Did the microwave "inventor" heat himself with them?

[Trunk]

Some guy mentioned last week that the inventor of the microwave heated his house that way.

That is. . .he just let his house be freezing, but he installed some microwave creator that kept HIM warm (due to HIM being mostly water).

Snopes didn’t seem to have anything to say.

Anyone? Gotta be crapola, right?

[CynicalGabe]

crapola

Completely. The power it would take to microwave an entire house would certainly be enough to kill him.

[UncleBeer]

A biograph of Percy LaBaron Spencer can be found here:
http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/history.html
1958 Reader’s Digest story about same:
http://members.aol.com/spencerlab/history/readdig.htm

Percy appear to be a one of those “pulled himself up by the bootstraps” stories.

[UncleBeer]

The hell with those fist two links. Here’s a much better one from an excellent magazine - American Heritage’s Invention and Technology:

http://www.inventionandtechnology.com/xml/2005/4/it_2005_4_feat_4.xml

[DougC]

Some guy mentioned last week that the inventor of the microwave heated his house that way.

• • • This is true, I have read accounts of it elsewhere. People who experienced it described it as a very odd sensation, because no matter how cold the air around you was, you simply didn’t get cold, even with no clothes on. If you went into a cold room and turned the microwave emitter on, within just a few seconds you were perfectly warm. If you turned it up or down, within just a few seconds you could feel the change in the temperature setting.
      …I don’t know that it was used long-term enough for the health effects to become apparent.
      ~

[vetbridge]

@Trunk

he installed some microwave creator that kept HIM warm (due to HIM being mostly water).

Did each room have a carousel on the floor to slowly rotate him for even heating?

[jawdirk]

Sorry, have to post this link: http://www.angryflower.com/microw.html (Violent cartoon about using microwaves for non-cooking purposes)

So unshielded microwave emissions, no matter how low-intensity, would increase your risk of cancer in proportion to the emissions, right? I’m asking, I don’t know.

[groman]

As far as I know, there’s no established scientific link between microwaves and cancer. However, there is an established scientific link between thermal damage(burns) and cancer. With microwaves you would be increasing the number of denatured proteins and killed cells in your body that can turn other things around cancerous, I suppose.

[pravnik]

@vetbridge

Did each room have a carousel on the floor to slowly rotate him for even heating?

No, but he had to poke himself with a fork a few times.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

It sucked for his daughter who had braces.

[vetbridge]

And he was forced to eschew his tin foil hat.

[Squink]

@UncleBeer

• American Heritage’s Invention and Technology:
  http://www.inventionandtechnology.com/xml/2005/4/it_2005_4_feat_4.xml

The August 1958 Issue of Readers Digest includes additional inventions of Percy Spencer, including microwave diathermy:

Since the war Spencer has kept up his incessant rounds of the plant, poking his nose into everybody’s business, cutting and fitting and throwing away. He has continued to improve his magnetrons, has in- vented microwave diathermy equipment with the cooperation of the Mayo Clinic.

Cancer fears nothwithstanding, microwave diathermy is still used today.

The 2 frequencies designated for microwave diathermy are 2,456 MHz and 915 MHz, the latter being the most commonly used. Since frequencies are higher than in shortwave diathermy and wavelengths are the same size as the applicator, microwave diathermy can be focused more easily than shortwave diathermy. The lower frequency is preferred because it provides selective heat deep into muscle, and less energy is converted to heat in the subcutaneous fat. Direct contact applicators with full aperture skin contact are optimal for improved coupling and reduced stray radiation.

[jnglmassiv]

One of the old-timers in my ham radio club recalls technicians and engineers warming themselves “by the ol’ magnetron” at one of his early jobs.

[bienville]

@pravnik

No, but he had to poke himself with a fork a few times.

Damn your canoe!
Damn your canoe!
Damn your canoe!

[CurtC]

@DougC

I don’t know that it was used long-term enough for the health effects to become apparent.

Which health effects would those be? As far as I know, unless you heat up your tissue to over 200 degrees F and therefore change the chemical structure of proteins, microwave radiation would not otherwise damage you.

It would cause hell for my 802.11b WLAN and 2.4 GHz cordless phone, however.

[alterego]

Hrm, that guy died on my birthday. Must be a bad omen.

[DougC]

• • • Just a note: the accounts I have read were of radio/electronics enthusiasts having built their own setups for doing this. I never heard of any commercially-produced or commercially-sold microwave room heater.
      ~

[ambushed]

@DougC

• • • This is true, I have read accounts of it elsewhere. People who experienced it described it as a very odd sensation, because no matter how cold the air around you was, you simply didn’t get cold, even with no clothes on. If you went into a cold room and turned the microwave emitter on, within just a few seconds you were perfectly warm. If you turned it up or down, within just a few seconds you could feel the change in the temperature setting.
      …I don’t know that it was used long-term enough for the health effects to become apparent.
      ~

You’ve almost certainly been duped, Doug. I refuse to believe it unless you have a very good cite.

[Donovan]

here is kind of an ‘anti-cite’:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/cooked.htm
That is the story I first thought of when reading the OP, didn’t know it was an urban legend until I looked it up though.

[Pushkin]

This sounds a bit unlikely, weren’t microwaves first proposed for cooking after lots of birds were found dead (and thoroughly cooked) after sitting on a radar installation?

It also reminds me of an episode of “Millenium”