Abstract
This article is the second in a continuing series of general interest papers on the applications of microwaves in areas of science and technology that might not be appreciated by the traditional engineer. What more appropriate application could there be than the first wide-spread commercial use of microwaves for food preparation. The development, use, and evolution (or lack of) of the microwave oven is the subject of this month's “Microwaves Are Everywhere.”
Highlights
The quote above appeared as the header of a feature article titled “Cooking with Short Waves,” in the international monthly magazine, Short Wave Craft in November 1933 (Fig. 1)
Hull was experimenting with vacuum tube diodes and triodes using magnetic fields to control the electron flow
Hull suggested that the magnetron could be used as a radio frequency transmitter if the electrons could be forced into circular orbital paths [7], page 723, but this was not his major vision for magnetron applications
Summary
The invention, analysis and use of the first magnetron device is attributed to Albert Hull of General Electric Research Labs, Schenectady, NY, USA [8]. Percy was not the first to cook with microwaves, he was an active proponent of its merits, and his team at Raytheon dramatically increased the magnetron output power and came up with an inexpensive way of fabricating the complex anode structure by welding together thin punched out disks [41] He credits serendipity for his passion as he related to a writer/friend in an article about his life in a popular US magazine in 1958 [42], “One day a dozen years ago he (Percy) was visiting a lab where magnetrons, the power tubes of radar sets, were being tested. III, Art. 5, Note 212 [37]
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