The history of buying a microwave begins with a happy accident in , when engineer Percy Spencer was working on military radar technology for Raytheon Laboratories . While standing near an active magnetron—the core component that emits radar signals—he noticed a chocolate bar in his pocket had completely melted.
: Introduced in 1947 , these first models were over five feet tall and cost roughly $5,000 (equivalent to about $48,000–$88,000 today). Due to their size and price, they were initially indispensable only to restaurants . buy microwave
: It wasn't until the 1970s that designs became compact and affordable enough for the average home. By 1997 , nine out of every ten American homes owned one. The history of buying a microwave begins with