Download World War II Technology

World War II
Technology
Advances in aeronautics
• During World War II Nazi Germany made
numerous advances is rocketry. The V-1
or “buzz bomb” was an automatic aircraft
(today known as a “cruise missile”) and
the V-2 was a “ballistic missile” that flew
into space before falling down on its
target (both were rained on London
during 1944-45, killing thousands of
civilians).
Damage
caused by a
V-2 Rocket
Computing Machines
• During the war sophisticated computing
machines were made by the British for
breaking the Nazi “Enigma” codes. The
Americans also developed sophisticated
machines for calculating ballistics and other
battlefield equations.
Fine-tuning ENIAC. J. Presper Eckert (the man in the
foreground turning a knob) served and John Mauchly
(center) designed ENIAC to calculate the trajectory of
artillery shells. ENIAC contained nearly 18,000 vacuum
tubes and filled a 1,500-square-foot room. To program it,
different accumulators had to be wired to each other.
Radar and Sonar
• Radar is the ability to use radio waves to detect objects at a
distance. The basis of Radar was invented at the start of the war
in Britain and the technology shared with the U.S. Radar allowed
nations to track incoming air attacks, guided bombers to their
targets, and directed anti-aircraft guns toward airplanes flying
high above. Researchers not only constructed the radars, but
also devised countermeasures. During their bombing raids,
Allied bombers dropped thousands of tiny strips of tinfoil, codenamed “window” and “chaff” to jam enemy radar. Sonar made
use of sound waves and was largely used for the detection and
location of German submarines. It helped the allies destroy
many German submarines and open up the Atlantic for the
shipment of war materials from America to Britain.
Penicillin
• The discovery of the capabilities of the Penicillium Notatum
mold on killing bacteria was made in 1869 and Alexander
Fleming popularized the discovery in the 1920’s with his further
studies on the matter. However it was not until World War II
that the powerful antibiotic was first mass produced. Penicillin
was used during the war to fight blood poisoning that could be
brought on even through simple wounds due to the unsanitary
conditions of war. It was also used to fight STD’s such as
Gonnerhea and Syphilis which were sometimes contracted by
the soldiers.
Synthetic Materials
• During the War the home front experienced shortages and rationing of many
basic items such as rubber, gasoline, silk, and metals.
• New materials emerged to fill these voids; many had been invented just
before the war but found wide use during World War II: plastics and plastic
wrap were invented to create storage containers to take the place of metal
containers and aluminum foil. Artificial, chemically made fabrics such as
Nylon and Rayon took the place of silk, cotton, and other natural fibers.
Synthetic rubber was created to replace the real thing.
Pressurized Airplane Cabins
•
Flying at high altitude puts occupants of an aircraft at risk of hypoxia
(poor oxygen levels in the blood), altitude sickness, decompression sickness and
barotrauma (cause by pressure differences). Despite these risks, bombers at the
start of WWII were only equipped with oxygen masks, which restricted
movement and were prone to failure.
•
With the B-29 Super fortress, introduced in 1944, the Americans created the first
cabin pressure system, with the nose and cockpit all pressurized. However, the
bomb bays remained unpressurised. Even so, this advancement meant the crew
could move around in comparative comfort.
Nuclear Energy
• The secretive, multi-million dollar Manhattan
Project put the world’s top scientific minds to the
task of harnessing the incredible amount of energy
to be obtained by splitting the nucleus of an atom.
• At the end of the war, the United States developed
two destructive weapons using this energy. The
atomic bombs were used with deadly effect on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.