Remember the Radarange!
"Microwave cooking oven was patented on October 8, 1945 with the one of the first prototypes placed at a Boston restaurant for testing. The first public was in January 1947 in a Speedy Weeny vending machine in Grand Central Terminal which sold freshly cooked hot dogs."
"The first commercially available microwave oven also appeared in 1947.
It was made by Raytheon, it was called Radarange had 1.8 metres in height and weighed 340 kilograms. Its cost was
$5,000 which is today around $52,000."
"Next model was made in 1954 and consumed half the power the first model did, and sold for $2,000 to $3,000. In time price fell."
"In 1955 it was $1,295, in 1967 - $495 - lesser but still expensive (in today’s money - around $3,500)."
"In the 1960s, Litton Company developed a new configuration of the microwave: the short, wide shape that is now common, with a magnetron feed that could survive a no-load condition (when there is nothing in the oven to absorb microwaves) which made microwave oven safer. This helped rapid growth of the market for home microwave ovens. Prices fell rapidly in the 1970s and microwave ovens became a standard part of households. "