The first of five clues. Each one below gives a little more away.
I was discovered because a chocolate bar melted in somebody's pocket.
My direct ancestor was a radar set, built for a war.
The first of me weighed as much as a grown man and cost as much as a car.
I do not heat food. I heat the water inside it, and the food comes along.
The box in the kitchen that goes ping.
Microwave Oven
Percy Spencer was standing beside a magnetron in 1945 when the sweet in his pocket went soft. He tried popcorn next, and then an egg, which exploded in a colleague's face.
Percy Spencer was testing magnetrons for radar at Raytheon in 1945 when a chocolate bar in his pocket softened. He tried popcorn, which worked, and an egg, which exploded. The first commercial model appeared two years later, stood nearly as tall as a person and cost about as much as a car. What it actually does is narrower than people assume: the field makes water molecules rotate, and the friction of that rotation makes heat. Anything dry heats poorly, which is why bread goes leathery and why a plate stays cool while the food on it does not.
Reading five clues at once is not the game. In the real thing they arrive one at a time and every wrong guess costs an hour. Play mystery #35 · today's mystery · the vault
Previous: mystery #34. Next: mystery #36. Or try #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #36.