Talk:Magnetron

Corrected a common myth concerning the heating modus operandi of the microwave oven. It is not just the water molecules that heat up, but other materials as well. In fact if you overcook a water bearing food product, once the water evaporates off, the temperature increase is much more rapid until the product actually catches fire. It is the molecular vibration due to dielectric loss that creates heat. Water happens to have a relatively high diectric loss, but is also capable of easily absorbing the heat produced.

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Added some more historical info and corrected errors. I have to say, Wikipedia suffers from not having authors who know obscure technical information. The magnetron's history is easily researched.

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Regarding the above comment, a look at the page history will reveal that it has been considerably cleaned up and improved from its original form (e.g. electron "sloshing"). My changes were based on improving the article from personal knowlege and training (late 1950's Navy tech school), as I understand that it is a wikipedia way to add improvement where they are needed. It was not my intent to write the killer historical article on the magnetron, and without the preceding authors I would have had no basis to start from and would probably not have attempted to write an article from scratch. In other words, without someone starting this page and its subsequent authors, there would be no magnetron article (unless, of course, the above author wrote the whole from scratch). I expect that others (such as the unknown author above), will add their corrections, knowlege and, if interested and capable, the products of their research. The only way wikipedia will suffer is if people do not contribute their knowlege (even if with some errors or lacking a high literary style) because they are discouraged by comments such as the above.

Needed for this page

Will a knowlegable author please contribute the effect of magnet strength upon the output of the magneton? Thanks, Leonard G. 18:07, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

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Kid and old microwaves

Pehaps somone might mention that kids who fool about with magnetrons scavenged from old microwave ovens tend to get cataracts, burns etc.

cavity magnetron

What is the diffrence between a "cavity magnetron" and a "magnetron"? Philip Baird Shearer 00:52, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

1/3 or a year later and no answere to the question. I am going to move this page to "Cavity magnetron" unless anyone objects with good reasons in the next few days Philip Baird Shearer 22:57, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Gleaned from the reference [1] (http://www.tubecollector.org/) was a mention of early "two pole" and more later "six pole" magnetrons, incapable of producing significant power. As the "cavity magnetron" is what is most commonly thought of when "magentron" is mentioned, I think that it stands best as it is. Leonard G. 02:47, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Some Facts

• Have a look at http://www.radarworld.org/england.html and the de WP article. You are giving too less credit to Heinrich Greinacher and Albert W. Hull.
• "Microwave ovens also produce low frequency electromagnetic radiation from the transformer used to generate high voltage for the magnetron and this may possibly also be harmful, so one should not closely approach the device when it is operating." I would say that is complete and utter nonsense because there are no studies to proof it! Since a encyclopaedia is about facts and not about assumptions I see no point in keeping the sentence. --Paddyez 13:12, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

This is one of those things where people who believe in something don't seem to be swayable by facts; I'm on your side and would support removing the language, but don't be surprised if this becomes a revert war.

Atlant 16:58, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Hm, I do not really like the idea of that :-( I was trying to go through things with en wp people. I need the article authors to try to stick to scientifically proven facts though first. My intention is not working on stuff, that ends up in an edit war. --Paddyez 23:49, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

this is not just one of these things some people believe and others don't. the point is most electrical devices do have transformators that emit 50/60Hz radiation. this is in no way specific to the magnetron, so it does not make sense to write about it in every article about any electrical device taking its current from the plug. -- ∂ 00:37, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

But not all devices have transformers and the one on a microwave oven is a high current device with lots of output at 60hz. Standing back in any event seems like a good idea to me. By the way, the highest 60hz I ever measured was from a cordless toothbrush stand with the toothbrush out - 56 miligauss! -- 05:04, 17 May 2005 Leonard G.

So what? I know you may burn people alive if you get resonance frequency with the body of a person. I do not know that 50/60 Hz done harm to anyone yet. People who stand next to large transformers that are being switched get a little flicker disturbing the sight but AFAIK have no permanent damage, at least it is not proven. 56 miligauss is nothing compared to a large Transformer used for industrial purposes btw. --Paddyez 11:44, 20 May 2005 (UTC)