The celebrated discoveries of Maxwell, Hertz and many others heralded a century rich in the exploitation of ideas to create electronic systems beneficial to mankind. This address focuses on the recent exploitation of electromagnetics concerning the sensing of images, generation of force and dispensing of heat thus highlighting important trends in the kindred RF and microwave industries. A recapitulation of the milestones in the advances over the century emphasises the interdependence of theory, material development and system innovation. Today's CAD/CAM and chip-integration philosophies have taken the batch-oriented microwave component industry to the threshold of mass production. Improving both the accuracy of electromagnetic design equations and the manufacturing technology are critical issues, and the revolutionary antenna phased array technology well illustrates these challenges. The diverse advances in passive and active image sensing systems rely heavily on signal processing, and examples include the radiometric sensing of temperature and microwave diffraction tomography in medical diagnostics, and the synthetic aperture radar scanning of the earth. A complementary topic concerns the disguise of radar target signatures, mainly in defence, and the use of ingenious electromagnetic wave scattering behaviour. Equally daunting is the invention of microwave sources with astronomical power levels that make defensive electromagnetic beam weapons a possibility, and fascinating experiments on electromagnetic rocket launchers and guns for space scenarios have been reported. Finally commonplace microwave domestic cooking is seen to be but one of a multitude of applications including pest control, seed germination and cancer therapy. Skill shortages, achieving the potential of CAD in mass production, and exploiting the emerging technologies, are some of the stimulating challenges ahead.