English: Demonstration of cooking by
radio waves at the
1933 Chicago World's Fair, "Century of Progress", Chicago, Illinois, USA, illustration on cover of Hugo Gernsback radio magazine. This was a forerunner of modern
microwave ovens which were developed in the 1950s. At Westinghouse Corp's "Powercasting" exhibit of futuristic shortwave technology, sandwiches were cooked by placing them between metal plates of a powerful 10 kW 60 MHz
short wave
transmitter, as shown. The magazine article (p. 394) says steaks, potatoes, and vegetables were also cooked in a few minutes. The exhibit also demonstrated
wireless power transmission; a 1/4 horsepower motor was run by radio waves over a distance of 30 feet, and audience members could expose their bodies to the radio waves and feel the heat generated. The short wave technology was developed at Westinghouse research laboratories by I. F. Mouromtseff, and the demonstrations were conducted by G. R. Severance and film star
Fifi D'Orsay (shown)