A by-product of processed sugar cane, cellucotton was invented before the war by Kimberly-Clark (yes, the Kimberly Clark we see on our high end tissue boxes). Cellucotton was much more absorbent and inexpensive than surgical cotton. Red cross nurses used it to help wounded soldiers, however, French nurses quickly discovered that cellucotton could be used for disposable sanitary napkins. In 1920, Kotex ("cotton" and "texture") introduced its first commercial pad. However, selling these pads were not easy as many women refused to buy the product from male shop assistants. As a result, the company told the female customers to just leave the money in a box. In the end, the sales for Kotex was not enough for the Kimberly Clark company. CA "Bert" Fourness invented a smooth, soft facial tissue that we know of today as "Kleenex".
Daylight Savings Time
DST can be traced back to ancient civilizations such as the Roman water clocks. In an essay called An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light, Benjamin Franklin stated that candles were being wasted during summer evenings because the sun would set before people went to bed. Similarly, sunlight was being wasted because people would still be sleeping when the sun was out. DST was first introduced in America when Woodrow Wilson signed this concept into law to support the war effort. DST was largely championed in the US by a industrialist from Pennsylvania when he encountered this idea in the UK. He is largely known as the "father of Daylight Saving".
Teabags were not invented because the war effort needed them, but were invented based on pure coincidence. In 1908, there was an American merchant who sent his tea in small bags to his customers. The tea bags were dropped into water and ta da, a tea bag! A German company called Teekane later copied this idea and supplied troops with similar tea bags.
What people learned from war, if anything, is that desperate needs call for desperate measures. Sometimes, these desperate needs lead to brilliant inventions that people utilize today in their everyday lives. Not all inventions during the war were to kill the enemy, some were invented to save themselves and the environment.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26935867
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31882/12-technological-advancements-world-war-i
http://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-world-wars/articles/5-technological-innovations-from-ww1
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/history.html
I find it really interesting how the invention of weapons like poison gas and the tank often overshadows other, but not any less important, inventions, like you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteModern medicine finds a lot of roots in WWI. The war changed how we treated injuries on the battlefield. In British armies, army doctors developed the practice of storing blood for emergency blood transfusions, a practice that has endured to this day. Also, our understanding of the treatment of wounds owes a lot to the experimentation with antiseptics during the Great War. For example, the Carrel-Dakin technique called for doctors to deliver sodium hypochlorite directly to wounds.
Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zs3wpv4