PatentBrief

Inventor

Percy L Spencer

Patents indexed

1

Year range

1950

Associated with

Years active

1950

Total patents

1

Most recent

1950

Domains

consumer-electronicsradarfood-technologydefenseappliances

Activity by decade

1950s
1

Patents

1

US 2495429·1950·Raytheon Manufacturing Co

The Microwave Oven — Invented When a Radar Engineer Melted a Chocolate Bar

Percy Spencer's 1950 Raytheon patent describes the microwave oven — discovered accidentally when Spencer noticed that radar microwaves had melted a chocolate bar in his pocket, leading to the first practical appliance for cooking with radio waves.