Just like the Germans, Americans reached a newfound level of innovation during the second World War. Here are a few inventions of the era:
The Liberty Ship
This massive ship was 440 feet long. It had guns equipped, but it wasn't meant for fighting. Rather, it mobilized the army by carrying the fight to wherever it needs to be. It could hold 300 freight cars, 2,840 jeeps, 440 tanks, 230 millions of rifle ammunition, or 3.4 million servings of C-rations. At also demonstrated America's industrial power -- we ended up pumping out 2,700 of these by the 1945!
Computers
At this point, primitive software working with machinery already existed. But with the US EINAC project and Britain's Colossus project (which was much faster and used to quickly decode the Enigma messages), "giant brain" technology speed increased by 1000 times -- the single biggest technological speed increase to date.
Penicillin
Although developed in the late 20's, Americans discovered this antibiotic's full potential during WWII. In 1943 the US War Production Board distributed penicillin en masse to the Allied troops. It's estimated that it saved 12-15% of casualties during the entire war!Nuclear Power
Perhaps the most famous WWII American innovation, the creation of nuclear bombs was mastered with the Manhattan Project. One of the many reasons that this was huge was because it meant one bomb could destroy entire cities, so the more weaponry a city had stocked up, the more dangerous it would become. The Nazi German empire also attempted to create their own nuclear weaponry, but they failed because many of Europe's major physicists -- including Einstein, Bohr, Oppenheimer -- were either Jewish or married to a Jew.Overall, America didn't invent too much during the war. What was really spectacular was the demonstrated power of our industry. We increased efficiency of various industrial production by hundreds of times. During WWII, America discovered what real quantity can do.
https://www.skylighters.org/troopships/libertyships.html
Freedom From Fear "The War of Machines"
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/technology/7907/top-inventions-and-technical-innovations-of-world-war-2/page/0/2
http://bigdesignevents.com/2011/09/innovations-from-world-war-ii/
Great Post. Brilliant idea to focus on American inventions of the war since there were other posts on German war inventions. As you discussed above, one of the great things the US did during the war was to produce effective tools many times over. Through this classic idea of mass production of reliable and effective equipment the US was able to win the war. Today, I wonder if the US can really reach the same production heights that we reached during the war. Our modern equipment is so advanced I feel like we as a nation would struggle to return that great mass production of WWII.
ReplyDeleteBennett, I really liked how you discussed many major American inventions during World War II and each one's effects on the war. I was really surprised that penicillin saved so many lives during the war. I also noticed you mentioned there was some primitive software, which could decode Enigma messages, that existed at the time. I decided to search deeper into the topic of Enigma machines, which were used by the Germans to send messages in a secure fashion. The Germans also changed up the cipher system daily to make it even harder for messages to be understood. However, I found out that Alan Turing was able to break this code by inventing a machine called the Bombe. The Enigma was also broken mathematically by Bletchley Park as he found out that the Enigma code prohibited any letter to be encrypted as itself and that the same phrase began many transmissions. I learned that the ENIAC was indeed one of the earliest computers, and it significantly increased technological speed. However, I think that it was introduced in 1946, which was after the war.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/bombe
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-alan-turing-cracked-the-enigma-code
Fascinating post, Bennett! I thought that it was really interesting how penicillin, which is so widely used today, saved as many as 12-15% of casualties in the war. At the onset of World War II, Penicillium notatum, the mold made famous by Alexander Fleming in 1928, was well recognized for its ability to inhibit the growth of certain bacteria in laboratory experiments. The pharmaceutical popularly known as penicillin, however, did not exist. Although several American pharmaceutical firms had examined Fleming’s widely distributed mold, none had continued to develop its potential, and it remained a curiosity. American officials only began to take the compound’s potential seriously in the summer of 1941, after a visit by Oxford scientists Howard Florey and Norman Heatley. In World War I, according to Thomas Hager, “Acute respiratory diseases, including influenza, pneumonia, bronchitis and other diseases, had killed almost 50,000 U.S. soldiers.“ However, during World War II, with twice as many people in uniform, only 1,265 died.Today, it is estimated that 80,000,000 to 200,000,000 people have been saved by penicillin.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.historynet.com/penicillin-wonder-drug-world-war-ii.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673487/#__sec1title
Bennett, I found your post extremely interesting, and also partially surprising that so many things that we take granted today , like computers or penicillin, were invented during this seemingly short time period. Another invention that we take for granted that was invented/perfected during WW2 was radar. Invented in 1935, but only perfected to detect incoming bombers during the Battle of Britain, radar can be found in 21st century life in many places. For example, radar can be found in the speed limit detectors found on Almond ave. During WW2, radar was essential both in naval and aerial warfare to find the locations of submarines, boats, and aircraft. With the information that radar could provide, it created a great advantage for the side that used this technology more efficiently.
ReplyDeletehttp://ethw.org/Radar_during_World_War_II