1 r e t p a h C TECHNOLOGY FROM 1900 TO 1945 R ecent history is notoriously difficult to write because of the mass of material and the problem of distinguishing the sig nificant from the insignificant among events that have virtually the power of contemporary experience In respect to the recent history of technology however one fact stands out clearly Despite the immense achievements of technology by 1900 the following decades witnessed more advance over a wide range of activities than the whole of previously recorded history The airplane the rocket and interplanetary probes electronics atomic power antibiotics insecticides and a host of new materials have all been invented and developed to create an unparalleled social situ ation full of possibilities and dangers which would have been virtually unimaginable before the 20th century 12
TECHNOLOGY FROM 1900 TO 1945 In venturing to interpret the events of the previous century it will be convenient to sep arate the years before 1945 from those that followed The years 1900 to 1945 were domi nated by the two world wars while those since 1945 were preoccupied by the need to avoid another major war The dividing point is one of outstanding social and technological signifi cance the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo N M in July 1945 There were profound political changes in the 20th century related to technological capacity and leadership It may be an exag geration to regard the 20th century as the American century but the rise of the United States as a superstate was sufficiently rapid and dramatic to excuse the hyperbole It was a rise based upon tremendous natural resources exploited to secure increased productivity through widespread industrialization and the success of the United States in achieving this objective was tested and demonstrated in the two world wars Technological leader ship passed from Britain and the European nations to the United States in the course of these wars This is not to say that the springs of innovation went dry in Europe Many impor tant inventions of the 20th century originated there But it was the United States that had the capacity to assimilate innovations and take 13
Technology of the Modern World full advantage from them at times when other countries were deficient in one or other of the vital social resources without which a brilliant invention cannot be converted into a commer cial success As with Britain in the Industrial Revolution the technological vitality of the United States in the 20th century was demon strated less by any particular innovations than by its ability to adopt new ideas from whatever source they came The two world wars were themselves the most important instruments of technological as well as political change in the 20th century The rapid evolution of the airplane is a striking illustration of this process while the appear ance of the tank in the first conflict and of the atomic bomb in the second show the same signs of response to an urgent military stim ulus It has been said that World War I was a chemists war on the basis of the immense importance of high explosives and poison gas In other respects the two wars hastened the development of technology by extending the institutional apparatus for the encour agement of innovation by both the state and private industry This process went further in some countries than in others but no major belligerent nation could resist entirely the need to support and coordinate its scientific technological effort The wars were thus 14
TECHNOLOGY FROM 1900 TO 1945 responsible for speeding the transformation from little science with research still largely restricted to small-scale efforts by a few iso lated scientists to big science with the emphasis on large research teams sponsored by governments and corporations working collectively on the development and applica tion of new techniques While the extent of this transformation must not be overstated and recent research has tended to stress the continuing need for the independent inventor at least in the stimulation of innovation there can be little doubt that the change in the scale of technological enterprises had far-reaching consequences It was one of the most momen tous transformations of the 20th century for it altered the quality of industrial and social organization In the process it assured tech nology for the first time in its long history a position of importance and even honor in social esteem FUEL AND POWER There were no fundamental innovations in fuel and power before the breakthrough of 1945 but there were several significant devel opments in techniques that had originated in the previous century An outstanding develop ment of this type was the internal-combustion 15
