Technological Innovations
During WWII Bletchley Park was given the task to decode the Germans messages to help give the Allies a massive advantage. During the process the team created the world's first computer known as the colossus. The team's main focus was breaking the code generated by the German Enigma machine. But the team was also assigned the task of breaking the Lorenz cipher. The Lorenz machine generates pseudo random bits through a set of ten pinwheels. W. T. Tutte discovered how to break the Lorenz cipher using statistical methods breaking both parts of the key. Learn More
The ATM
The ATM is know one of the most useful and common ways to get money. But it didn’t start off so well. In 1939 Luther Simjian started work on the first working ATM. It finally was used in the 1960s when he managed to convince a New York City bank to install machines in one of their branches. It was removed six months later because of customer's distrust of it swallowing their money."It seems the only people using the machines were a small number of prostitutes and gamblers who didn't want to deal with tellers face to face".- Luther Simjian.
Satellites
Using the German technology that guided the V2 rocket, America and Russia launched the first satellites. It also helped send people to the moon and construct the International Space Station. Digital TVs bounce signals from satellites into outer space then back to your TV. Satellites are also capable of triangulating your position by using 3 satellites.
Other Facts
-Dr. Harry Coover invented super glue on accident. He was looking to manufacture gun sights and discovered that the chemical mixture he had used bonded extremely strongly. It wasn’t put on the market until 16 years after its creation.
-Many inventions were created during or because of WWII. In 1943 the Philips company built a dynamo-powered flashlight for the troops. Light was generated by squeezing the handle on top which would then power it. The unit didn’t have a battery, so power was generated when the handle was being rapidly squeezed.
-Reliable coffee products had been on the market before. Thanks to Nestle’s process in 1938 where they dried the coffee extract with carbohydrates all other coffees were vastly inferior in taste to their product. Because of the Great Depression, the US wasn’t receiving coffee beans. This lead suppliers to ask Nestle to come up with a way of preserving coffee.
-Journalist and artist Laszlo Biro invented the ballpoint pen. He was mad at the fountain pen's tendency to smudge. He eventually found a type of ink in that dried as soon as it hit the page he created the new pen.
Click here for Imitation Games Movie Trailer. The movie is about Alan Turing and how he helped to develop computers and break codes during WWII.
