December seventh, 1941, 7:45 AM. As the Nazi war machine steamrolls its way through Europe, The United States of America (which has remained somewhat removed from the war) is in for a sudden, unthinkable, and very bloody shock. By the time the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is over, the Americans have suffered heavy casualties totaling 2,403 dead and 1,178 wounded, including 103 civilians, and the loss of 20 ships and 169 aircraft. This atrocity has made Japan’s intentions toward the U.S. very clear… War. Suddenly, there are enlistment signs on every corner. And some of the most extraordinary inventions were born from the massacre that ensued in the following years. Today, so many people take things for granted. Like, the microwave oven, jet
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Penicillin was first invented by Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist. However, he was unable to make enough of it to be used practically, and penicillin was written off as nothing more than a fluke, until a team of Oxford University Scientists came across Fleming’s work. Nevertheless, British corporations were not interested in manufacturing penicillin due to the country’s participation in World War II, so the team of scientists sought assistance from America. Plasma was also used during WWII because it lasted longer in storage than whole blood. “Dr. Charles Drew, a leading authority on mass transfusion and blood processing methods, set up a blood plasma system. By 1939, Dr. Drew had set up a blood bank at the Columbia Medical Center. He made a breakthrough discovery that blood plasma could replace whole blood. This discovery played a major role during World War II where many countries experienced extreme casualties.” (The History of WWII Medicine, …show more content…
This birthed synthetics. The two most prominent are oil, and rubber. These are items that have a very large impact on the way we live today. “While synthetic oil was created by the German scientists in order to account for the extreme shortage of its natural counterpart, synthetic rubber was invented in the US shortly after by the American scientist Waldo Semon. It is necessary to mention that the polyethylene oils were utilized in powering the famous Luftwaffe air force throughout the entire World War 2. Synthetic rubber on the other hand was needed by the Allied Forces because the Axis controlled the vast majority of natural rubber suppliers.” (Top 10 Inventions Discovered During WWII, warhistoryonline.com) Another irreplaceable household item is the computer. Warhistoryonline.com says this about the first computer; “Two coding and decoding machines stand at the foundation of the modern day computer, namely the Enigma and the Lorentz machines. The role of these gadgets was to encode and respectively decode the traffic, which comprised mainly of communications between the German high command and the air, ground and naval forces dispatched. It is necessary to point out that while Enigma was based on a brilliant encryption system, there are more similarities between the Lorentz machines and computers nowadays.” (Top 10 Inventions Discovered During WWII,
Penicillin was first invented by Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist. However, he was unable to make enough of it to be used practically, and penicillin was written off as nothing more than a fluke, until a team of Oxford University Scientists came across Fleming’s work. Nevertheless, British corporations were not interested in manufacturing penicillin due to the country’s participation in World War II, so the team of scientists sought assistance from America. Plasma was also used during WWII because it lasted longer in storage than whole blood. “Dr. Charles Drew, a leading authority on mass transfusion and blood processing methods, set up a blood plasma system. By 1939, Dr. Drew had set up a blood bank at the Columbia Medical Center. He made a breakthrough discovery that blood plasma could replace whole blood. This discovery played a major role during World War II where many countries experienced extreme casualties.” (The History of WWII Medicine, …show more content…
This birthed synthetics. The two most prominent are oil, and rubber. These are items that have a very large impact on the way we live today. “While synthetic oil was created by the German scientists in order to account for the extreme shortage of its natural counterpart, synthetic rubber was invented in the US shortly after by the American scientist Waldo Semon. It is necessary to mention that the polyethylene oils were utilized in powering the famous Luftwaffe air force throughout the entire World War 2. Synthetic rubber on the other hand was needed by the Allied Forces because the Axis controlled the vast majority of natural rubber suppliers.” (Top 10 Inventions Discovered During WWII, warhistoryonline.com) Another irreplaceable household item is the computer. Warhistoryonline.com says this about the first computer; “Two coding and decoding machines stand at the foundation of the modern day computer, namely the Enigma and the Lorentz machines. The role of these gadgets was to encode and respectively decode the traffic, which comprised mainly of communications between the German high command and the air, ground and naval forces dispatched. It is necessary to point out that while Enigma was based on a brilliant encryption system, there are more similarities between the Lorentz machines and computers nowadays.” (Top 10 Inventions Discovered During WWII,