I heard on old TV sit com make reference to having a radar oven, and I seem to recall Amana making such a product before the microwave oven. Am I right, or am I crazy? …or both? 
- jinx
A radar range IS a microwave. Radar Range was the product name for the very early microwaves introduced by Tappan. The term became a synonym for a microwave like Xerox for copying machines. The term died out by the early 1980’s. There is a reference to it in the documentary movie Airplane where they locate the troubled aircraft using on the Radar Range.
I remember “radar range” from The Price is Right and Let’s make A Deal.
Microwave cooking was commercially available and in use by 1947. But not for the home. I can find a newpaper article showing a cook at the Statler Hotel in Washington DC showing how he can cook a steak in 60 seconds using such a device. He was shown using the new “radar range.”
“Radar ranges” to be sold by the Tappan Company for home use were mentioned in a 1954 news story I’m reading. They were being tested in 20 homes in Mansfield, Ohio.
By 1957, Ratheon had sold 2,500 home units. They had a price of aboutr $1200.
I remember watching Amana TV commercials featuring Anita Bryant, opening the door to an operating RadarRange and running her hand along the inside walls to show that they weren’t hot. I clearly remember thinking “that’s so fake - no one could really do that with an oven!”
What the heck is a microwave? Stupid technical babble. But everyone knows what a radar is. Hence, Radar Range.
Of course of everyone that knows that a microwave oven is today, how many merely call it a “microwave”? And of them, how many really know what a real, true microwave is? Cool! Modern technical babble! “Radar Range” just seems sooooo archaic.
It sounded good at the time, but on reflection, it is an oven, not a range! Never let accuracy get in the way of a good, alliterative trademark name.
These two paragraphs in Shagnasty’s cite are confusing. The underlined part sounds as if Raytheon invented the magnetron; not so. It was a British invention of WWII as alluded to in the second paragraph. The Birmingham spoke is is Birmingham, England, not Alabama.
It’s early in the morning. Make the bold part read “spoken of is.”
Now they’re called “nukers” just to boost your confidence in their safety.
“Radar Oven” … that was Golden Earring, right?
But on reflection, radar is still radar.
I’m pretty sure that the appliance was called a RADARANGE rather than a RADAR RANGE.
Amana Radarange
CMC fnord
So, is Radar one type of a microwave…if I were to examine the electromagnetic specturm, or are you saying that for retail purposes, Radar = microwave?
- Jinx
RadarRange was a trademark for a line of microwave ovens made by Tappan; my family had one. They did not employ radar. They employed microwaves. The manufacturer just wanted a neat name, whether or not it was scientifically accurate.
Whoops, Amana made the Radarange line of microwave ovens. Sorry.
Don’t put anything reflective in either a Radarange or a microwave oven!
Radar = Radio Detection And Ranging. Modern radar uses microwave radio waves but the first radars in WWII were in the 100 or so mHz frequency band.
Radar is a system for detecting and locating targets by means of radio waves.
Where the microwave band begins is somewhat flexible. The lower end is usually considered to be around 3 gHz, 1 meter wavelength. However devices down to 1 gHz are often thought of as microwave devices.
I’m sure this was either a typo or a careless oversight, but the wavelength of 3 GHz is around 0.1 meter. And if “microwave” starts at 3 GHz, that means that microwave ovens aren’t microwave! Take that, pedants!