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so the electric oven was cool and all but it was inevitable that one day

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another gadget would come along we'll make it look as outdated as a flip phone. [a toaster oven and flip phone pictured]

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if anybody out there still has one of those come on isn't it time to move on.

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well anyway by the 1940s a new kind of oven had been invented .it was called yes

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the microwave oven. it was a great day. ever after humanity has had a surefire [popcorn and pizza in a microwave]

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way to quickly make popcorn. yeah I cook mushy sort of gross pizza and cause

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explosions with mere silverware. but to what mysterious process do we owe all

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these joys. while microwaves use radiation to make the molecules in our

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food jitter around and create thermal energy .for all those non scientists out

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there thermal energy is heat. while the path from discovering radiation to [pizza in a microwave]

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selling a tiny radiation using microwave oven was not an easy one first microwave

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oven went on sale in 1947 and it costs five thousand dollars and weighed more

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than 700 pounds. oh by the 1970s microwaves were still a luxury item it

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wasn't until they figured out how to make them smaller and cheaper than [man sits on bed and cries]

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microwaves became the best friends of college students and lonely bachelors

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all over the world. well the biggest appeal of microwaves

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besides the fact that they're great for exploding peeps, that ether was that they [girl smiles next to exploding microwave]

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seriously sped up the cooking process. microwaves are the most spectacular of a

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slew of appliances designed to make cooking faster and easier, and partly

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that's because more people were working out of their homes and fewer women were [woman on the phone]

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staying home cook three-course meals every night.

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more than anything well microwaves were about a vision of the future.

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they seemed you know sciency high techy and super modern. [woman reads crystal ball]

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another key appliance besides microwave was but vacuum cleaner.

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now some out there probably think there's nothing interesting to learn

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about vacuums but how's about this .well the world's first vacuum cleaner was

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horse pulled. just let that sink in .a vacuum cleaner pulled by a horse. yep this [horse pulls modern vacuum]

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horse-drawn system reared its head in the early 1900s and it also involved

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dudes hand cranking giant pumps. well in 1907 a handheld model was developed .that

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model was only a fan in a pillowcase stuck to a broom, but they did evolve [two men show first vacuum]

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into the Hoover company. yep vacuums are an interesting case study because well

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who actually needs a vacuum? like ovens and microwaves are used to prepare food

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but a vacuum that's just a fancy method of moving around dirt except that every

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household in America has one. anyway well why is that [woman vacuums rug]

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well again vacuums save labor. previously people had to drag their rugs outside

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and beat them or sweep themselves to death inside. why not make electricity do

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the work? but here's something else to think about. once something can be easily

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cleaned it starts to change our standards of what's clean and what isn't.

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well vacuum lines on the rug or one of those things we associate with a nice

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clean house right? well a house isn't considered clean if the rugs are simply [frowning woman beats rug]

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beaten. then let's face it beating rugs isn't very humane. hey old school

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housewives, what did those rugs ever do to you?

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