By Amir Benkelai
As I discussed in previous posts, I am rather fascinated by the history of microwave ovens, once called "radaranges", and other older literature referring to them as the "electric oven" (Zante). So, it felt natural to pick up from the microwave in the timeline project, and map out the progression of where microwave ovens were sold. It turns out, this data is missing from all records, and the only existing remnant is this website a person made cataloging some of the more popular ovens of their times based on garage sale finds. For example Raytheon, who, after the first oven in 1947, went on to develop a series of ovens under the label "Mark", such as Mark V or Mark 50B, which were sold to restaurants and the likes (Radarange). Tappan would make the RL-1 in 1955, first in-wall oven, but it would be Amana's RR-1 from 1967 that kicks off the consumer market of the microwave oven (Radarange; Osepchuk, "A History of Microwave Heating Applications") . In the process, a series of magnetrons were produced, and continue to be created and expanded upon (Sasaki and Kase).
The choice of map was, initially, to showcase where different models were engineered, and then sold. Unfortunately, I could not find this data anywhere, and thus only had headquarters and arbitrary locations from papers to work with. This turned the map into one that showcases how different places in the US and Japan worked together to making microwave ovens, with magnetron models that became better with each development. This led to a lackluster map in terms of data, as of the few papers, ads, and/or letters existing, little existed of location data. Thus, it could be argued that the map also displays the lack of data in microwave oven history studies, and to that extent the historical study of magnetron development. In terms of models, it was odd to discover that the ovens between 1947 and 1955, almost a decade, seemed eradicated from records aside from rare adverts, which do not have enough information to work with. All that remains, in regards to these models, is sparse online discussions, occasional mentions in articles, and sellers of "old" technology (I found the Mark 50B through this bidding site). No recent detailed historical document has been written on them with most sources dating to the 60s, 70s, and 80s, little is of recent times. And with the turn of Raytheon into RTX, it could be harder to access Raytheon's archives, assuming that, as a military company, they would be willing to give up such data. The only potential source of information on them is The Creative Ordeal: The Story of Raytheon by Otto J. Scott, except it is from 1974. If the first successful consumer microwave oven is from 1967, I do not think I will find much about following models. It may have recorded the Mark series, but I did not have the time to get my hands on it, and explore it thoroughly.
This fact of missing records was a reocurring theme during the research process, which is why the map is, again, rather empty. Information was only ever found because someone, at some point in time, happened to produce a piece of knowledge. Since these sources were old, their references were even older, and most had acknowledgements thanking involved individuals for their information, which meant even then knowledge was sparse.
As a result of such emptiness, I tried looking elsewhere, first on working with microwave cooking books, yet, there is nothing cataloguing their chronological timeline to guide me. Based on the introduction of the book The Microwave Oven by Helen J. Van Zante, I know that since 1967, there was a flurry of books published as hype (and some fear) built up around the appliance (Zante). But, it would be a months long endaveour to collect all books, then put them in a timeline, and even then, I would be unlikely to locate where they were published or sold. I managed to find this book thanks to the Library's rather large culinary collection, which does have old microwave cooking books, but again, the endaveour would be too big for this assignment.
Then, during a class activity, I was suggested by peers to do a culinary map, one wherein I showcase the progression of foods made for these ovens across the globe. Issue here, then, is that it becomes even more difficult to relate it to my technology, the magnetron, as I would focus on the oven more then I do on the magnetron, and a microwave oven is not just a magnetron in a big container. It is a collection of technologies in a big container. However, in mapping microwave cookbooks, or microwave ovens, I can somewhat relate back to the magnetron in some manner. Speaking of, there was also the thought of mapping out the conferences of the International Microwave Power Institute (IMPI), but then there would be at most 1 or 2 total sources.
I ended up booking an appointment with Research Services of the library hoping they might help me find something more concrete. Here, I was able to discover a series of databases that may contain the information I need, but unfortunately, the meeting was setup too close to the deadline, and as a result, I did not have ample time to explore them all properly. In fact, if I had the resources and time I would contacted Raytheon for access to their archives, requested that book from the Library, and maybe even messaged the IMPI. This would allow me to accumulate, and ascend, a breadth of resources. Unfortunately, this would also entail a months long, if not years long, endaveour of data collection, and as such, I had to reroute to a simpler option.
I chose to use the city where the major actors, like Raytheon or Amana, were headquartered, and build a story out of them. In doing so, I also looked to using this one paper from 1971, which had information on the microwave oven industry in Japan. That is why Japan is included. I attempted looking in France, as I speak and read French, but nothing useful was found. I tried Canada, too, and it is also devoid of such information. I looked in French, too, just in case maybe Quebec has something, but again empty handed I found myself. So, needless to say, there is a chunk of history that seems to exist in rudimentary pieces, which makes me feel like I unearthed some buried secret of historians.
In fact, if you read The Microwave Oven, you will discover that a lot of the papers it references do not exist online, or if they do, they are in pieces. I found many fascinating sounding articles, but had no luck locating them. An example is The Microwave Newsletter maintained by Robert V. Decareu (who is a reocurring figure in the development of these devices), for which I am yet to locate a source assembling all of them (Zante). Indeed, I do intend to attempt creating a book, or a bunch of books, that manifest a detailed history, if I find the means, maybe as a summer history project.
Altogether, the research for this map turned me into a microwave oven history expert, yet unfortunately, was not the end result I wanted. I sought for a map where you can explore where the first ovens were sold, their story, and so on. Instead, I have a map with waypoints in arbitrary locations, grabbed from Wikipedia, with relevant historical information from scholarly sources attached. However, I am proud to have formulated a short story out of what I had, even if I failed to meet the assignment requirement of 20 waypoints, which I hope to have illustrated on how impossible that is with the current state of information on the subject (which had I known, I would not have picked the magnetron, as this has been mind-breaking). On the other end, I have learnt a bit about the possibilities of map-making, specifically what is included, and excluded, based on existing data sets. I had no data sets, which turned out costly, but at least I came out with something to explore; and data sets I can look to creating.
If you want to learn more from the little that exists, I cite some of my guiding resources below for further reading. Below that is the actual works cited.
For Further Reading:
Archived Database of Magnetrons: https://frank.pocnet.net/index.html.
Archived Database of Early Microwave Ovens: https://www.radarange.com/#QA.
The book Microwave Oven by Helen J. Van Zante (1973).
Growth of the Microwave Oven Industry in Japan by Tadashi Sasaki & Yoshihiro Kase, published in the Journal of Microwave Power, Volume 6, Issue 4, in 1971.
All locations grabbed from respective Wikipedia Articles.
Osepchuk, J. M. “A History of Microwave Heating Applications.” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 32, no. 9, Sept. 1984, pp. 1200–24, https://doi.org/10.1109/tmtt.1984.1132831. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.
Osepchuk, John M. “The History of the Microwave Oven: A Critical Review.” IEEE Xplore, June 2009, pp. 1397–400, https://doi.org/10.1109/ MWSYM.2009.5165967. Accessed 13 May 2022.
Radarange. “The Radarange Collection & Repair.” Www.radarange.com, www.radarange.com/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
Sasaki, Tadashi, and Yoshihiro Kase. “Growth of the Microwave Oven Industry in Japan.” Journal of Microwave Power, vol. 6, no. 4, Jan. 1971, pp. 283–90, https://doi.org/10.1080/00222739.1971.11688808. Accessed 8 Feb. 2022.
Siegel, Peter H. “Microwaves Are Everywhere: ‘Ovens: From Magnetrons to Metamaterials.’” IEEE Journal of Microwaves, vol. 1, no. 2, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Apr. 2021, pp. 523–31,
https://doi.org/10.1109/jmw.2021.3059745. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
Zante, Helen J. Van. The Microwave Oven. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973.