Microwave oven
Japan's Sharp Corporation began manufacturing microwave ovens in 1961. Between 1964 and 1966, Sharp introduced the first microwave oven with a turntable, a feature that promotes convenient even heating of food. In 1965, Raytheon acquired Amana. In 1967, they introduced the first popular home model, the countertop Radarange, at a price of US$495 ($ in dollars).
Slow cooker
The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago, under the leadership of Irving Naxon, developed the Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker for the purposes of cooking a bean meal. Naxon was inspired by a story his grandmother told about how back in her native Lithuanian town, her mother made a stew called cholent, which took several hours to cook in an oven. A 1950 advertisement shows a slow cooker called the "Simmer Crock" made by the Industrial Radiant Heat Corp. of Gladstone, NJ. The Rival Company from Sedalia, Missouri, bought Naxon in 1970, and consequentially acquired Naxon’s patent for the bean simmer cooker. Rival asked inventor Robert Glen Martin, from Boonville, Missouri, to develop Naxon’s bean cooker into a large scale production model which could cook an entire family meal, going further than just cooking a bean meal. Martin also designed and produced the mass-making machines for Rival’s manufacturing line of the Crock-Pot. The cooker was then reintroduced under the name "Crock-Pot" in 1971. Slow cookers achieved popularity in the US during the 1970s, when many women began to work outside the home. They could start dinner cooking in the morning before going to work and finish preparing the meal in the evening when they came home. In 1974, Rival introduced removable stoneware inserts, making the appliance easier to clean. The brand now belongs to Sunbeam Products, a subsidiary of Jarden Corporation. Other brands of this appliance include Cuisinart, GE, Hamilton Beach, KitchenAid, Magic Chef, West Bend Housewares, and the now defunct American Electric Corporation.