Impact of technology on war (discussion notes):

technology threatens everyone, for example nuclear weapons
wars are shorter
weapons are much more accurate--you don't waste as much ammunition, efficiency
you can target military not civilian targets
at first when long range weapons were introduced casualty rate was high--then better strategies were developed
technology tends to benefit offense first, then defense has to catch up
made war less personal (though depersonalization is a military principle anyway), but our standards of protection for civilians have gone up
ground forces play a less central role
we can attack with much less loss of life

Impact of war on technology:

war got the government into the business of doing research
war speeds technological innovation (?)

The Civil War was significantly impacted by technology, particularly railroads and more accurate guns.  Yet when World War I came the U.S. found itself behind in military technology.

World War I started in 1914, US entered April 1917, Armistice Dec. 1918.

• The war quickly settled down to a trench warfare (photo) stalemate due to the use of machine guns and barbed wire, and technology seemed to be the only way out.
• as well as airplanes and poison gas, tanks and submarines were developed into useful weapons
• The war therefore led to the first major wartime efforts to develop technology for military use

 French tank

• A few months after the war began the French apparently used gas against the Germans and the Germans retaliated in kind.
• In the 9th month of the war the Germans released a cloud of chlorine gas--which causes choking--on French troops who retreated in panic, leaving behind perhaps 5,000 dead.  A four mile gap in the line was opened, but the Germans had not brought forward enough reserves to exploit it and the Allies repaired the break.
• At first troops wore makeshift masks of handkerchiefs wetted with urine and tied over nose and mouth.
• Germany was widely criticized for breaking the Hague Conventions of 1899.
  
• In mid-1915 Germans started using phosgene, which causes severe lung damage, and both sides developed gas masks.
• By the end of 1916 a variety of weapons were in use by both sides.  Germans introduced mustard gas--could cause burns to exposed skin even when a soldier was protected by a mask.
• This quickly became a research race.  It started with the US Bureau of Mines working on adapting mining equipment.
• A central lab was created in fall 1917 at American University--at peak employed 1200 scientists.  Developed a new gas, Lewisite, that poisoned through the skin, simpler ways of producing mustard gas, etc.
• Chemical Warfare Service created July 1918--university chemists and Bureau of Mines personnel were given commissions.
• In all as many as 50 different gases were used--poison-gas causalities 1.3 million with 92,000 deaths.
• After the war chemists were proud of their contribution to the nation--wanted ongoing research.  Argued that chemical weapons were humane (and effective) because they disabled soldiers rather than killing them.  They didn't get the continuing high level of research they wanted.
• A strong reaction against the use of gas took over instead.  The Geneva Protocol--an international protocol signed in 1925 prohibiting the use in war of "asphyxiating, poisonous and other gasses" and of "bacteriological methods of warfare."
• The treaty held through World War II but use of poison gas is a difficult issue today.  Fear becomes an issue even when it is not used:  seven Israelis suffocated to death due to improper use of gas masks during Iraqi attacks in the Gulf War.
  

German signal corps soldiers placing their carrier pigeons in a shelter during a gas attack

• European countries had done much more, and in 1915 the U.S. realized it was behind and created an organization called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to jump-start the production of military aircraft.
• forced a patent pool--Manufacturers Aircraft Association--to allow the best technologies to be used
• the Curtis Company designed a training plane, the JN-4, but battle planes were built on a British design
• all of the countries involved struggled to figure out how to make effective use of aircraft--new strategies had to be developed by pilots and integrated by generals
• mass production of aircraft was well underway in the U.S. when the war ended--2091 planes had been shipped to France and 1041 were awaiting shipment
• After the war the NACA became a research agency doing applied science research in aviation

  Curtis JN-4 Aircraft, World War I

• Thomas Edison said he had a plan for preparedness but that he was reluctant to discuss the terrible devices he had in mind.  War could be mechanized with labor-saving devices
• In 1915 the Navy established the Naval Consulting Board
• the board was to consist of "Civilian Experts on Machines" who would originate ideas and critically examine ideas submitted by others--11 professional societies each named two members.  These were engineers and business leaders, not scientists
• the Board had a big fight about building its own laboratory, but the laboratory that was eventually built continued after the war as the Naval Research Laboratory
• the effort that got the most public attention to screen inventions submitted by the public--Edison believed that American inventors could win the war
• 110,000 inventions were submitted, 110 deemed worthy of development, only one reached production--an aircraft simulator invented by W. Guy Ruggles
• one of the Board's largest projects was trying to find new methods of submarine detection
• they also sponsored research on gyroscopic stabilization, leading to the first primitive autopilots for aircraft ( Lawrence Sperry proved they didn't work too well)

  World War I British Submarine

• Scientists wanted to show how valuable science is: George Ellery Hale (an astronomer) wrote: "I really believe this is the greatest chance we have ever had to advance research in America"
• they also focused on the problem of submarine detection--German U-Boats sunk over a million tons of Allied and neutral merchantmen in the first quarter of 1917
• the NRC brought in professors from universities to work on the problem
• a young mathematician named Max Mason had the idea of a listening device that could focus sound--he build something that looked like a trombone
• the final device had a range of 3 miles and was very successful.  Similar technology was developed for artillery ranging
• scientists felt they had proved the scientific research approach to developing new technology