World War I: Technological Advances

War has always had a tendency to accelerate innovation and invention, and WW1 – with its bizarre clash of 19th and 20th century ideas and technologies – was no exception. From industrial killing machines to feminine hygiene, here are five technological creations still used today in combat and civilian life.

World War I was less than one year old when British writer H. G. Wells lamented the fate of humanity at the hands of "man's increasing power of destruction" (H. G. Wells, "Civilization at the Breaking Point," New York Times, May 27, 1915, 2). Although considered a father of science fiction, Wells was observing something all too real—technology had changed the face of combat in World War I and ultimately accounted for an unprecedented loss of human life.

The Great War was a period of great advances in scientific knowledge. In addition to medicine and surgery (see the 10 Lives file on this subject), the physical sciences, chemistry, and mathematics were revolutionized at the beginning of the 20th century. The large number of famous scientists at this time is indicative of the progress made in the 19th century and in the First World War. From the very beginning of the war, academics and scientists were mobilized by the various governments of the belligerent countries, like the rest of the population, and many of them participated actively in the conflict, to the extent that “even contemporaries realized they had entered the era of scientific war, according to Ernst Junger.”

Military technology has always shaped and defined how wars were fought. The First World War, however, saw a breadth and scale of technological innovation of unprecedented impact. It was the first modern mechanized industrial war in which material resources and manufacturing capability were as consequential as the skill of the troops on the battlefield.

Small inventions made life easier during—and after—the war.

WWI exposed the dark side of the industrial revolution. Technological achievements that created mass production and new forms of transportation were put to use with devastating efficiency on the battlefield. Learn how tanks, aircraft, trenches, artillery, and chemical weapons were all revolutionized during this global conflict. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (45 minutes) Distributed by A&E Television Networks.

Chemical weapons, which the world awakened to, once more in Syria, are still a nightmare. This investigative film will tell the story of the past, present, and future of chemical weapons with unprecedented access to weapons inspectors, government officials, and the personal testimony of those who have experienced this horror. We will find out how they came to be, how hard they are to control, how dangerous they are, and how international efforts to control them are ushering a new era of cooperation to counter terrorists plots.