It may seem like a holdout against the solid-state world, but the vacuum-tube magnetron is still at the heart of every consumer microwave oven and many commercial ones used for cooking or drying.

One day in the mid-1940s, Raytheon employee Percy Spencer was working with an active radar set when he noticed that a candy bar in his pocket had melted. Spencer got some popcorn, put it in proximity ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - October 8, 1945. Raytheon Manufacturing Company files a patent for the microwave oven. It was invented by an employee who discovered a candy bar had melted in his pocket due ...