One day while working near the magnetrons that produced microwaves, Spencer noticed a peanut butter candy bar in his pocket had begun to melt - shortly after, the microwave oven was born.

There's a popular legend about how this now ubiquitous gadget came about: Supposedly, an engineer named Percy Spencer was working in the lab when he noticed that the candy bar he had in his pocket ...

Rather, Spencer would gain fame for a mistake that led to the mass proliferation of the microwave oven. A pocketed candy bar was exposed to the microwaves the magnetron gave off when Spencer stood ...