Percy Spencer
Percy Lebaron Spencer (July 19, 1894 - September 8, 1970) was the American inventor of the microwave oven.Percy Spencer was born in Howland, Maine and was orphaned by his parents at a young age and raised by his aunt and uncle. He never graduated from grammar school and went to work in a mill at age 12, before in 1912 joining the Navy to learn wireless telegraphy. He joined the Raytheon Company in the 1920s.
While working for Raytheon, Spencer discovered a more efficient way to manufacture magnetrons, which are used in radar. In 1941, magnetrons were being made at of 17 per day. Spencer found that rather than machining parts needed for the magnetron, they could instead be punched out and soldered together. His improvements and others increased to production of magnetrons to 2,600 per day. For his work he was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award by the Navy.
In 1945 after a peanut bar in his pocket melted while standing in front of an operating magnetron. He then tested popcorn in front of the magnetron, which quickly popped all over the room. The microwave oven grew out of this observation, and by 1947 a commercial oven was being sold by Raytheon.
He became Senior Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors at Raytheon. He received 150 patents during his career at Raytheon, and a building there is named after him.
