Jackie Copeland demonstrating the Raytheon Radarange in 1946. Getty
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The microwave was “invented by accident”, says Atlas Obscura. During World War II, an engineer called Percy LeBaron Spencer was “fiddling with an active radar” when he noticed it had melted his chocolate bar. LeBaron Spencer’s employer, the defence firm Raytheon, filed for a patent in 1945, and a year later it had built the first microwave oven: “a refrigerator-sized behemoth called the Radarange”.
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The first microwave oven I purchased was from Bejam* bearing the Bejam name.
I now have three MO’s in my kitchen; a very large S/S combination job and a medium sized S/S job plus a mini MO recently purchased which is just 15L capacity, just for warming up and cups of hot milk etc.
Bejam was a British frozen food retailer founded by John Apthorp and Bejam was named after the family’s beach hut whose name was an acronym for Brian, Eric, John and Milly and Marion, the names of the Apthorp family members.
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The first microwave for home use was purchased around 1988. The cost was extreme! 499.99 Youch indeed!
However, after the initial megatron (the unit which generates the waves) died a day before the year’s guarantee, the replacement part lasted until 1997.
It prepared every baby bottles for our Munchkins, even roasted a half turkey to perfection, did bags after bags of popcorn and defrosted meat joints daily including reheating countless cups of coffee/tea. Such a great microwave!
We gave it to our neighbour friend as we were returning to UK and wouldn’t have worked on UK’s electrical system.
Nowadays, they’re below £100 but the lasting power isn’t as good quality as our first one. In the last quarter century, I’m on number five. Going back to Panasonic as number three was a Panasonic and was the longest lasting at 7 years.
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I bought one in 1981, it was a Rank Arena. My work had bought one and I thought it was brilliant so got an identical one. It even had a temperature probe for cooking meat properly (seems odd now). In those days the knobs for timing and percentage heat were mechanical not electronic push buttons
I worked in a power station which of course is constantly noisy so I was quite surprised when I first turned it on at home to discover it actually made a noise.
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when i first saw them i thought it was a step towards a star-ship replicator…
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My BH has a customer with cows.If the calves can’t feed from their mothers they are given a mix which has to be warmed up.If it’s done in a micro they won’t touch it.
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I still find that alarming 
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Yes,but we are supposed to be superior. 
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We bought our first microwave in 1982 after our teenager sang
It’s praises using one in their lunch room at school. Changed my cooking habits and of course introduced us to many new frozen food products that starting coming out about that time. A wonderful invention. I’m thinking , if someone had told me when I was young that I would be able to cook food without heat I would have said they were crazy ! Lou
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I remember them being linked to Breast Cancer , and it was on a consumer programme not to stand too close , a woman on the same road as me bought one and soon after she got BC.
it was the talk of the Village …
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My daughter from first marriage has absurd views about the dangers of microwaves. No matter how much I explain that it is non ionising radiation and operates at same frequency as her WiFi she still believes it causes cancer, bees to die, collapsed building 7 or changes the food properties in some way.
.
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We don’t have a micro but manage to survive.
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Since my kettle broke I’ve been using mine for heating water for my hot chocolate.
Yes…I know…I should buy a new kettle!
And I have making an omelette with one down to a fine art.
I remember my first microwave…it was enormous compared to the one I have now.
The first thing I did with it was heat up a pie.
I have one built into my kitchen units…have to admit I don’t use it much…Reading your posts has reminded me it’s there and I should use it
I remember when I first got one being amazed at how fast food heated…I made a pineapple upside down pudding …it cooked in about 3 or 4 minutes. Not good with pastry though 
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They are handy for bed sits and single flats.More convenient than the Baby Belling oven I used to have.
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What came first, the Microwave or the Chicken Ding? 
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This is where a combination microwave oven wins over all the others. It can by settings provide convection heat just like an ordinary oven while also heating by microwaves and if required grill when needed 
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The first Microwave i used was at a Holiday let, I put some Sausage in to cook , I kept opening the door to see how it was doing , eventually I took it out as hard as a brick and as pale as it was when it went in , 
It was years before I got one and understood how they worked …
I do use it more than an oven …
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That’s something I hadn’t thought of, My microwave has convection and a grill too. I have never used the grill but use the convection oven for things like cakes.
When I heat pies I am happy to just let them sit for a while to crisp up the pastry, its not entirely satisfactory but OK. Occasionally I have bunged the pie in the air fryer to crisp it up. I must experiment with the convection plus microwave feature.
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