The microwave oven is more commonly known as simply the microwave, although that is a rather inaccurate name, as microwave refers to a type of radiation. The oven itself uses microwave radiation to heat food that is placed inside it by using a process known as dielectric heating.
American inventor Percy Spencer invented the first microwave oven in 1945, when he filed a patent for one, following the end of World War II. Spencer was an expert in radar tube design and, during the war, was standing in front of an active radar set when he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. This had been noticed by others, but Spencer was the first to actively investigate the phenomenon. He experimented with popcorn kernels, producing the world's first microwaved popcorn, and an egg - which was less than successful. Following the war, he used microwave technology to develop the microwave oven, with the first being sold commercially in 1947, the first domestic microwave becoming available in 1955, and the first tabletop microwave, which is, effectively, the modern microwave, coming out in 1967. Spencer received a one-time payment of $20 for his invention from the company he worked for, Raytheon.
Microwaves are most commonly used for defrosting, reheating and preparing certain food items that would otherwise take substantially more time to do. Not every food is suitable - as one of Spencer's first experiments showed, they will explode if placed in a microwave - and if metal objects are placed inside a microwave they can cause dangerous sparking.
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