Page 197 - Inventions - A Visual Encyclopedia (DK - Smithsonian)

Superfast cooking

■ ■ What? Microwave oven chocolate bar to vibrate, creating heat and
■ ■ Who? Percy Spencer cooking it. The company he worked for,
■ ■ Where and when? US, 1945 Raytheon, turned his discovery into a new
The American engineer Percy Spencer was type of cooker—the microwave oven.
experimenting with a magnetron (a device
that emits microwaves) when he found that
Non-stick frying pans a chocolate bar in his pocket had mysteriously
melted. Spencer realized that the microwaves
■ ■ What? Teflon™ were causing water molecules in the RadaRange,
an early
■ ■ Who? Roy Plunkett microwave
■ ■ Where and when? US, 1938
oven, c. 1958
Like many other inventions, the coating
that gives frying pans a nonstick surface AT HOME
was discovered by accident. While
researching gases for use in refrigerators
at the chemical company DuPont, the
American chemist Roy Plunkett stumbled
upon polytetrafluoroethylene—a super-
slippery substance. Later called Teflon™, the
material was applied to frying pans, and has
been a boon to pancake
flippers ever since.

Keeping food fresh
Cutting and chopping
■ ■ What? Tupperware®
■ ■ Who? Earl Tupper ■ ■ What? Food processor
■ ■ Where and when? US, 1946 ■ ■ Who? Pierre Verdon
The period just after World War II ■ ■ Where and when? France, 1971
saw the creation of a number of Kitchen food mixers for kneading bread
products for keeping food fresh. dough and whisking liquids had been
These included plastic fridge boxes, around since 1919. But it was not until
Tupperware®, which had airtight lids many decades later that the French
and a patented “burping seal.” Named engineer Pierre Verdon developed the
after their American inventor, Earl first food processor, a machine capable
Tupper, the boxes became popular in of chopping, blending, and mixing solid
the 1950s through “Tupperware parties,” foods. Verdon called his labor-saving
pioneered by saleswoman Brownie Wise, processor the Magimix.
held in people’s homes. Modern food processor
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