Percy Spencer
Percy LeBaron Spencer (born July 9, 1894 in Howland , Maine , † September 8, 1970 in Newton , Massachusetts ) was an American engineer and inventor. He became known as the inventor of the microwave oven .
Life
Spencer's father died in 1897 when Percy was three years old, and his mother left him shortly afterwards. He then lived with an aunt, a weaver. At the age of twelve, after leaving school after the seventh grade without a qualification, he began to work in a spinning mill as an apprentice machinist.
Impressed by the Titanic disaster, he joined the US Navy in 1912 and became a radio operator. He also worked for Wireless Specialty Apparatus , one of the leading radio equipment manufacturers in the USA during the First World War . He also worked there after leaving the Navy in 1918 until the company filed for bankruptcy. He acquired his theoretical and practical knowledge in self-study. From 1925 he worked at Raytheon, then a small company that made power tubes for amplifiers. Spencer became head of the research laboratory there, located near MIT , with which he had numerous contacts.
As of 1941, the first magnetron from Britain at Raytheon in license were remade, Spencer headed the department for power tubes. He improved the design of the magnetron so profoundly that the production rate could be increased from 17 per day to 2600 per day, with significant effects on night bombers and naval warfare. He also improved the performance and durability of the magnetrons. For his work he received the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award of the US Navy, the highest honor for civilians.
In 1945 he found out by chance that you could heat food with microwaves. In 1947 Raytheon was able to introduce a commercial microwave oven with the radar range , but it was almost two meters high, weighed 400 kg and cost between 2000 and 3000 US dollars. From 1967 Raytheon sold a model for the household that cost more than $ 3,500 by today's standards. Under the contract, the employer paid Spencer a one-time fee of two dollars for patent US2495429 (A). He was later appointed to the Raytheon board of directors. In the course of his career he filed 300 patents. Spencer was married with three children.
In 1953 Spencer was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
Web links
- Biography (english) in narrative form ( Memento of 22 February 2015, Internet Archive )
- Spencer in RD (English) ( Memento of 29 October 2012 at the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Invention of the microwave oven "Ssssss ... Bing!" , Marc Pitzke, one day , January 23, 2015
- ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1950-1999 ( [1] ). Retrieved September 23, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spencer, Percy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Spencer, Percy LeBaron (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American engineer and inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Howland , Maine |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 8, 1970 |
| Place of death | Newton , Massachusetts |