ColdFusion - From Total War to Yesterday's Pizza - The Microwave Oven Story

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Episode 1 of the series "New Thinking". The series is based on stories from within my upcoming book of the same title. Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Fusion-Presents-Technology-Transformed/dp/1633537501 Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/9FS8uF Become a Patron!: https://www.patreon.com/ColdFusion_TV CF Bitcoin address: 13SjyCXPB9o3iN4LitYQ2wYKeqYTShPub8 Hi, welcome to ColdFusion (formerly known as ColdfusTion). Experience the cutting edge of the world around us in a fun relaxed atmosphere. » Google + | http://www.google.com/+coldfustion » Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/ColdFusionTV » My music | http://burnwater.bandcamp.com or » http://www.soundcloud.com/burnwater » https://www.patreon.com/ColdFusion_TV » Collection of music used in videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOrJJKW31OA Producer: Dagogo Altraide » Twitter | @ColdFusion_TV ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are watching Tall Fusion TV. This was the first video in a new series based on stories from within my book, New Thinking, which is basically the grand story of science and technology from the Industrial Revolution till today. This first episode is on something that seems pretty commonplace and just lays on the background of our lives, but is actually quite cool when you look into its history. The microwave oven. Next time you heat up some leftovers in your microwave, think about this next story. So in order for us to get to here, we have to start here.

It's the early 1940s and World War II is in full swing. France has just fallen to the Nazis in a shocking defeat and Britain was next on Hitler's list. There was no doubt about it. All efforts had to be put up to stop the Nazis and the defeat of Britain wasn't going to be easy. The Royal Air Force was a highly organised machine and had some of the best aircraft in the world.

In an act of solidarity, the French, Dutch, Polish and even American pilots volunteered to fight the Germans. The Italians would fight alongside the Germans in the air. It was a grueling display of courage and sacrifice, but in the end, the British and those who came to their aid managed to fend off German airpower. Britain had been spared, but for how long? An air attack had failed for the Germans, but there might be another way to bring down Britain. Since Britain was surrounded by sea and relied on vital supplies to arrive by the ocean,

An all-out Nazi assault on all incoming ships could bring the nation to its knees. The only problem was that at this point, the British Royal Navy was the most powerful in the world and there was no way the Germans could compete, at least not head to head. The answer? The Nazis had to become invisible with something called a U-boat. A U-boat is short for undersea boat in German, and it was a formidable weapon. It was basically an early form of German submarine. Winston Churchill of Britain would later say, that the German U-boat was the only thing that scared him during the war.

At this time, the only way of detecting a U-boat was visually a very difficult task. The German crafts could only be detected when it surfaced and with otherwise travel underwater to torpedo ships from a distance. From the sheer need and desperation, newer technologies had to be rapidly developed by the Allies to help the war effort. The result of this research would be radar. For the first time, it allowed the invisible to be seen, swinging warfare in a totally new direction.

Radar, or radio detection and ranging, acts like a searchlight. Here's how it works. A short pulse of microwaves, which are sub-optical electromagnetic frequencies, go out to a targeted object and are reflected back to the receiver, allowing the targeted objects distance and position to be known. Now the U-boats could be seen coming, and the Germans no longer had the element of surprise on hand. It's said by many historians that the quick development of radar technology, during the war tipped the balance in the scales of the Allies.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a military company called Raytheon was the main producer of the critical radar equipment for the war effort. One of the components the company produced was something called a magnetron. It was the actual device that creates the microwaves. In early 1945, Percy Spencer, a Raytheon engineer, was working on improving some of the company's magnetrons. It had been a long day's work for Spencer and his stomach began to grumble. It was time for a snack.

When he reached into his pocket and pulled out his tasty treat, the engineer was surprised to find that what had once been a chocolate bar was now a completely melted mess within the wrapper. At that moment, he knew he had stumbled across something big. Excited, Percy asked a research assistant to bring him a bag of corn kernels. When the kernels were placed on the table near one of the magnetrons, they began to pop. It was confirmed. The microwaves used in the radar equipment could cook food. with amazement, the pair tried to cook something else, an egg, which promptly exploded on the

assistant's face. So what was going on? As it turns out, the microwaves gave molecules in the food energy, causing them to vibrate rapidly, and vibrating molecules are essentially what heat is. When something is warmed up, all that's happening is the molecules that make up the material are just vibrating at a faster rate. Hence, microwaves could heat food in a totally new way that had never been previously possible by vibrating food molecules directly. Inside a microwave oven, the magnetron similarly transmits waves of energy.

But since microwaves cannot penetrate metal, they are channeled inside a metal pipe, down into the oven cavity. Since the cavity is also walled by metal, there's no place for the microwaves to go, but into the food, whose molecular structure absorbs and converts the energy in the form of heat.

the American public would love an invention that could heat up food in a fraction of the time. As the war ended, Lawrence Marshall, who was CEO of Raytheon at the time, heard of Percy's idea and thought it was great. Marshall insisted that Spencer put all of his effort into creating a usable product for the public. It was the perfect time for such a product because after the war, America had come away virtually unscathed and now could enjoy the ability to consume as many goods as it could in a productive economy. Percy was given a team of engineers and set to work. After some time, the team came up with a product, but it wasn't exactly, well, portable. It was the size of a refrigerator, standing 1.8 meters or six feet tall and weighed 270 kilograms or

600 pounds. The beast put out 3,000 watts of power and was dubbed the radar range. On the information booklet, it had some interesting cooking suggestions that would seem a little odd today. A well done steak in 50 seconds? No problem. Fried eggs? Done before you can count to 12. In 1947, Raytheon released a commercial version that was slightly more compact for $5,000 or $55,000 today. As you could imagine, this was just too expensive for the average person. For this reason, the device was sold in restaurants and other corporate food venues. Over the years, it was noted that an expensive military-grade magnetron was overkill when it came to just heating up some leftover chicken.

Gradually, the microwave did reduce in heft, and by the late 1960s, microwaves had shrunk down to a form factor that we would be familiar with today. This was accompanied with a drastic reduction in price. It's now the perfect marriage, as in this demonstration kitchen, between the freezer and the microwave and quartz ovens.

Such frozen foods as soups, vegetables, and these scalloped apples piping hot and ready to serve in a few seconds. Today, the microwave is the most common appliance in Australia with about 97% of households owning them. They're in over 90% of homes, both in the United States and Canada, and most Western European nations. For those wondering, studies have shown that microwaves aren't dangerous or detrimental to the nutrient quality of foods when they're being used correctly, as it's usually just the

water within the food that's being warmed. So there you have it. From World War II to an accidental discovery to heating up our food for convenience. That's the intriguing and peculiar story of the microwave. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first video of the series. If you just stumbled across this channel, feel free to subscribe. This has been Degogo, you've been watching Cold Fusion, and I'll see you again for the next video. Cheers guys, have a good one.