"I Am Always Remembering..."

1967 Amana Radarange, the first compact, countertop microwave

Original MSRP $495 (Adjusted for inflation, $4,465)

Sometimes I feel so old... I remember the time before microwave ovens were ubiquitous. Our family was one of millions who got one of these when my father bought one as a birthday gift for my mother in September 1975.  We had the update of this same model, the original "Radarange, Only by Amana" It was identical except for a third pushbutton between the two timer dials to control the light that was added to illuminate the interior.  Our's came from Detroit's J.L Hudson's and cost an eye-popping $550. The image above is from The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan where this vintage microwave is on display.  This thing was built like a tank... I remember my father had to reinforce the cabinet it originally sat on because it weighed well over 100 pounds. Our Radarange lasted until 2000 (25 years) until it mysteriously died shortly after Y2K.

Most people still don't know how microwave ovens work, or how they came into common use, but as usual, truth is always stranger than fiction.  The name "Radarange" is quite literal... In the early days of radar development during WWII, the unique properties of microwaves for cooking were  discovered because of a happy accident by an engineer who was working for the defense contractor Raytheon. Percy Spencer was using a magnetron, the device that generates the radio waves that are at the heart of radar technology. When he turned on the magnetron, he noticed that the candy bar in his front pocket was starting to melt. Spencer then took the magnetron and pointed it at a raw egg which quickly heated up and exploded. Then believe it or not, he  got some popcorn kernels and the popcorn kernels started to pop. So you can see where this is going... Although his bosses thought his discovery was interesting, there was a world war to win and the discovery wasn't given much thought until after WWII had ended.  

It would not be until early radars made there way to U.S. Navy ships, and the fleet reported back to Raytheon that when birds flew too near the antennas, they fell from the sky, literally cooked alive that Spencer's discovery would be recalled. As defense contractors turned their attention to the post-war consumer economy, someone at Raytheon, recalling all these stories put 2 plus 2 together and realized maybe there was potential for harnessing microwaves and their signature product, magnetron tubes for use in cooking... Raytheon was granted the patent for cooking by microwaves on October 8, 1945

Popular Mechanics - 1955

By the mid-1950s the first commercial units like the one pictured above were available for use in restaurants and other large foodservice institutions, including aboard U.S. Navy ships. These behemoths weighed nearly 1000 pounds and were the size of a refrigerator, they also required piping to a water supply used to cool the magnetron tube. But by 1967, thanks in large part to the cold war and the space race, technology had advanced enough to shrink microwave ovens to a countertop size consumers would accept, and the rest as they say is history. In 1975, seven years after the Amana Radarange was introduced, my family joined millions of others in the revolution that became microwave cooking. This was also the first year that microwave oven sales outpaced the sale of gas stoves.

Although me and my siblings couldn't wait to use ours, and as we all learned how to cook in it, my mother wasn't interested in it at all. And every time she heard the click of the electromechanical door interlock, she'd shout, "Be sure there's no metal in that thing!

Interestingly, my mother never used it, not even once, she lived in fear that this would be the result!

I am always remembering...