August 24, 2018 (Friday)
Yesterday’s blog presented a brief view of electronics.
Experiments with production of electro-magnetic waves of various lengths resulted in the invention of radar, which proved to be an indispensable tool during World War II. These invisible waves of energy left the gun (magnetron) and traveled in a straight line. When those waves encountered an object (airplane, ocean going vessel, etc) they bounced back to a receiver that displayed an image of the object. Perhaps a more down-to-earth example of radar is the one that can measure your speed on the highway. The law enforcement officer points his radar gun up the highway and reports the speed of all vehicles traveling toward him. Sad to say, many of us have had this experience first hand.
O.K., so a “magnetron” is a radar gun of sorts. There’s one in your microwave oven. It sends pencil-length waves of energy into your oven, and if there is something in there, it gets hot, because the waves are vibrating. If you rub your hands together as fast as you can you will generate heat. The same thing happens in your microwave only it’s food being vibrated by electro-magnetic waves.
This was discovered in a factory where radar equipment was being manufactured. An engineer was unwisely standing where radar pulses were aimed and lo and behold he discovered that the chocolate bar in his coat pocket had melted.
When microwave ovens were first made, they were six feet high and cost up to $5000 each. But when Amana corporation worked with Raytheon (the radar folks) they produced a microwave oven for $500. They called it a “Radar Range.”
Prices have come down. If you only need a small microwave oven, you might find one for about $25. The one in our kitchen now cost $80. We bought a “radar range” years ago and paid $500 for it. It had a ten year guarantee which we found 8 years later to be a genuine warranty because our oven was repaired at no charge.
Beginning in the late 1800s, research in electronics mushroomed, and has resulted in the technological wonders that are so much a part of our daily life these days. The discoveries and inventions surrounding magnetism and electricity have changed our world.
Microwave cooking has to take a back seat to charcoal grills, if we judge the finished product by taste alone. Sometimes the old fashioned ways turn out to be better than new ones. One of the best meals I ever ate in my life was cooked in and on a wood stove, and everything on my plate came from a garden. I can taste it right now, just thinking about it. But if you are very hungry and the microwave oven is beckoning, those leftovers can taste mighty good. And it only takes 2 minutes.