10 amazing inventions from World War I that you had no idea about
They say war is hell, and they are right. But even in the worst human experiments, we can find the best innovations.
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- World War I spurred the invention and popularization of zippers, initially used in soldiers' money belts and pilots' uniforms.
- Stainless steel became widely used during the war for aircraft engines and medical tools after its rust-resistant properties were discovered.
- Kleenex tissues were originally developed as gas mask filters before being repurposed for cosmetic use and eventually as a disposable tissue.
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- Disposable sanitary pads evolved from wartime usage of surgical gauze by nurses during menstruation.
- Daylight Saving Time was first implemented by Germany in 1916 as a strategy to conserve energy during the war.
- Wartime communication needs led to the development of air-to-ground and air-to-air radio transmissions, laying the groundwork for air traffic control systems.
- Plastic surgery advanced significantly thanks to wartime injuries, with pioneers like Harold Gillis developing reconstructive techniques still used today.
The war led to the development of tools of war (poison gas, armored tanks, fighter jets, for example), but it also stimulated the creation of useful inventions and innovations that we still use today – some of which will really surprise you.
Here are 10 peacetime innovations that resulted from the so-called "war to end all wars.
1. Fasteners
The name cloud was coined when B.F. Goodrich coined the term in 1923.
Gideon Sundback developed "hookless zippers" during World War I.
The first major demand for zippers came for money belts worn by soldiers and sailors who lacked pockets in their uniforms. While buttons remained the norm in military uniforms during the war, zippers began to be sewn into pilots' flight suits and gained popularity in the twenties.
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2. Stainless steel
During the war, the British Army was looking for stiffer alloys for their rifles so that they were less susceptible to deformation from heat and friction caused by fire.
English mineralogist Harry Brierley discovered that adding chromium to molten iron produces steel and is not rusting. Although stainless steel was not used in the manufacture of guns, its use during World War I to manufacture aircraft engines, silver tableware and medical instruments increased its popularity.
3. Kleenex
Kotex wasn't the only unique product Kimberly Clark developed from cellulosic cotton, after experimenting with a thin, flat version of it for possible use as gas mask filters, the company relaunched it in 1924 as a make-up and cold cream remover under the brand name Kleenex (using the word "clean" as the keyword, Kimberly Clark used the letters "K" and "ex" from Kotex.)
When women began complaining that their husbands wiped their noses with tissue paper, Kimberly Clark reused tissue tissues as forbidden alternatives, preventing the spread of germs.
4. Sanitary pads
The development of medical technology led to the survival of some wounded soldiers from injuries that would have led to their deaths in previous wars - one such development was the development of absorbent surgical gauze.
Red Cross nurses began to use gauze when they menstruated, which eventually after the war led to the development and use of disposable sanitary pads.
5. Daylight saving time
The idea of offering forward clocks to provide sunlight had been around for a long time, but Germany put it into practice as a temporary wartime measure in 1916. Then the British, then the Americans, and now we can all have dinner. In sidewalk cafes after work in the summer.
6. Air Traffic Control
The first planes were cut off from the ground, meaning there was no practical way for pilots to communicate with anyone on the ground. The war led the U.S. military to develop radio telegraphs that could send messages from ground to air or even from one aircraft to another.
7. Tea bags
The British love tea, but it was the Germans during World War I who popularized the idea of packing tea in small bags that could be dropped directly into a pot of boiling water.
(The idea was invented by an American company, but it was the Germans who produced tea bags in large quantities during the war.)
8. Industrial fertilizers
Fertilizers have obviously been used since ancient times, but two wartime German scientists have found a way to convert nitrogen into ammonia, which now, according to one source, helps produce food for "a third of the earth's population." The Germans were actually using this process to make explosives, and then it was further used to make agricultural fertilizers.
9. Drones
Inventors Elmer Sperry and Peter Hewitt, members of the Maritime Advisory Council, created technology that enabled the development of a remote-controlled aircraft just 15 years after the first flight.
They made about 100 successful test flights, but the war ended before their remote-controlled aircraft — intended as an airplane bomb — was produced.
10. Plastic surgery
Medical advances have rescued wounded soldiers with fatal wounds in previous wars, but this has often meant living with severe injuries. New Zealand surgeon Harold Gillis has come up with ways to graft skin, bones and muscles — "paving the way for modern plastic surgery," the Wall Street Journal put it.
