Читать книгу How to predict the weather with a cup of coffee: And other techniques for surviving the 9–5 jungle - Matthew Cole - Страница 10

If I said that you can cook popcorn with the signal from your mobile phone would you believe me? Not strong enough? Then how about with ten mobile phones? If the idea seems to make sense it’s because of an in-built assumption that follows from the knowledge that mobiles communicate using microwaves. The very word conjures up images of piping hot ready meals, doors that go ping and a lot of 1970s science about cooking from the inside. But today’s communication microwaves (the ones that allow you to share ringtones with your Facebook friends in Kuala Lumpur) aren’t the same as the microwaves in the cooker (the ones that heat a lasagne in one minute). You can’t cook with mobile phones any more than you can phone someone via the defrost setting.

The microwave cooker was invented by US radar engineer Percy Spencer after he realised that his bar of chocolate had been mysteriously melted in the lab. He decided to experiment and went out and bought some popcorn kernels. As they popped all over his workbench Percy had his eureka moment and snacked on the first ever microwave popcorn. That was 1945, and popcorn is still the world’s favourite microwave food. I’ve always wondered how he knew.

Handy places to find microwave ovens are:

 service stations

 train buffet cars

 professional kitchens

 local authority tips – salvage one as a phone screen to install at home