Coming just two decades after the last great global conflict, the Second World War was the most widespread and deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries and resulting in more than 50 million military and civilian deaths (with some estimates as high as 85 million dead).
Myths were melting away, and doubt was turning into demand. By 1975, sales of microwave ovens would, for the first time, exceed that of gas ranges. The following year, a reported 17% of all homes in Japan were doing their cooking by microwaves, compared with 4% of the homes in the United States the same year.
Microwave ovens are gaining popularity, however. In Russia, the number of households with a microwave grew from almost 24% in 2002 to almost 40% in 2008. Almost twice as many households in South Africa owned microwaves in 2008 (38.7%) than in 2002 (19.8%).neven heating in microwaved food can be partly due to the uneven distribution of microwave energy inside the oven, and partly due to the different rates of energy absorption in different parts of the food.