Percy Spencer was a self-taught physicist with a keen interest in electricity and its uses. One day, in 1946, while working with an active radar tube, he felt a tingling in his pocket and noticed the chocolate bar he kept there had melted. This phenomenon had been observed before, but Spencer was the first person to investigate it. He experimented by placing foods near a source of electromagnetic microwave radiation. He found that popcorn was quickly cooked and that an egg exploded.
He went on to develop the world’s first microwave oven, using a metal box and a high density magnetron that emitted microwaves. His employers, the defence contractors Raytheon, filed a patent in 1945 for a microwave cooking oven and, in 1947, they produced the first commercial product, the Radarange. It cost about $2,500 and weighed 750 lbs. Affordable microwave ovens came onto the market 20 years later.
Spencer received no royalties for his invention, but Raytheon paid him a gratuity of $2, the company’s standard token payment to all employees who filed patents.
Percy Lebaron Spencer was born in Maine in 1894. His father died when the boy was one and he was brought up by his aunt and uncle. He left school at 12 to work in a mill. At 18, he joined the US Navy, where he learnt wireless communications. He had no formal education, but taught himself mathematics, science and technology. In 1939, he joined the defence contractor Raytheon to build radar equipment. He rose to become senior vice president and a senior member of the Board of Directors at Raytheon. In the course of his work, he filed 300 patents. He was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award, Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Massachusetts.
Harness serendipity. Great innovators use the stimulus of random events to spur their imagination. Then they take action to turn ideas into experiments. Spencer observed the melting of the chocolate bar and then explored the actions of microwave radiation on foods. Do not treat every unexpected event as an annoyance. Sometimes, serendipity hands you an opportunity, if you are open minded.
Teach yourself the skills you need. We all need to keep reskilling and learning new methods and technologies. Spencer did this all his life. He kept learning and kept inventing. We all should do the same.
The commercialisation of an invention can take many years. As is the case with many inventors, Spencer had to wait a long time before he saw his great idea produced for the mass market. Patience is needed. It may be small consolation, but recognition for great ideas eventually materialises.