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The Development of the Microwave Oven: A Quick and Easy Way to Cook
How a wartime radar discovery in the 1940s led to the microwave oven, and how a bulky restaurant machine became an ordinary appliance in home kitchens.
Home and Everyday Life
Home Appliances
Microwave ovens and the electric kitchen.
How Electricity Changed the Home Kitchen
A look at how toasters, kettles, mixers and other small electric appliances spread into homes after 1890 and changed the daily work of cooking and cleaning.
The Electric Kettle and Boiling Water
How the electric kettle developed from slow immersion heaters in the 1890s to sealed elements and automatic shut-off, and why it became a staple in some countries.
The Forgotten History of the First Coffee Maker
A cautious history of coffee-brewing devices, from drip pots and percolators to siphons and espresso machines, with many inventors and no single first.
The History of Electric Cooking
How electric stoves, ovens and hot plates reached homes from the 1890s, and how they compared with wood, coal and gas cooking in cost, control and cleanliness.
The Invention of the Microwave Oven and Its Impact on Food Preparation
How the wartime radar tube known as the cavity magnetron led to cooking with microwaves, and how to treat the famous melted candy bar story as anecdote.
The Invention of the Microwave Oven: A Convenient Kitchen Appliance
How microwave ovens shrank from large, costly commercial machines in the late 1940s into compact countertop models that ordinary households could afford.
The Invention of the Microwave Oven: A Cooking Revolution
A plain-language look at how microwave heating works and how it changed what people cooked and how they used their kitchens, told as history, not cooking advice.
The Invention of the Microwave Oven: A Quick and Easy History
A short dated timeline of the microwave oven, from the 1940 magnetron and 1945 patent to the countertop models and everyday use, with disputed credit noted.
The Invention of the Microwave Oven: A Quick Fix
How frozen meals, microwave popcorn and reheating habits grew up around the microwave oven in the 1970s and 1980s, and how they changed everyday meal routines.
The Invention of the Microwave: A Revolutionary Cooking Method
A history of the early public worries about microwave ovens, the safety standards of the late 1960s and 1970s, and how the main questions were settled.
The Story of the Vacuum Cleaner: A Household Essential
From carpet sweepers and hand-pumped bellows to Hubert Booth's 1901 suction machine and the first electric household cleaners, a history of the vacuum cleaner.
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Cooling Appliances Refrigerators and air conditioners. Everyday Inventions Barcodes, cards and games from daily life. Sewing and Laundry Sewing machines and washing machines in the home. Fun and Fitness Rides, boards and exercise machines. Food Preservation and Cooking How people kept food from spoiling and how cooking tools evolved.