Biography Of Percy Lebaron Spencer: A Coincidental Discovery

Jermetrius Lucas

11/10/15

English 11

Mrs. Dowling

A Coincidental Discovery Percy LeBaron Spencer was born in Howland, Maine 1894. His father passed away when he was toddler and his mother abandoned him soon after. Growing up, he was a curious child and spent days exploring a log hauler truck that broke down in front of his house trying to figure out how it worked. This led him to work at a spool mill between the ages of twelve and sixteen. This later led him to hear about an opening at a paper factory that was going to be run on electricity. This was a new concept in the remote town where he lived, so he learned as much as he could about it and applied for the job of wiring the plant. Spencer was one of three people who got selected for

At the age of eighteen, he joined the U.S. Navy and where he learned all he could about wireless and radio technology. Spencer was strongly motivated to learn and gained expertise in a number of fields such as trigonometry, calculus, chemistry, physics, and metallurgy by reading extensively about them. Spencer was also an expert in radar tube design, and worked at a company called Raytheon as the chief of the power tube division. His expertise helped the company win a major contract from the U.S. government to produce magnetrons for radar equipments which was invaluable in the second world war. Under his leadership, the division expanded from a mere fifteen employees to more than 5000 employees and productivity was also largely improved (“Percy Spencer”). Percy LeBaron Spencer was the most influential person in the 1940-1959 time era because his invention of the microwave oven, changed the way food was prepared, and U.S. bombers became powerful

First off, the invention was huge and expensive that at first it was only used in restaurants. But then later on it became a nearly universal feature in American kitchens. The microwave oven home model didn’t become available for sale until the 1950’s (“Mass Moments”). For the making of the invention, Percy used a high density electromagnetic field generator that was enclosed to a metal box (“Invention And Creative World”). He also used a magnetron tube to produce radar microwaves. During the usage of the magnetron tube, he later increased the efficiency and boosted the output from one magnetron a week to 2,600 a day. The importance of the magnetron tube is that when you start cook food, the magnetron takes electricity from the power outlet and converts into high-powered radio waves. The magnetron then blasts the waves into the food compartment through a channel called a wave guide. Then the food sits on a turntable spinning slowly so that the food can cook evenly. The microwaves bounce back and forth off the reflective metal walls of the food compartment, just like light bounces off a mirror. But when the microwaves reach the food itself, they don’t bounce off. Microwaves penetrate inside the food and as they travel through it, they make the molecules inside it vibrate more quickly. Since vibrating molecules have heat, the faster the molecules vibrate, the hotter the food becomes. Thus, making the