First patents date from the early 1900s. Demonstration stoves were shown by the Frigidaire division of General Motors in the mid 1950 on a touring GM showcase in North America. The induction stove was shown heating a pot of water with a newspaper placed between the stove and the pot. It was never put into production. Modern implementation in the USA dates from the early 1970s, with work done at the Research & Development Center of Westinghouse Electric Corporation at Churchill Borough, near Pittsburgh, PA, USA.citation needed

This work was first put on public display at the 1971 National Association of Home Builders convention in Houston, TX, as part of the Westinghouse Consumer Products Division display.citation needed The stand-alone single burner range was named the Cool Top Induction Range. It used transistors developed for automotive electronic ignition systems to drive the 25 kHz current.

Westinghouse decided to make a few hundred production units further to develop the market. These were named Cool Top 2 (CT2) Induction ranges. The development work was done at the same R&D location by a team led by Bill Moreland and Terry Malarkey. The ranges were $1500. This price included a set of high quality cookware made of Quadraply, a stainless steel/carbon steel/aluminum/stainless steel laminate (outside to inside).

Production took place in 1973 through 1975, and stopped coincidentally with Westinghouse Consumer Products Division being sold to White Consolidated Industries Inc.

CT2 had four burners of sufficient power, about 1600 watts. The range top was a PyroCeram ceramic sheet surrounded by a stainless steel bezel upon which four magnetic sliders adjusted four corresponding potentiometers set below. This design, using no through-holes, made the range proof against spills. The electronic section was made in four identical modules. Provision was made for fan cooling of the electronics.

In each of the electronics modules the 240V 60Hz domestic line power was converted to between 20V and 200V continuously variable DC by a phase-controlled rectifier. This DC power was in turn converted to 27 kHz AC by two arrays of six paralleled Motorola automotive ignition transistors in a half-bridge configuration driving a series-resonant LC oscillator of which the inductor component was the induction heating coil and its load, the cooking pan. This elegant circuit design, largely by Ray MacKenzie, successfully dealt with some bothersome overload problems.

Control electronics included functions such as protection against over-heated cook-pans and overloads. Provision was made to reduce radiated electrical and magnetic fields. There was magnetic pan detection also.

CT2 was UL Listed and received FCC approval, both firsts. Numerous patents were also issued. CT2 won several awards, including Industrial Research Magazine's IR-100 1972 best product award, and a citation from the United States Steel Association. Raymond Baxter demonstrated the CT2 on his BBC series, Tomorrow’s World. He showed how the CT2 could cook through a slab of ice.

Sears Kenmore sold a free-standing oven/stove with four induction cooking surfaces in the mid-1980s. Model Number 103.9647910. The unit also featured self-cleaning oven, solid-state kitchen timer and capacitive-touch buttons (advanced for its time). The units were more expensive than standard cook tops.