Now it seems that they have always existed. If you need to reheat chilled pizza or lunch brought from home, you cannot find a more useful appliance in the kitchen than a microwave. Yes, there are those who are still afraid of this miracle of technology and believe that the microwave oven "damages" food during cooking. On October 8, the microwave oven celebrates its birthday. Here are some interesting facts about her.
From the military laboratory to the kitchen
Like many other household appliances, the microwave was invented by the military. While studying microwave radiation, the American engineer Percy Spencer noticed that it heats the products that fall within the range of the magnetron. Percy Spencer worked for Raytheon (an American military radar manufacturer), but on October 8, 1945, he patented his invention as a common civilian inventor. The patent was issued only in 1946, after all, the war had just ended, not everything could be done quickly.
Percy Spencer. Photo: meandr.org
And a year later, the same military company Raytheon, in parallel with radars and homing systems, released the first microwave oven. This monster was almost two meters high, weighed more than three hundred kilograms and was used exclusively in military units and hospitals for defrosting food. Such a miraculous oven with a capacity of three kilowatts (which is only twice as much as modern ones) cost only $ 3,000.
This lafa could not last long, in 1955 they offered a much cheaper household oven, and in 1962 the Japanese from Sharp began to produce serial household microwave ovens. Here the price almost immediately collapsed to an acceptable level.
Photo: matome.naver.jp
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By the way, from time to time in the press you can find stories that the first microwave radiation was tested in the USSR. This is not entirely true, microwave study has been studied for a long time in parallel both in the USSR and in the USA, but here the primacy belongs to the one who first guessed to start using it in this way.
Microwave Myths and Legends
It is clear that for many, the microwave still looks like magic. Food is lying, neither gas nor heating element is visible, but it is heating. Moreover, it even becomes hot. Obviously - black sorcery, hardly useful for food.
Photo: AP Photo / Jim Wells.
From the point of view of physics, there is nothing complicated or wonderful in the design. There is a magnetron in a metal chamber that generates ultra-high frequency microwaves. The energy of such vibrations causes the molecules to move, and their friction against each other heats the food. Small round holes in the door are specially sized to prevent microwaves from leaving the metal chamber. That is why you cannot use the microwave oven with the door open.
No, during operation, the microwave does not destroy the structure of water and food, converting useful trace elements into carcinogens. No matter how many scientists have studied products heated in the microwave, they have not been able to find a difference with products that have not undergone such processing. And the water has no structure at all, of course, unless there is a piece of ice in front of you.
So use the microwave without a doubt and don't worry, nothing bad will happen to your lunch.
Microwave and aliens
It is much worse when the microwave oven intervenes without permission. In 1998, Australian scientists at the observatory recorded an unusual signal at 2.4 GHz. Initially, it was assumed that this is a signal from some space object. He was even given the name peryon (in honor of the fairy creature).
They studied this mysterious signal, repeated regularly for seventeen years. We managed to publish several articles with possible explanations, hold conferences and try to explain why this signal is caught exclusively in this observatory. The truth became clear only in 2015, when new equipment was brought to the observatory. It turned out that the signal was given by a microwave oven from a nearby room, when it signaled that dinner was being prepared, and this signal gave an illumination on the sensitive instruments of the observatory.
Nevertheless, we can only be glad that humanity has such a useful and necessary device. Do not be afraid of it, just do not put eggs inside (they explode, and this is not a joke), do not use metal utensils (it causes indignation of microwaves) and everything will be fine. By the way, it's time to eat!
Mikhail Kotov
