THE SPRING 2005 ARTI cle on the history of the microwave oven (“‘The Greatest Discovery Since Fire,’” by William Hammack) reminds me of how my father saved the day for Raytheon. In 1958 a newfangled gadget called a Radarange was brought to Minnesota Power and Light in Duluth for a demonstration. Appliances were a big thing for power companies in those days, and this was one big appliance. The day before the demonstration, the unit was set up and tested, and it failed to operate. Nobody knew how to fix it. People from the entire state were coming to see this new way of cooking, and there it sat.
My grandfather, a comptroller at MP&L, called his son, outlined the dilemma, and asked if he could try to fix the oven. My father was an engineer at the local television station, and he repaired TV sets. He had a good knowledge of electronics. But a microwave oven? When he got there, the factory rep explained the functions of the new oven. My dad, with his meters, determination, and a little luck, found the problem. It turned out to be a defective large capacitor.
Since no parts were available and it would take way too long to get one from the factory, Dad drove to Northwest Radio, the local TV and radio parts store. There he managed to find several capacitors that added up to the approximate value of the defective one. He installed them into the unit, and Io and behold, it worked. The demo went off perfectly the next day.
A TV home-service call was $4 back in 1958, but Dad didn’t ask for any compensation. A few days later a check for $200 came in the mail from the power company. My father said it was the biggest check he had ever received. We ate well that week.
MarkParthé-Hills
PRESCOTT, ARIZ.
