from refrigerated storage are not fantasies of the
future. These are but two of many fully or partly prepared dishes that can be ready for service in less than two minutes
with the aid of a microwave oven. Although microwave ovens have been manufactured for abut 15 years, their acceptance and
use in homes and restaurants has been limited. This is due partly to high costs and slow realization that they are
adjuncts to conventional cooking methods rather than replacements for regular ovens...Airlines have probably been the
biggest users of microwave ovens, thought experiments in other food service operations have been tried. Two years ago,
the Frank G. Shattuck Company, which operated Schrafft's restuarants, installed a Thermowave oven in one of its
restaurants. Favorable response by employees and customers led to installation of similar ovens in five other Schrafft's
restaurants. Because of its compact size (18 1/2 wide by 24 inches deep), simple plug-in electrical needs and presetting
features, the Thermowave oven lends itself well to ounter operations, particularly where the kitchen is removed from the
service area. The food on a service plate is placed on a turntable inside the oven, and a temperature sensing device
determines when the food is fully heated. The dish can be removed with the bare hand because microwave energy passes
through any insulator such as glass, paper, china and some plastics without heating them. When the oven is operating, the
turntable revolves slowly to ensure even heating throughout the food. A wide selection of foods can be prepared in a
central commissary for shipment, frozen or refrigerated, to an outlet with a microwave oven for "reconstitution."
Schrafft's commissary supplies hamburgers, French-toasted sandwiches, beef pie and apple pie with cheese for microwave
menu listings. ..Thermowave ovesn are also part of many of Schrafft's commercial fod operations both in waitress-service
situations and customer-operated vending machine operations. The feeding of employes through vending machines is an
increasingly popular method in small companies and especially for those companies on a 24-hour schedule. Complete dishes
on dispoable paper or plastic dishes are stored in a refrigerated vending machine to be released when coins are inserted
and then heated in an adjacent microwave oven. The New York State Pavilion at the World's Fair includes customer-operated
Thermowave ovens near the snack counter. Manufacturers of the unit forsee the day when hospitals and other institutions
will use microwave ovens to provide a greater variety of hot meals."
---"Microwave Ovens Win Acceptance in Restaurants," Jean Hewitt, New York Times, April 13, 1965 (p. 40)
We find one print reference to a commercial product trademarked "Radar Burgers." They sold for 25 cents (no package
size/weight indicated) as advertised in the Billings [Montana] Gazetter, January 13, 1966 (p. 22)
"The convenience of the Radarange Microwave oven in your home. A new, better and quicker way to prepare food. The Radaragne is
completely new. It has never been available for use in the home. You cook with microwaves, not conventinal dry heat. The
second you open the door of the Radarange you are opening up a new, more convenient way to food preparation. It is exciting,
dramatic and allows many short cuts and time savings that you never dreamed possible. Say good-bye to the old-fashioned
metal pots and pans. You do not use them when cooking in the Radarange! You can cook food, in family portions if you want,
on dishes made from glass, palstic, yes, even paper. Imagine, now after-meal clean up of pots and pans!...In just a short time
you will be using the Radarange for most of your food preparation. It will become the center of most of your food preparation.
In fact, it will help you prepare 75-80% of the foods that you serve your family."
---Amana Radarange Microwave Cooking Guide [Amana Refrigeration:Amana IA] 1968 (p. 2)
[NOTE: This is the original cookbook accompanying the radarange. It offers dozens of pages of cooking tips along with
recipes. If are interested in additional information please let us know. Happy to scan, mail or fax.]
"Dr. Percy L. Spencer, retired senior vice president of the Raytheon Company...and a well-known inventor...held more than 130 patents,
among them the application of microwave energy to medical diathermy, high-frequency devices and electronic tubes. He developed the special tubes that made possible
the proximity fuses introduced in World War II. For this work he received the Naval Ordnance Award. Dr. Spencer was the fifth employe to joing the then infant
Raytheon Company in 1925. Perhaps his first accomplishment was to help in developing the first gaseous rectifier tube that made the radio a common household
plug-in applicance. An article in the 'most unforgettable character' series in the Reader's Digest in August, 1958, described Dr. Spencer as 'an orphan who never
graduated from grammar school, he has demonstrated that nothing is beyond the grasp of a man who wants to know what is going on, and who feels a sense of
responsibility for doing something about it.' Dr. Spencer was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Massachusetts and by Nasson College
in Maine. He also held an honorary degree from the University of Maine. He was a fellow of the American Academy of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers."
---"Percy Spencer, Inventor, Dead...," New York Times, September 8, 1970 (p. 35)
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