Technology of the 1930s and 1940s: what was cutting edge then?

What
from that time has had the greatest influence on our technology today?

Since time immemorial, technology has been an integral part of mankinds lives.
From the ancient Mesopotamians who created copper-working, glass making
and lamp making to the 4G mobile phone networks which allows us to access the
internet on the go today, it is without a doubt that our technology has advanced
by leaps and bounds. There are many different types of technology - biological
technology, computer technology, food technology and nanotechnology are just a
few of them. This essay will examine various types of technology invented in the
1930s and 1940s, and will postulate how such technological advancements had
brought about significant improvements or detriments to our lives. It will also
examine the one technology that has had the greatest influence on the
technology of today.

Arguably the most dangerous technological advancement in the 1930s and

1940s was the invention of the atomic bomb in 1939.after Otto Hahn, Lise
Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission, a process in which
atoms undergo decay and release huge amounts of energy. This had come in
useful in 1945, when 2 atomic bombs utilizing such devastating technology were
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, to force them to surrender and

end World War 2. The atomic bombs produced huge amounts of radiation, which
caused the local Japanese to suffer from flash burns, skin cancer and children
with growth deformities, if they managed to survive the blast radius of the bomb.
While extremely dangerous, the sheer power and strength of nuclear energy had
paved the way for other uses of nuclear energy on a smaller scale, such as the
nuclear battery which has a far longer life and higher energy density than normal
batteries. This allowed spacecrafts, pacemakers, and research stations in
obsolete areas in the world which were not attended to regularly to be able to run
for much longer periods of time. For instance, the Transit 4A spacecraft utilised
such technology in its radioisotope thermoelectric generator with Plutonium 238
as fuel, which allowed the spacecraft to stay in space far longer than satellites
without nuclear fuel.

The second significant innovation was in 1938, when Robert Watson-Watt

invented the radar. The radar is an object detection system which utilises radio
waves to find out the speed, range, altitude and direction of objects within its
detection range. This form of technology had great impacts on military
technology, by allowing them to locate land, air and sea targets, as well as
objects that were out of sight. This meant that helicopters (as an example) were
able to locate and lock onto air targets which were too far away to be seen, and
to fire accurately missiles to take the air targets down. In 1934, after fears of the
Germans developing a death ray, the British realised that such technology was

impractical, but went on to fully exploit radar technology for aircraft detection by
the Air Ministry.
The next significant invention was by Richard Drew in the 1930s in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. This invention was the scotch tape, which he invented to seal
cellophane wrapping. Such technology was in high demand back in the 1930s
after the Wall Street Crash in 1929, as people began to repair spoilt items rather
than to throw them away and buy a new one. In addition, this invention was
particularly useful and impactful on our lives. If he had not invented the scotch
tape, it might not have existed up till today (if no one else invents it either) and
we would have lots of trouble picking up tiny bits of broken glass, protecting
labels from smudging, repairing the frayed ends of shoe laces or even wrapping
gifts for our loved ones!

A close cousin of scotch tape is the Velcro, which uses hoop and loop fasteners
to hold objects together, invented in 1948, by Swiss electrical engineer George
de Mestral. Today, such easy to use, maintenance free and safe technology is
widely used around the world, such as as shoe fasteners and on adaptive
clothing for people with physical disabilities and cannot button their clothes. The
This cutting edge technology then inspired the creation of a special Velcro with
ten thousand inches of Teflon loops, polyester hooks and glass backing is also
used extensively in NASAs space missions, to anchor equipment and food trays
to keep them from floating away while in outer space. It was also used as a nose
scratcher in astronauts helmets.

In terms of food and its storage, Tupperware was also invented in 1948 by Earl
Silas Tupper in Leominster, Massachusetts. Tupperware is a type of home
product which gave people in the 1930s and 1940s the chance to store their food
in an airtight container, and prevent them from going bad. For instance, Oreo
cookies kept in a normal container would become soft after a few days, while
airtight Tupperware containers would be able to keep the Oreo cookies
crunchiness and flavor.

As for medical or biological technology, the 1930s and 1940s saw some
significant developments and advancements in the medical field too. The first
vaccines for yellow fever, typhus and influenza were developed, while
microbiologist Selman A discovered the antibiotic streptomycin, which is used to
treat a wide range of diseases such as tuberculosis. The development of the first
influenza has significant effects; if it had not been developed, then we might not
have the seasonal flu vaccinations of today. If not for the development of
streptomycin, the first line of defense against tuberculosis may not be as
effective.

The next cutting-edge technology then was the creation of the transistor in 1947
at Bell Laboratories, by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The
transistor is a semiconductor device with at least 3 terminals for connection to an
electrical circuit. Such technology made microprocessors and integrated circuits

possible, and laid the foundations for modern electronics. Before the transistor
was invented, vacuum tubes were the only way for electric current regulation and
miniaturization of vacuum tubes would waste too much energy. The development
of this technology gave rise to transistor radios, transistor car radios and for
computers.

Another significant invention was the wide-band frequency modulated radio,

invented by Edwin Armstrong in 1933. It performed far better than its
predecessor, the amplitude modulated broadcasting radio. This invention was so
much better than the amplitude modulated radio that by 1941, 50 FM stations
were already on air. If not for Armstrongs genius in inventing the FM radio,
people then would still have to live with the low quality radio sounds and the
people of today would continue to live in a world of poor radio signals. If not for
him, what else would we be listening to in our cars besides song CDs as we drive
around in them everyday? Probably nothing.

Without a doubt, the greatest invention in the 1930s and 1940s which has had
the greatest impact on our technology today would be the computer. Throughout
the years, mankind has constantly sought to innovate and come up with greater,
faster, and smarter technology which can solve not only problems related to our
health and survival, but also inefficiencies in the way we do work. In 1936,
Konrad Zuse designed and built the first ever mechanical computer. This was the
first freely programmable computer in the world which used Boolean logic (true or

false logic, using the numbers 1 and 0) and binary floating point numbers
(numbers with many significant digits that can support a wide range of values). At
that time, only basic mathematical calculations could be worked by the computer
and it was not until 1937, when Dr John V Atanasoff and Clifford Berry invented
the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) that could solve systems of linear equations
but was not freely programmable. Computer technology was so primitive back
then that in 1946 when the first general purpose digital computer was built, it
weighed 30 tons, had 18,000 vacuum tubes, could only perform one task at a go,
and caused the lights in the entire city of Philadelphia to dim. As time passed and
more computer engineers realised the potential behind the digital computer to
make mankinds lives more efficient, William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain invented the transistor, which allowed the space of one bit the size of a
thumb to one bit the size of a finger nail.

On hindsight, it seems that we have come a long way since the 1930s and 1940s
when we find out that from one bit the size of a thumb on vacuum tubes, we are
now able to store one million bits in the size of a fingernail. But that is not all. The
first computer built in 1936 had paved the way and influenced the proliferation of
faster computer hardware, more efficient software and more space-saving
computer parts that we have enjoyed to this day. Here are 4 examples of how
computer technology has revolutionized our world.

First, computers allow us to collate, compile and sort through data we have
gathered, rendering hard records and physically sorting through data obsolete
and primitive. Second, computers serve as a far more efficient database for
storing information than our human brains can. Even if we could remember
everything weve seen or learnt before, retrieving it from memory more often than
not poses a challenge when we experience presque vu. If not for the invention of
the first computer, we might still be stuck in a world without any computing
engines or one where computers can only do one task at a time. Thirdly, when
we think of computers we invariably link it to the internet, or the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web allows everyone in every part of the world to access the
cloud storage of 1.3 trillion gigabytes of information, simply by typing words of the
information you are looking for on a search engine like Google.com which would
get you millions of results sorted by relevancy for you to choose from. The last
and probably the most relatable benefit computers have influenced our lives is in
bridging physical distances and gaps between people by providing a common
platform accessible from the comfort of ones home. Compared to snail mail
which would take 1 to 2 weeks to deliver each time, electronic mail (or email) and
social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Reddit have
allowed a person in Japan to instantly send his message to a friend in Great
Britain within a matter of seconds. Such unprecedented efficiency has, naturally,
revolutionized human to human communication. It has become far easier to
discuss the latest news or happenings with friends and family alike, even if both
are millions of kilometers away. Without the invention of the first Z1 computer in

1936 and subsequent inventions and innovations in the 1930s and 1940s,
perhaps the technology we have today would never have come into existence.

In conclusion, the 1930s and 1940s period saw a great proliferation of new
technology, including but not limited to nuclear technology, radio technology,
computer technology, medical technology and other non-electric technology such
as the Velcro and Scotch Tape. Out of all of these forms of technology, the
development and building of the first ever freely programmable computer has
arguably made the most impact on our lives today. Without scotch tape, we could
still use masking tape or glue, but without the computer, learning, storing and
sorting information would never be the same.

References
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<http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/frtv020.htm>.
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January 2014. <http://people.bu.edu/baws/brief%20computer%20history.html>.
David, Leonard. 0 Years of Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft: It All Started with
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<http://www.space.com/12118-space-nuclear-power-50-years-transit-4a.html>.
n.p. Evanna DiSalvo, Erika Goodrich & Michelle Waltos, n.d. Web. 4 January
2014.
<http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~mwaltos/lis506/project/1940s/innovations.html>