Besides the fact that moving from bows and arrows, swords and boiling tar to firearms made defending your castle much easier, firearms development has had a profound impact on much of our modern society. Here are just a few of them.
Interchangeable Parts
By far the most important development that was brought about because of firearms was a system of manufacturing items to a pattern so that every part was identical and interchangeable.
Before this all parts were made by hand, individually and could not be swapped for one another.
Back then it meant that the factory parts for both new items and replacement items had to be made by a craftsmen trained on making those parts.
Super Glue
The same year that duck tape was being invented over at Johnson & Johnson another government contractor: Eastman Kodak, was asked to create some clear plastic gun sights.
Plastic was relatively new in 1942, but war has a way of pushing advances in technology (side note, during WWII plastic production increased by 300% in the U.S.).
The Eastman Kodak engineer Harry Coover did create some clear plastic for the gun sights contract, but one of his failures was a chemical formulation that was extremely sticky. It wasn't until 1951 however, that the formula was dusted off and refined into what we know call Cyanocrylate Adhesive aka "CA Glue", aka "Super Glue" aka "Krazy Glue"
In 1958 "Super Glue" hit the commercial market. Buyers found a million ways in which to use it.
During the Vietnam War the glue found another interesting use: sealing wounds. It is now used around the globe as a replacement for stitches.
Super glue has also been helping forensic investigators. It was discovered in the late 70's by a U.S. Army CID Lab in Japan that the heated fumes from super glue would react with the oils and acids left by contact with human skin. They were able to get fingerprints from non-porous and delicate surfaces using this method. The super glue encased the fingerprints making them useful to the investigators.
Now commercial manufactures build special fuming chambers for the process.
Hundreds of crimes have been solved thanks to this method.
Another use for super glue is a very nice and weather resistant finish on wood. Gunsmiths, guitar builders, knife makers and others have discovered the beautiful finish that super glue can provide.
Bluing
Bluing is the name of the black oxide coating on gun steel. It is technically rust that has been converted to a different form of iron oxide by the application of heat. Black oxide offers better protection against rust than bare metal and it has a nice aesthetic to it.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel, which is steel that has a minimum of 10% chromium was invented way back in 1872, but its use in machines was limited due to "galling". Galling is an effect when two metals rub together without a lubricant. In the case of stainless steel, the chromium dioxide (a thin layer of inert corrosion) can cause galling and eventually "cold-weld" in which the parts will fuse themselves together. This also made some stainless-steel compounds difficult to machine.
It wasn't until 1965 when the first stainless-steel firearm hit the market. It was the Smith & Wesson model 60, but it wasn't completely stainless, many (moving) parts were still made of carbon steel (note the hammer and trigger below are made of standard gun steel that has been nickel plated to match).
The issue of galling had not quite been resolved yet, so stainless steel was still reserved for parts that didn't rub together.
In 1971 Auto Mag created the first stainless auto pistol. While the galling issue persisted, use of special lubricants helped. Also, of help was the fact that the .44 Auto Mag was expensive to shoot, and the recoil meant these guns didn't see long volleys of fire.
A company called Randall Firearms began producing an all stainless 1911 in the 80's. They solved the galling issue by using different types of stainless steel (one harder, one softer).
Stainless steel is now used in a variety of mechanical processes in which it had not be used before.
If you expand the topic to include other items, not necessarily involving firearms, there have been a ton of things invented for waging war that we now use every day including:
https://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/cyanoacrylate-fuming-a-mainstay-of-crime-scene-investigation.html
Enter a gunsmith by the name of Simeon North.
North had been making pistols under contract for the US Army. His parts were so precise that they were pretty much interchangeable. The US Army took notice and issued him an order for more pistols in 1813 that had specific language requiring the parts to be interchangeable.
This is believed to be the first contract in the history of the World with such a requirement. In order to fulfill the contract, he invented what we now call a Milling Machine.
While the idea of interchangeable parts may have preceded Simeon North, he along with other gun makers like Eli Whitney and Samuel Colt made it a reality.
When Simeon North invented the milling machine and adopted a system of manufacturing that allowed for parts interchangeability it allowed for more than just quicker repairs. It also meant that guns could be made faster and by less skilled workers.
This, of course, meant that guns could be made cheaper... and we all know that when tools and necessary items become more affordable, the items can be purchased by more people, thus raising the standard of living for everyone and increasing the sales of that market. It also created millions of jobs for low skilled workers.
This soon spread to nearly every manufactured item, and it became known as the "American System of Manufacturing".
The importance of this discovery and the machines to make it happen cannot be stressed enough. The post-Civil War economy boomed with new products and new companies making everything faster and more affordable. Once electricity came to replace steam and waterpower, there was no stopping the American capitalist economy. Our World changed in a dramatic way, and it all started with interchangeable gun parts.
Duck Tape
Yes Duck is the correct, original spelling, my computer even thinks it is supposed to be Duct Tape......
While the idea of interchangeable parts may have preceded Simeon North, he along with other gun makers like Eli Whitney and Samuel Colt made it a reality.
When Simeon North invented the milling machine and adopted a system of manufacturing that allowed for parts interchangeability it allowed for more than just quicker repairs. It also meant that guns could be made faster and by less skilled workers.
This, of course, meant that guns could be made cheaper... and we all know that when tools and necessary items become more affordable, the items can be purchased by more people, thus raising the standard of living for everyone and increasing the sales of that market. It also created millions of jobs for low skilled workers.
This soon spread to nearly every manufactured item, and it became known as the "American System of Manufacturing".
Duck Tape
Yes Duck is the correct, original spelling, my computer even thinks it is supposed to be Duct Tape......
During the early days of America's involvement in WWII an engineer at Johnson and Johnson was given a task of creating a water-resistant tape to seal ammunition cans.
By using some special adhesives and cotton "duck" fabric he created what we now know as Duct Tape.
The product took on the name "Duct Tape" when the HVAC market began using the product to seal metal duct joints, the color of the tape was changed to silver for this reason.
By using some special adhesives and cotton "duck" fabric he created what we now know as Duct Tape.
The product took on the name "Duct Tape" when the HVAC market began using the product to seal metal duct joints, the color of the tape was changed to silver for this reason.
Today duct tape is used for a million and one "fixes".
Just think of all the Mythbuster's hijinks we would have missed out on had it not been for this invention.
Not to mention the auto racing we might have missed out on.....by the way, in racing circles, they refer to it as 200 mile per hour tape.
Just think of all the Mythbuster's hijinks we would have missed out on had it not been for this invention.
Not to mention the auto racing we might have missed out on.....by the way, in racing circles, they refer to it as 200 mile per hour tape.
And how would red necks make the hilarious ersatz repairs without it?
Super Glue
The same year that duck tape was being invented over at Johnson & Johnson another government contractor: Eastman Kodak, was asked to create some clear plastic gun sights.
Plastic was relatively new in 1942, but war has a way of pushing advances in technology (side note, during WWII plastic production increased by 300% in the U.S.).
The Eastman Kodak engineer Harry Coover did create some clear plastic for the gun sights contract, but one of his failures was a chemical formulation that was extremely sticky. It wasn't until 1951 however, that the formula was dusted off and refined into what we know call Cyanocrylate Adhesive aka "CA Glue", aka "Super Glue" aka "Krazy Glue"
During the Vietnam War the glue found another interesting use: sealing wounds. It is now used around the globe as a replacement for stitches.
Super glue has also been helping forensic investigators. It was discovered in the late 70's by a U.S. Army CID Lab in Japan that the heated fumes from super glue would react with the oils and acids left by contact with human skin. They were able to get fingerprints from non-porous and delicate surfaces using this method. The super glue encased the fingerprints making them useful to the investigators.
Now commercial manufactures build special fuming chambers for the process.
Hundreds of crimes have been solved thanks to this method.
Another use for super glue is a very nice and weather resistant finish on wood. Gunsmiths, guitar builders, knife makers and others have discovered the beautiful finish that super glue can provide.
Bluing
Bluing is the name of the black oxide coating on gun steel. It is technically rust that has been converted to a different form of iron oxide by the application of heat. Black oxide offers better protection against rust than bare metal and it has a nice aesthetic to it.
When the hot bluing process was invented for firearms (which made the application of black oxide much faster and cheaper), it soon found other uses. One of those uses was protecting razor blades from rusting (Marlin and other gun makers also produced razor blades). We don't see many blued razor blades anymore, today virtually all razor blades are made of stainless steel.
Somehow someone discovered that a blued razor blade has a strange "non-linear" resistance which made it perfect to be used as a detector in crystal AM radio sets.
This in turn led to the use of non-linear resistance diode junctions in semi-conductors...the semi-conductor is of course the father of our modern circuit boards, computers, TVs etc...and it all started with gun bluing.
Modern Alloy Steel
Although guns were not responsible for all modern steel alloys, the advances made for the gun industry definitely had an impact.
In the early days of firearms the gun powder used was known as "Black Powder". In the 1890s a new type of gun powder was developed, it actually was not a gun powder at all, but instead a nitrocellulose, but that is another story. The important part is that besides burning cleaner (producing less smoke, thus the name "smokeless" powder) it produced much higher pressures with less material.
This of course led to people blowing up firearms from putting too much of the smokeless powder in the cartridge. It also meant that gun makers were not getting the true potential from their arms.
New alloys were experimented with and sometime during or just after the Great War we had steel alloy that could survive much higher pressures. These steels did not require the case hardening of the older steels and were flexible enough to withstand the abuse. This of course led to developments in higher powered cartridges.
These new steel alloys are now used in a wide variety of industries.
Somehow someone discovered that a blued razor blade has a strange "non-linear" resistance which made it perfect to be used as a detector in crystal AM radio sets.
This in turn led to the use of non-linear resistance diode junctions in semi-conductors...the semi-conductor is of course the father of our modern circuit boards, computers, TVs etc...and it all started with gun bluing.
Modern Alloy Steel
Although guns were not responsible for all modern steel alloys, the advances made for the gun industry definitely had an impact.
In the early days of firearms the gun powder used was known as "Black Powder". In the 1890s a new type of gun powder was developed, it actually was not a gun powder at all, but instead a nitrocellulose, but that is another story. The important part is that besides burning cleaner (producing less smoke, thus the name "smokeless" powder) it produced much higher pressures with less material.
This of course led to people blowing up firearms from putting too much of the smokeless powder in the cartridge. It also meant that gun makers were not getting the true potential from their arms.
New alloys were experimented with and sometime during or just after the Great War we had steel alloy that could survive much higher pressures. These steels did not require the case hardening of the older steels and were flexible enough to withstand the abuse. This of course led to developments in higher powered cartridges.
These new steel alloys are now used in a wide variety of industries.
One such alloy contained molybdenum, which before WWII was difficult to produce and didn't have many industrial uses. During WWI it was employed in tanks and as armor plating due to its high strength to weight ratio. The alloy also has a much higher melting point than plain steel.
Today it is used in frames of motorcycles, parts for rockets and planes and a thousand other uses.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel, which is steel that has a minimum of 10% chromium was invented way back in 1872, but its use in machines was limited due to "galling". Galling is an effect when two metals rub together without a lubricant. In the case of stainless steel, the chromium dioxide (a thin layer of inert corrosion) can cause galling and eventually "cold-weld" in which the parts will fuse themselves together. This also made some stainless-steel compounds difficult to machine.
It wasn't until 1965 when the first stainless-steel firearm hit the market. It was the Smith & Wesson model 60, but it wasn't completely stainless, many (moving) parts were still made of carbon steel (note the hammer and trigger below are made of standard gun steel that has been nickel plated to match).
The issue of galling had not quite been resolved yet, so stainless steel was still reserved for parts that didn't rub together.
In 1971 Auto Mag created the first stainless auto pistol. While the galling issue persisted, use of special lubricants helped. Also, of help was the fact that the .44 Auto Mag was expensive to shoot, and the recoil meant these guns didn't see long volleys of fire.
Stainless steel is now used in a variety of mechanical processes in which it had not be used before.
If you expand the topic to include other items, not necessarily involving firearms, there have been a ton of things invented for waging war that we now use every day including:
The SUV & "Cross-Over" vehicles, (thanks to the Jeep)
Microwave Ovens & Radar (used for weather forecasting)
The Internet
Satellites and GPS
Wristwatches
Synthetic Rubber
Canned & Dehydrated Food
EpiPen
Portable radios (walkie talkies)
Encrypted Communications
Penicillin
WD-40
Cargo Pants/Shorts
SPAM
Dehydrated foods and milk
Sources:
https://ivypanda.com/essays/innovation-in-history-how-guns-changed-the-world/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/92084/10-advances-weaponry-changed-history
http://mentalfloss.com/article/92084/10-advances-weaponry-changed-history
https://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/cyanoacrylate-fuming-a-mainstay-of-crime-scene-investigation.html
Great article! How come you left M&M's off your last list?
ReplyDelete