The Twisting, Turning Road That Gave Us the Microwave Oven

[@TodayIFoundOut]

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[@Stacy_Smith]

How could you not talk about the government created carrot myth?

[@perttiroska9970]

Thank you for important topic. I finally understand why our microwave oven exploded when my litte brother put aviator sun glasses in it as a child of 80's.

[@loqkLoqkson]

this is now the best explanation of a microwave I've ever seen

[@tthappyrock368]

Common items in US hotel rooms: iron, hair dryer, bucket for ice (machine is down the hall), coffee pot with coffee/tea bags, small microwave. A mini fridge may or may not be present. If the mini fridge is stocked, know that you will be charged for each item you use out of it.

[@williamdegener]

Don't forget the bedbugs

[@JuanJDumeP]

​@@williamdegeneryou get what you pay for don't do that to the fam man

[@EmilyJelassi]

Some hotels will charge you a fortune for merely opening the mini fridge... if you take anything out.. it'll cost the Earth!!!😮$$$

[@l.scales7516]

wow, sorry, you got ripped off wherever you were at! I'm pretty sure everyone I've stayed in had a T.V. & cable & wifi & a variety of musical stations as well as sports & anything else you were willing to pay for! some even have built in Jacuzzi set ups ! never yet had one with a bidet like Crocodile Dundee had in his. now that was fancy! fer warshin' yer craek! lol

[@matthewmiller6068]

I've recently found more hotels with an (empty) mini-fridge than a microwave in the room for some odd reason. But yeah.

[@smartin484]

I just wanted to add a little detail about how they made the construction of magnetrons more cost efficient. Initially magnetron anodes were milled and drilled from a solid block of metal. This was a slow and fiddley process as the tolerances are extremely tight. Then someone figured out that it didn't have to be a solid metal block. A stack of die-stamped metal plates could be laminated together and would behave similar to a milled block but at a fraction of the production cost.

[@ronmorrell9809]

In transformers, the laminated cores produce less waste heat by reducing eddy currents. I wonder if this same effect occurs in magnetrons, contributing to the reduced requirements for power and cooling.

[@smartin484]

Good point! However, a magnetron doesn't really operate like a traditional transformer. The magnetic field is static, supplied by external permanent magnets. So I'm not sure if the issues with eddy currents would apply.That is beyond my knowledge of their operation.

[@chiedzawith2ds]

This coming out mere hours after Technology Connections releasing a video on air fryers is amazing. Now I know it all!

[@justin2955]

😂👍👍

[@sujimtangerines]

I just watched it, too!!

[@jenniferlindsey2015]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure to check that out when I’m done this video.

[@SethEssington]

It's interesting how many different channels have a comment mentioning Technology Connections. The audience overlap is huge!

[@sujimtangerines]

@SethEssington I thought maybe my subs had been influenced by Creator mentioning another channel or through a comment, so I took a bit of time to go through what I'm watching. Not many of the channels refer to another. References are more to channels I DIDN'T sub to So it seemed more like I was running into cross-followers by happenstance. Then, I remembered the community and other channel sections. Yeah, results are more equally divided... which doesn't necessarily detract from the happiness of knowing there are people who just happen to be interested in the same subjects & people. I wish I could remember the specific EE video, but I once interacted with someone who commented referecing a History Tea Time video only for us both to be surprised by us both also being BTS Army. (I have few IRL friends to whom I could talk about this overlap, so if you read this quite tangential & niche reply - thank you for indulging me!)

[@deaniej2766]

Yes, microwave ovens are in hotel rooms. Well, most 2, 3, or 4 star hotels. Not all of them, but most chains hotels, and hotels that service business travelers have them in the US. Not "luxury hotels", but many that do not have a restaurant of their own do have them. It is a big help for families on the road because heating, or reheating food brought from home or purchased at a grocery store, is much less expensive than going to a restaurant for every meal. Even fast food is pretty expensive for a family of 4.

[@macmedic892]

We got to install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We got to move these refrigerators We got to move these colour TVs!

[@chai_ste]

Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it

[@sujimtangerines]

​@@chai_steYou play the guitar on the MTV

[@TheDopekitty]

I want my I want my I want my MTV

[@nickp1370]

Money for Nothing.......

[@EvilizedDead_EVL_DED]

🥹 i was just going to say this ! Isn’t the microwave American dream !!!

[@GrumblingGradient]

Our microwave has plenty of buttons, but we only use the add thirty seconds button

[@colinmcdonald7591]

Excellent stuff. Yup, about 60 percent of Canadian hotel/motel rooms will have a microwave. Probably close to 100 percent of the American hotel/motel rooms I've been in have one too. Except Las Vegas where you don't even get a coffee machine let alone a microwave. One can eat and live well with a mini fridge and microwave and kettle and coffee machine. You can cook literally anything in the microwave. Lots of people only use them for reheating left overs or frozen processed food items...burritos anyone? But you can cook anything and everything in a microwave. You can even buy microwave pouches and containers that can be used to create a crispy exterior or help steam food or reduce cook time and so on. You can get steak bags for the microwave that help cook the steak as if it were seared. I suspect many restaurants do precisely this to cook steaks and other meats to order. I know for a fact some restaurants cook bacon using a microwave and not a grill. When an 1100 watt microwave is $30 at Walmart it means pretty much everyone can have one. A far cry from the models that cost $11000 60 years ago. With air fryer technology and microwave technology being combined, you can get a complete and totally satisfying cooking experience from one counter top appliance in any environment. It's incredible that this is yet another example of how war time technology was adapted to improve the lives of millions. It destroyed the lives of millions too, but it's one of the ones that went on to make peoples lives better too.

[@l.scales7516]

>-o,o-< I love microwave bacon! that's what I'm going to have for dinner! a pumpernickel, bacon, onion & spring greens w/cheese & a poached egg too maybe ,w/ mouse turds, spicy & ranch dressing ( bread toasted) . thanks!

[@bandit5875]

@@l.scales7516mouse turds lmfao

[@jamesb.9155]

Thank you Simon! You are the very best presenter of some of the most interesting and valuable information found anywhere!

[@SeanBZA]

Will add that South Africa actually has now more households with microwaves than the number of houses with an electricity meter, simply because of the massive numbers of illegal electrical connections.

[@l.scales7516]

thank you for the data, I love factoids that also give a Big Hint into things like 1. how much illicit but accepted organized constantly sustained with little or no effort made to be discreet about the activity! now I realize some of what I've seen in clips showing back alleys of residential areas, I thought the shots were an oblique glimpse into all the open back doors & scrawny dogs, strangely , not venturing randomly into food smelling areas & my take on it then was 'Wow, looks like there's some sort of force field keeping those dogs from going in & wreaking havok, cause in America, those dogs would all be strolling rapidly off with nice greasy dish towels or serving spoons in their guts ! ( I'm aware that due to flies etc. that it's not considered wise to leave anything that's intended as food accessible to disease carrying flies & so on! )but actually I am aware of what often happens to bold critters invading any cooks turf uninvited! lol dinner for tomorrow!

[@richardbarnhart2403]

Yes Simon American hotels will almost always have a microwave in them. If there isn’t you picked a very low end option lol

[@codahighland]

Or an EXTREMELY high end option.

[@GeoffreyPitman523]

I'm currently watching the video in a hotel room with a microwave in the US. A small refrigerator and microwave are pretty standard at mid level and up hotels.

[@Jameywells777]

I really hope your eyes never burn out Simon because if they do I will be really bored all the time without your Videos.

[@nikkiewhite476]

Simon you missed the party about when a smaller microwave was developed to warm cryogenic hamsters! I can't remember what video it was but that was the model that home microwaves are based on!

[@jacobstraessle5874]

Never ever try to repair your micowave oven yourself. I'm a retired TV repair technician and I repaired microwaves back in the 80's and 90's when they were still expensive enough to justify the expence of gettig it repaired. The magnetron of a microwave required a voltage of negative five thousand volts DC to power the magnetron. I was once shocked by that voltage and it wasn't pleasent. Modern day inverter microwaves use a negative four thousand volts DC. Modern microwaves are inexpensive so just throw it away and buy a new one. Wall mounted kitchen microwaves may justify repair costs depending on replacement cost and instalation costs. Stay safe.

[@leosmith848]

I successfully repaired my microwave last month. You can test everything with it switched off. In my case the magnetron was shorting out. I installed a new one and robert was a relative.

[@desperadox7565]

Only if you want nice Lichtenberg figures on your skin.😈

[@TheDopekitty]

Disposable appliances is how we got to the way things are now in the world. Planned obsolescence is a massive price gouging gift.

[@leosmith848]

@@TheDopekitty The problem is that my labour at £60/hr plus the cost of the magnetron would indeed have exceeded or matched the cost of a new microwave, but this was a high end catering model that isn't made any more, but is exceptionally good quality. - all real stainless steel, utterly easy to clean. Ther are step by step instructions online on how to test the high voltage stuff with it switched off. There are only really 4 components to it. The high voltage high power transformer, a high voltage diode, a high voltage capacitor and a fuse - plus the magnetron itself . The capacitor has a high value leakage resistor so its discharged fairly soon after power off. If it shows no resistance is good to go usually. The fuse is a simple go/no go resistance test. Mine had gone. The diode measured like a diode does. So that was OK too. The magnetron showed a short between heater.cathode and te grounded anode. Bad juju. Nothing needed to be powered on to test this, and nothing was until a new fuse and magnetron had been installed and the covers put back on.

[@leosmith848]

@@TheDopekitty Not totally. The problem is the discrepancy between labour costs to build in China or te far East and labour costs to fix in the UK. Minimum wage and other social policies mean that its cheaper to buy in a new unit than fix an old one. I do now I am retired fix old stuff because I enjoy it, but I could never make a living wage at it. It simply isn't worth getting anything below about £200 fixed. A couple of hours labour plus parts is around that anyway.

[@Ed_Stuckey]

I remember when a local restaurant (Wes Hall's Minute Man) had the first Raytheon Radar Range in the state.

[@98Zai]

This video was an amazing journey! I love how the red thread of microwaves touched on so many diverse areas. And what a handsome presenter, to boot!

[@Someone-z8r]

We found Fact boy's secret account!

[@AceUzumazi]

35:08 Oh yeah, this video was about Microwave Ovens! 😂

[@nilo9456]

It would be interesting to listen to a video presentation focused on other industry countries efforts around radio detection. This video touched on German developments it also implied that US developments were highly dependent on English input which may or may not be accurate.

[@KillaMilla0513]

45:25 a cd looks so cool

[@pmgn8444]

As a little kid in the late 60s, I remember the Radarrange. Why, I'm not sure! 😆 Also, at work circa 2000, there was an microwave over that had a sticker indicating it had been surveyed/tested to ensure it was 'safe' and not leaking microwaves. Both the official company sticker and the microwave were old so someone in the early 1980s was being over cautious.

[@jenniferlindsey2015]

I can still remember getting our first microwave in 1986. The first thing we learned to do was how to cook hotdogs! Then we moved on to steamed vegetables, s’mores and bacon. I still prefer microwave bacon because all of the grease is soaked up by the underlying paper towels. It doesn’t shrink as much and I can still get it as crispy as I like it.

[@l.scales7516]

plus the bacon grease is easy to salvage & it's nice & CLEAN! lol

[@carolinetamblin1529]

Can you do wilhelm rongten next? He's the man who both discovered and then "took" the first x-rays in 1895. His wife's hand with their wedding ring is famous as the first x-ray on another person as the first true x-ray of a person was wilhelms' own hand. I'm a radiographer (aka x-ray tech to americans) and love hearing more about the history of my profession.

[@whyme8068]

All I want to know is how to turn my microwave into a radar system😂

[@jeffdroog]

...It already is one.

[@brendansheahan4908]

Wire your tv into the ding box, remove the grill from inside the door, point the box out the window and turn it on. Voila!

[@NASWOG]

Literally every hotel in the US has a microwave and most have refrigerators😂

[@KellicTiger]

I want the Blue Ray equivilent of the Encyclopedia when it comes to Simon's channels. A 48 disk collection!

[@markvicferrer]

It felt like it lost the plot in the middle diving deep into World War 2 & I forgot this was about microwaves.

[@andyandersonvtv]

Goldfish ahhhhh brain

[@J.MacInnes]

The Microwave, the cause of and answer to most of life's culinary disasters.

[@beagleissleeping5359]

The first time I heard of a microwave I was maybe 9. My sister was entertaining us with the story of how her aunt had tried using it to boil an egg. It was unsuccessful.💥💥💥😂

[@PeterEdin]

I invented the opposite of a microwave, called a longwave oven, and it freezes food 😂

[@eadweard.]

BBC Micro.

[@andymouse]

Acorn Electron.

[@Sammasambuddha]

A macrowave? Noice!

[@DrWonderbaum]

I've only ever had a microwave in my hotel room once. I had that instead of a safe. I thought it was bizarre. I'd have preferred the safe.

[@SustainedFuture]

If a thief enters your room to steal your valuables, I think he'd be more likely to tamper with the safe than to check the microwave. Or the fridge. :D

[@TerryLawrence001]

See Tom Scott's video "I found an article that said "The microwave was invented to heat hamsters humanely in 1950s experiments." And I thought, no it wasn't. ...was it?

[@Istandby666]

Microwaves today weight a lot less than in the 70's.

[@terriwetz6077]

I managed to throw together a quick fish sandwich and mozzarella sticks dinner last night within 3 minutes thanks to my microwave oven.

[@jeffdroog]

That's not a "dinner"...That's a sad,lonely snack.

[@UmmmmmmmWhat]

I prefer crispy fried fish and mozz stix. They just _can't_ be good out of a microwave.

[@jeffdroog]

@UmmmmmmmWhat They wouldn't be...They'd be sad,soggy,and lonely...This person has already resigned to living alone,and without a sense of happiness.

[@mikelfunderburk5912]

Yeah. Try an air fryer for that.

[@triggered_tomato]

​@@jeffdroogstop projecting😂😂😂 fucksakes sometimes a person cant be arsed. its better than a PB&J sandwich,which ive had for dinner once or twice in my life,for varying reasonsl. Maybe get off that high horse before you fall off and get hurt❤

[@MrGeekFreek]

After watching Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle I prefer to call them Science Ovens. Ovens filled with science. Mom put metal in the science oven. There was a fire.

[@clairefuzipeg1983]

That laugh about the microwave was so joyful❤

[@jennifersoutherland631]

My grandfather worked on the development of this tech and he would tell us about cooking hotdogs in the open waves. He, surprisingly, did not die of cancer.

[@tabitha2706]

I remember my parents getting our first microwave around 1984 or 1985 in my later high school years. It was huge compared to what we have today and all we really used it for was reheating coffee or heating canned soup and such. It wasn’t used much because we still used the stove for most things out of habit

[@lloydevans2900]

I still have in my kitchen a microwave oven my father bought the same year I was born (1981), so is almost the same age as I am. It is one of the first models made by Toshiba to have both a turntable and digital controls: A number keypad for selecting power level (from 1 to 9) and cooking time to the nearest second, with a classic 7-segment numerical display like you get on digital clocks. It even reverts to being a digital clock when not in use. It's not the most efficient or the most powerful by modern standards - the power consumption is 1200 watts while the microwave output power is only half of that. But it still works and has an internal volume almost double that of most microwaves sold today, which is useful.

[@jenniferlindsey2015]

Marconi is no longer cited as the inventor of the Radio. Since all of his tech was stolen from Nikola Tesla while he was employed as Tesla’s assistant, TESLA is now recognized as the inventor of the first wireless communication device aka The Radio!

[@eadweard.]

This is nonsense.

[@TheManFrayBentos]

Yep, ol' "High" Dowding was a laugh. Always joking and funning around.

[@matthewmiller6068]

Decent hotels in the US have a very small microwave in the room, some instead offer a slightly larger one down the hall near the ice machine and any other coffee/drinking water filling amenities. Plenty of cheaper ones or big fancy convention-center hotels with on-premises actual restaurants usually don't seem to offer microwaves.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

The Hot Pot with its toungue searing filling. Did you mean Hot Pocket???? hahaha!!

[@alexhaladay4345]

I still have the microwave my parents got back in the late 80s. no digital crap on this thing, its dials

[@oysteinsoreide4323]

Great video, but I find the narrating a bit too fast paced. I normally have no problems with English videos. But this is one of the exceptions.

[@bryanpetersen1334]

Has anyone else ever owned a Whistler radar detector? Old Simon likely never imagined his name on a fuzz buster.

[@Sadenshard]

Yes, most hotels in USA has microwaves and mini fridges in them even if there is not a kitchen.

[@TRS-Tech]

Hmmmm... warm hamster time ??? 🤔

[@wjbt3]

Forbidden nuggies nomnom

[@TRS-Tech]

@wjbt3 🤣 Actually I'm quite surprised Simon did not mention the professors work on freezing and reanimating hamsters.

[@colingunn5227]

Our children with likely never know the simple joy of frying AOL CDs in the microwave oven

[@Istandby666]

We got our first microwave in the late 70's. We bought it at Sears.

[@eadweard.]

Ironic really, given they don't sear.

[@Un_Pour_Tous]

The Twisting nails of faith.

[@sarahburke8433]

Ive never seen a hotel without a microwave, sometimes there's a stovetop😂😂

[@CptVyker]

20:00 Microwaves. This video is about microwaves

[@mattpeacock5208]

I don't rememeber a hotel room without a microwave oven and coffee maker in it.

[@Rick-k7m]

Now do that with the LED lightbulb. I wanna see how long that video is...

[@GrumblingGradient]

Yet I never see a commercial for microwave ovens

[@beefpanda4313]

Technology never evolves as fast as it does in war.

[@avitimushi1541]

I wish I could have the links to the recent researches mentioned.

[@evelienheerens2879]

Just love how simply and matter-of-factly he describes the use of incendiary area bombs on population centres. You know... war crimes.

[@petcatznz]

Interestingly they were direct copies of the incendiary’s dropped on London by the Germans during the First World War with exactly the same intended outcome. What comes around goes around.

[@brandonlecompte9264]

It was ww2. There were plenty of war crimes to go around lol

[@Alan-pv2bi]

Watson Watts, a true legend

[@rickflash448]

I can't imagine what British intercept pilots thought of such technology when the air ministry started using early radar.

[@downer4207]

There may not be microwaves in the hotels Simon has stayed at but for us mere peasants the microwave and kettle is the “kitchenette” 😅

[@ben3291]

There's one other unusual application of using a microwaves in Japan a Microwave Clothes tumble dryer. But i don't know if there are any still being made today as it was 1st used in the late 90s until around mid 2000s and not much information on them .

[@auro1986]

why make this when it's only use is heating food? Doesn't your heater do same?

[@eadweard.]

Cannot tell what you are trying to say.

[@tealkerberus748]

Microwaves do it better

[@ColemanCanna]

For some reason I always thought the microwave was invented in space. But I see after a simple search that the first microwave was used in space flight. How wrong I've been wow.

[@Crioten]

Just done putting the starfishes in the mirco wavy 😂

[@MrEnjoivolcom1]

TESLA INVENTED THE RADIO!!!!!!

[@eadweard.]

Not really.

[@jeremyrussell361]

I've never stayed in a hotel (fancy or crappy) that hasn't had a microwave

[@MrSlipstreem]

Saying, "...at a frequency of 600MHz and a wavelength of 50cm...", isn't necessary as a frequency of 600MHz has to have a wavelength of 50cm (approximately).

[@turtleboy4111]

Some hotels in Australia have microwaves in the rooms. I wouldn't use them, but they're there.

[@lst1nwndrlnd]

1:32 better off just saying Willie😂

[@BigMobe]

Basically, the more electrically conductive something is the more it will react to being microwaved.

[@jaredkennedy6576]

And now you can go down to Walmart and get a 1200w microwave that is also a convection oven and air fryer for around $100. Also, I do happen to now have a spare microwave oven I can donate to science. I'll have to see what sort of problems I can induce in it.

[@exileisland2675]

I love how 4 microwave burritos in a week is joke worthy to a healthy person. I'll eat 4 on a Thursday.

[@scottmeredith3359]

Someday I pray we will do away with the weird triumphant marching music in the background of these videos

[@BooBaddyBig]

Also notable for creating Wi-Fi. After all who would want radio waves contaminated with cavity magnetrons. Wi-Fi that's who. Just don't stand next to a microwave while it's running and interference is minimal.

[@mikelfunderburk5912]

Wait, y'all don't have microwaves in rooms?! Id be quiet upset. I like popcorn at night

[@MrChriss000]

I been looking for a microwave bed.. I want to get 8 hrs sleep in 45 minutes.

[@fadingbeleifs]

This is a story about microwave ovens *Proceeds to show a wire frame of a toaster oven.

[@generichuman4881]

Didn't watch the video yet, but could help but notice the pic in the thumbnail was a toaster over, not a microwave

[@JWPNewby]

Bruh the first microwave is arching on the broken sheild

[@dvdavid4677]

What are any waves made out of?

[@revalesq]

I used to use microwaves every day but since moving I haven't even had one in many years.

[@eadweard.]

Why are you telling us this?

[@liontuga155]

Did you know you can create plasma on your MW oven? Just peel two 12mm grapes and place them touching each other on the centre of the oven. Turn the power on. Enjoy the light show!

[@McFlyOrPie]

Coming in 2026, The Macrowave!

[@brulaapgaapmeester8052]

If they really would have replied with: "Sir sind die richtige Stimme", the Germans would have immediately known they were not German.

[@matthewfisher-sp5fq]

Hanna fry has done a good documentary About microwaves as well . By George this is A complicated Documentary. 😊

[@eadweard.]

The microwaves being only the second hottest thing in that video.

[@MrMudtit]

32:58 Winston's cigar doesn't look right?

[@ryancoulter4797]

I’m pretty sure that’s a toaster oven in the thumbnail

[@BeersAndBeatsPDX]

Pretty sure that's a toaster oven on the thumbnail

[@herbmans6309]

Lol warthunder soundtrack

[@fourcatsandagarden]

....who else forgot the title of this video included microwave ovens

[@dakotahrickard]

Tiny soapbox rant grumble incoming. You have been warned! Modern microwaves are cheap, but the invention of the touch control panel ruined accessibility of microwaves for the blind. The dials on older microwaves were extremely blind-people friendly, but the touch panels are almost unuseable without labeling. Accessible microwaves are extremely expensive, costing several times their inaccessible equivalents, for instance, Amazon made a 0.6 cubic foot unit that cost nearly $200. That's the smallest size of consumer microwave that I'm aware of. You can buy a cheaper 0.6 cubic foot unit for $40 or so. When nobody bought the $200 accessible Amazon equivalent, they decided there was no market and discontinued the product. Other companies also offered accessible microwaves at similar price points. At this point, all the blind people I know either kinda learn where the buttons are and hope for the best or label the buttons themselves, which works sort of. Microwaves are so cheap and easy to make, and integrating inchoate accessibility would be so easy, that the only reason this hasn't been done is because nobody has asked. Thanks for your time.

[@Sammasambuddha]

Thumbnail is a Toaster Oven!

[@tanzero99]

air fryer giveaway simon❤

[@heavywithhoping]

1:45 for the steak of convenience

[@leosmith848]

littered with errors, but still fun.

[@geniferteal4178]

Wait, some hotels don't have microwaves?😢

[@desperadox7565]

If the Brits tried to impersonate native German speakers they needed somebody who knew the language much better than in Simon's example. That was horribly wrong.

[@Maxwell_Cain]

Good lord, commit sections get weird fast these days.