Microwave oven
The development of the cavity magnetron in the UK made possible the production of electromagnetic waves of a small enough wavelength (microwaves). American engineer Percy Spencer is generally credited with inventing the modern microwave oven after World War II from radar technology developed during the war. Named the "Radarange", it was first sold in 1946. Raytheon later licensed its patents for a home-use microwave oven that was first introduced by Tappan in 1955, but these units were still too large and expensive for general home use. Sharp Corporation introduced the first microwave oven with a turntable between 1964 and 1966. The countertop microwave oven was first introduced in 1967 by the Amana Corporation. After Sharp introduced low-cost microwave ovens affordable for residential use in the late 1970s, their use spread into commercial and residential kitchens around the world. In addition to their use in cooking food, types of microwave ovens are used for heating in many industrial processes.
Philip Kives
In 1961, Kives traveled to New York City where he worked at Macy’s Department Store doing floor demonstrations of a new "revolutionary" product: the non-stick Teflon frying pan. He returned to Canada and made the first of many deals with Eaton’s Department Store in Canada: he offered to pay for television advertising of the frying pan, if Eaton’s agreed to stock it. Many pans were sold, but the product itself was a failure because after a time the Teflon coating came off during cooking. Kives' marketing formula consisted of live two-and-a-half minute TV commercials, in which he recreated the fast talking "hard sell" he had developed in the United State. He is often credited with creating what would come to be known as the "infomercial". The success of this formula led Kives to set up his own company, K-Tel.