![]() In April 1961, Sharp demonstrated a 2-kilowatt microwave prototype at the International Trade Fair in Tokyo. Meanwhile, other companies were also testing the market. It sold 1,396 units by the time production ceased in 1964. Tappan produced only 34 microwaves in its first year, but it continued to have steady growth. I love the personal, homemaker feel of the built-in recipe card drawer in the bottom of this wall-mounted unit. Division of Work and Industry/National Museum of American History/Smithsonian Institution Note the handy recipe drawer at the bottom. The Tappan RL-1, introduced in 1955, was the first microwave oven intended for home use. With that price tag, it was obviously meant to impress. Tappan produced the RL-1 microwave oven for home use with an initial retail price of $1,295 (about $14,400 today). Instead, it licensed the technology to Tappan, a maker of conventional stoves that had pioneered the “see-through” glass oven door. ![]() ![]() Raytheon first entered the consumer market in 1955, but not with the Radarange. It would take a while for the microwave oven to evolve into the countertop version we all know today. This water-cooled model was the size of a modest refrigerator, standing approximately 1.7 meters tall and weighing 340 kilograms. Two years prior, Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer had filed a patent for a “ Means for Treating Foodstuff,” and the company tested the oven in a Boston restaurant. The original Radarange came out in 1947 and was intended for commercial kitchens. My Radarange was installed by the previous homeowner in 1980 and had a decidedly vintage feel, but it was actually a third-generation model. The ever evolving and revolving microwave oven Although I’m happy to be rid of some of the disastrous 1960s design missteps-seriously, only one electrical receptacle in the entire kitchen?-I was sad to part with a small piece of history: my Amana Touchmatic Radarange microwave oven, with its 700 watts of glorious electromagnetic cooking power. I am renovating my kitchen, which was originally built in 1964. As I write this month’s article, my house is a noisy, dusty construction zone.
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