Scientific discoveries during the First World War. Inventions of the First World War

Wars bring grief and destruction to humanity - this obvious fact cannot be disputed. However, one must be fair and admit that it was during the wars that many wonderful inventions appeared, which the whole world now uses. What can we do - humanity tends to be more willing to create comfortable conditions for killing than for peaceful life, and we can only adapt military developments, adapting them to everyday needs.

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The First World War will forever remain in history as one of the largest and bloodiest military conflicts. During the battles in Europe, hundreds of types of new weapons were tested, some of which, in a modernized form, are successfully used today. But in addition to combat gases, submarines, machine guns and bombers, the war also gave people many developments, without which modern life is simply unthinkable.

Blood transfusion

In 1917, a real revolution took place in medicine - blood transfusions were used for the first time in military hospitals. Shortly before this, the division of blood into incompatible groups was discovered, technologies for storing material in refrigerators were developed, and the property of sodium citrate to prevent clotting was discovered.

The Anglo-Boer War, which ended in 1902, was the last in which sanitary losses exceeded combat losses. Transfusion saved the lives of 92% of the wounded in the British army.

Plastic surgery

The first operations to transplant skin onto patients' faces from other parts of the body were performed by surgeon Harold Gilles from New Zealand. The doctor worked in one of the British hospitals in the rear, returning front-line soldiers disfigured by wounds to some semblance of their former appearance.

To perform operations as efficiently as possible, Gilles consulted sculptors. After the end of hostilities, the surgeon published the book “Facial Plastic Surgery” and opened the world’s first clinic, where effective care was provided to patients with injuries and burns that disfigured their appearance.

Aluminum dentures

The first prosthetic limbs made of lightweight, durable and resistant to adverse factors aluminum were mass-produced during the First World War. In 1912, such a prosthesis was designed for his pilot brother, who lost his leg in a plane crash, by British engineer Charles Desutter.

During the war, this development came in handy - although metal prostheses were an order of magnitude more expensive than wooden ones, they were stronger and lasted much longer. Many soldiers and officers were able to return to normal life and even work using these devices.

Fake tan

War is not only about the wounded and killed at the fronts and during shelling of populated areas. The fighting is disrupting the way of life of the civilian population, forcing them to leave their homes and experience hunger. Children who do not receive proper nutrition suffer the most in this case. In 1916, in Berlin, Dr. Karl Guldczynski first irradiated children from refugee families with quartz lamps to prevent the development of rickets.

When it was discovered that artificial tanning strengthens bones, quartz treatment began to be used everywhere in Germany. After the war, this method of prevention spread throughout the world and is successfully used to this day.

Blue scrubs of surgeons

We owe the appearance of blue operating gowns and suits to the French doctor Rene Leriche. The front-line surgeon suggested distinguishing the surgical uniform in color from the usual medical one in order to emphasize the increased requirements for its sterility.

The difference in color made it easy to distinguish between simple staff gowns and surgeons' work clothes during washing and processing. The idea turned out to be so successful that it took root and became a standard throughout the world.

Gaskets and cotton wool

Before World War I, dressing material was extremely primitive. Dried sphagnum moss, a bog moss with bactericidal properties, was used to apply to wounds. Much less often, soft tissue was used, divided into individual fibers.

Cotton wool appeared in medical practice in 1914. This material was patented by the Kimberly-Clark company, which supplied medicines to the armies of the Entente countries. Female medical personnel very soon began to use cotton wool for their needs, and after the war this practice spread throughout the world.

The fall in demand for cotton wool after the end of the First World War and the obvious interest in the product on the part of women led Kimberly-Clark to use huge unspent military stocks of cotton wool to make pads. In 1920, Cotex brand products went on sale.

Military style

For many centuries, the military dressed brightly and provocatively. The need to camouflage led to the appearance of a khaki uniform during the Boer War, and on the fields of the First World War, a new inconspicuous uniform became generally recognized.

By the way, the word “khaki” translated from Hindi means “dusty”. The “military” style came into fashion after the end of the war - soldiers and officers found themselves with a huge amount of uniforms, and ordinary civilian clothing became scarce in war-torn Europe.

Leather jackets

Leather jackets have been sewn since time immemorial, but mass fashion for them appeared only during the war years. Leather items did not infest lice, and besides this, they did not blow out or get wet. Pilots, sailors and cavalry were massively supplied with leather clothing, and after World War I, the beauty and practicality of these items were appreciated throughout the world.

The leather jackets, raincoats and vests that came to Soviet Russia from the fronts were especially popular with the Bolsheviks and for many years determined the style of commissars, security officers and senior officials.

Zipper closure

In 1913, an American of Swedish origin, Gideon Swindbeck, registered a patent for a fundamentally new type of fastener - the “zipper”. Manufacturers of civilian clothing were indifferent to the invention, but the military liked it.

Sailors from Great Britain and Canada were the first to appreciate the convenient and reliable locks; initially, “zippers” were inserted into bags for documents and small valuables. Later, towards the end of the war, clothes with “zippers” also appeared. In the 20s, fasteners attracted the attention of the Hermes bag manufacturer, and a decade later, zippers began to be inserted into men's trousers.

Parachute

The concept of the parachute was developed during the Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci. The first successful jump from a balloon with this device was made by Paris resident Andre-Jacques Garnerin in 1797. But for more than a century, useful development was perceived as entertainment and had no practical application.

In 1912, Russian actor and engineer Gleb Kotelnikov refined the device and introduced the world's first compact backpack parachute, which could be taken with you into the cramped cockpit of an airplane. The first baptism of fire of the Kotelnikov system parachutes took place in the battles for France in 1918. The Russian’s development not only saved pilots from certain death, but also helped deliver various cargoes, and, if necessary, explosives.

In peacetime, parachuting became popular in different countries of the world, and parachutes began to be used as a means of delivering cargo to hard-to-reach places, as emergency braking devices in aviation, and also for returning spacecraft to earth.

Wrist watch

The first owners of watches that were secured not on a chain, but by a strap on the hand, were pilots of the First World War. Civilians treated this method of wearing chronometers with irony, considering it undignified. It took several decades for the usual watches to supplant the pretentious pocket watches, but it still happened.

The war also forced manufacturers to pay special attention to the accuracy of instruments. The expression “let’s synchronize watches” has military roots - before an attack, officers checked their chronometers in order to act harmoniously and not come under “friendly” artillery fire.

Corrosion resistant steel

“Stainless steel” was invented almost by accident in Sheffield, England, by metallurgist Harry Brearley. The specialist received an order from the military department to create a heat-resistant alloy for artillery barrels. Guns made of such metal could fire continuously and not overheat.

Brearley did not cope with the task, however, among his experimental samples were ingots that were not subject to corrosion. It turned out that this effect can be achieved by adding chromium to steel. The development was useful both in the military industry and in civilian life.

Daylight saving time

In the middle of the war, Germany found itself on the verge of an energy collapse, so on 04/30/1916 at 23.00 it was proposed to move the time forward by one hour in order to make fuller use of daylight hours and save on lighting. On May 21, such a measure was adopted in the UK, and in Russia they began to change the arrows a year later.

The Germans abolished the transition after the end of the First World War, then introduced it at the beginning of the Second World War, then abolished it again until the mid-1970s, famous for its enormous oil crisis.

Tea bags

Just before the start of the war, New York entrepreneur Tom Sullivan, who made money by selling tea in silk bags, out of curiosity or accidentally dipped one of them into hot water. Seeing that the tea was brewed perfectly, the businessman began selling the product in a new format.

But the first mass production of tea bags was launched for the front by the Teekanne company from Dresden. In order to save money, silk was replaced with gauze, and among soldiers and officers the product was called “tea bomb”.

Condoms

The invention of the 16th century Italian physician Gabriel Fallopius, intended to protect against syphilis that raged in Europe in the Middle Ages, was strongly condemned by the church and society for more than 300 years. The Germans were the first to supply their soldiers with condoms during the First World War, and the French followed suit.

In 1917, having trampled upon Puritan morality, contraceptives began to be introduced into the British army. It turned out that condom is the only means that can stop the epidemic of venereal diseases in the troops. As of 1917, there were more than 400 thousand patients with syphilis at various stages in the ranks of the Royal Army.

Before the sexual revolution of the 60s, it was not customary to talk out loud about condoms and they were not in great demand. Then, young people with progressive views contributed to the spread of this wonderful product, and today a condom can be bought anywhere in the world.

The First World War gave humanity a number of unexpected inventions that had nothing to do with the military industry. Today we remember only a few of them, which have become firmly established in everyday life and have radically changed our lifestyle.
Sanitary pads The history of this household item, which has long become familiar to women, is associated with the appearance of cellucotone or cellulose wadding - a material with a very high degree of absorption. And specialists from the then small American company Kimberly-Clark began producing it even before the start of the First World War. The head of the research department, Ernst Mahler, and the company's vice president, James Kimberly, toured pulp and paper mills in Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries in 1914. There they noticed a material that absorbed moisture five times faster and cost manufacturers half as much as cotton. Kimberly and Mahler took samples of cellulose wool with them to America, where they registered a new trademark. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Kimberly-Clark began producing dressings at a rate of 100-150 meters per minute. However, Red Cross nurses who bandaged the wounded and appreciated the new dressing material began to use it in a different capacity. This inappropriate use of cellucotone became the basis for the company’s prosperity. After the end of the war in 1918, the production of dressings had to be suspended, since the main consumers – the army and the Red Cross – no longer needed them,” say current company representatives.

Almost 100 years ago, enterprising businessmen at Kimberly-Clark bought up leftover cellulose wool from the military and created a new product and a new market. After two years of intensive research, experimentation and marketing, the company produced a sanitary napkin made from 40 ultra-thin layers of cellulose wadding wrapped in gauze. In 1920, in a small wooden barn in Neenah, Wisconsin, mass production of sanitary pads was launched, which were made by hand by female factory workers. The new product was dubbed Kotex (short for cotton texture). It hit the shelves in October 1920, about two years after the signing of the armistice agreement.

paper handkerchiefs Advertising sanitary pads was not so easy, because talking out loud about the menstrual cycle was simply indecent at that time, and women were embarrassed to buy them from male sellers. The company agreed with pharmacies that sold pads of this brand to display two boxes at the cash register. From one the woman took a package of pads, into another she put 50 cents, but if these boxes were not visible at the cash register, then she could simply say the word “Kotex”. It sounded like a password, and the seller immediately understood what was needed.

Gradually, the new product gained popularity, but not as quickly as Kimberly-Clark would have liked. It was necessary to find a new use for this wonderful material. In the early 1920s, one of the company's employees, Bert Furness, had the idea to refine cellulose under a hot iron, which made its surface smooth and soft. In 1924, after a series of experiments, facial tissues were born, which were called Kleenex.

Quartz lamp In the winter of 1918, about half of all children in Berlin suffered from rickets, one of the symptoms of which is bone deformities. At that time, the causes of this disease were unknown. It was assumed that this had something to do with poverty. Berlin doctor Kurt Guldchinsky noticed that many of his patients who suffered from rickets were very pale, without any tan. He decided to conduct an experiment on four patients, including a three-year-old boy. All that is now known about this child is that his name was Arthur.

Kurt Guldchinsky began to irradiate this group of patients with ultraviolet rays from mercury-quartz lamps. After several sessions, the doctor discovered that the children’s skeletal system began to strengthen. In May 1919, with the onset of the summer season, he began to give children sunbathing. The results of his experiments caused a great stir. All over Germany, children began to be seated in front of quartz lamps. Where there were not enough lamps, as in Dresden, for example, even lamps removed by social service workers from street lamps were used.

Later, scientists found that ultraviolet radiation lamps promote the production of vitamin D, which is actively involved in the synthesis and absorption of calcium by the body. Calcium, in turn, is needed for the development and strengthening of bones, teeth, hair and nails. So the treatment of children who suffered from malnutrition during the war years led to a very useful discovery about the benefits of ultraviolet rays.

Summer time The idea of moving the hands forward an hour in the spring and an hour back in the fall existed even before the outbreak of the First World War. Benjamin Franklin outlined it in a letter to the Paris Journal back in 1784. “Since people don’t go to bed after sunset, candles have to be wasted,” the politician wrote. “But in the morning, sunlight is wasted, since people wake up later than the sun rises.” Britain adopted daylight saving time on May 21, 1916, followed by other European countries. Similar proposals were made in New Zealand in 1895 and in Great Britain in 1909. However, they came to nothing. The First World War contributed to the implementation of this idea.

There was a shortage of coal in Germany. On April 30, 1916, the authorities of this country issued a decree according to which the clock hands were moved from 23:00 pm to 24:00. The next morning everyone had to wake up an hour earlier, saving an hour of daylight. Germany's experience quickly spread to other countries. Britain adopted daylight saving time on May 21, 1916, followed by other European countries. On March 19, 1918, the US Congress established several time zones and established daylight saving time from March 31 until the end of World War I. After the armistice, daylight saving time was abolished, but the idea of saving daylight hours remained to wait for better times, and, as we know, those times eventually came.

Tea bags The tea bag does not owe its origins to wartime problems. It is believed that the first time tea packaged in small bags began to be sent to its customers by an American tea merchant in 1908. One of the fans of this drink dropped or dipped such a bag into a cup of boiling water, marking the beginning of a very convenient and quick way of brewing tea. At least that's what tea business representatives say.

During the First World War, the German company Teekanne remembered this idea and began supplying tea bags to the troops. The soldiers called them "tea bombs."

A watch appeared that left both the soldier’s hands free, that is, a wristwatch. They were also convenient for aviators. So the pocket watch on a solid chain can be said to have sunk into oblivion. During the Boer Wars, Mappin and Webb produced wristwatches with lugs through which a strap could be threaded. Later, this company, not without pride, stated that its products turned out to be very useful during the Battle of Omdurman - the general battle of the Second Anglo-Sudanese War. But it was the First World War that made wristwatches an everyday necessity. It was especially important to coordinate the actions of different units during the creation of an artillery fire curtain - that is, ground artillery fire before the infantry advanced. A mistake of a few minutes could cost many of the lives of our own soldiers.

The distances between different positions were too great to use signals, there was too little time to transmit them, and it would have been unwise to do so in full view of the enemy. So a wristwatch was a great way out of the situation. The H. Williamson company, which produced the so-called trench watches in Coventry, reported in its report for 1916: “It is known that already every fourth soldier has a wristwatch, and the remaining three will purchase one at the first opportunity.” Some brands of wristwatches, which have become a symbol of luxury and prestige, date back to the First World War. The Cartier Tank model was introduced in 1917 by French master Louis Cartier, who created this watch inspired by the shape of the new Renault tanks.

During World War I, Adenauer was mayor of Cologne, whose residents were starving due to the British blockade. Possessing a lively mind and talent as an inventor, Adenauer began to look for products that could replace bread and meat in the diet of city residents. He suggested using soybeans instead of meat. His work began to be called “sausages of the world” or “Cologne sausage.” Adenauer decided to patent his recipe, but the Reich Patent Office refused him.

This may seem strange, but Adenauer had better luck in this regard with Germany's enemy: the British King George V granted him a patent for soy sausage on June 26, 1918. But the patented “Cologne sausage” with soy content went down in history. Vegetarians around the world should raise a glass of organic wine to the humble German Finance Minister who created such an irreplaceable dish for them.

Zipper Since the mid-19th century, many people have tried to create a device that would help connect parts of clothing and shoes in the fastest and most convenient way. However, luck smiled on the American engineer Gideon Sundbeck, who emigrated to America from Sweden.

He became the chief designer of the Universal Fastener Company, where he invented the Hookless Fastener: a slider connecting teeth attached to two textile tapes. Sundbeck received a patent for his version of the zipper in 1913. The US military began using these zippers in military uniforms and shoes, especially in the Navy. After the First World War, zippers migrated to civilian clothing, where they continue to thrive to this day.

Stainless Steel For steel that doesn't rust or corrode, we have Harry Brearley of Sheffield in England to thank. According to city records, "in 1913, Brearley developed what is considered the first example of 'stainless' or 'clean' steel, a product that revolutionized the steel industry and became a major component of the infrastructure of the modern world." The British military was just racking their brains over which metal was best to make weapons from.

The problem was that gun barrels began to deform under the influence of high temperatures and friction. Metallurgist Brearley was asked to create an alloy that could withstand high temperatures, chemical elements, and so on. Brearley began conducting experiments, testing the properties of various alloys, including those with a high chromium content. According to legend, many of the experiments, in his opinion, ended in failure, and the rejected ingots ended up in a heap of scrap metal. However, Brearley later noticed that some of them were resistant to rust. Thus, in 1913, Brearley discovered the secret of stainless steel. During the First World War, new aircraft engines were made from it, but later they began to make spoons, knives and forks from stainless steel, as well as countless surgical instruments, which no hospital in the world can do without now.

Communication system for pilots Before the First World War, an aviator found himself in the air alone with an airplane. He could not communicate with other pilots or with ground services. The aviators had to make do with shouts and gestures. This was no longer any good. Something had to be done. The solution was wireless communication.

Radio technology was then in its infancy. During the First World War, relevant research was carried out in Brookland and Biggin Hill, and by the end of 1916 serious progress had been achieved. “Early attempts to install radio telephones on airplanes failed because the engine noise created a lot of noise,” writes historian Keith Thrower in one of his books about the development of radio in Britain. According to him, this problem was later solved by creating a helmet with a built-in microphone and headphones. Thanks to this, civil aviation “soared” to new heights in the post-war years, and the gestures and shouts with which aviators had to communicate became a thing of the past.

French trench armor against bullets and shrapnel. 1915

The Sappenpanzer appeared on the Western Front in 1916. In June 1917, having captured several German body armor, the Allies conducted research. According to these documents, the German body armor can stop a rifle bullet at a distance of 500 meters, but its main purpose is against shrapnel and shrapnel. The vest can be hung either on the back or on the chest. The first samples collected turned out to be less heavy than later ones, with an initial thickness of 2.3 mm. Material - alloy of steel with silicon and nickel.

The commander and driver of the English Mark I wore such a mask to protect their faces from shrapnel.

Barricade.

German soldiers approach the captured Russian “mobile barricade”.

Mobile infantry shield (France).

Experimental machine gunner helmets. USA, 1918.

USA. Protection for bomber pilots. Armored trousers.

Various options for armored shields for Detroit police officers.

An Austrian trench shield that could be worn as a breastplate.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from Japan.

Armor shield for orderlies.

Individual armor protection with the simple name “Turtle”. As far as I understand, this thing did not have a “floor” and the fighter himself moved it.

McAdam's shovel-shield, Canada, 1916. Dual use was assumed: both as a shovel and a shooting shield. It was ordered by the Canadian government in a series of 22,000 pieces. As a result, the device was inconvenient like a shovel, inconvenient because the loophole was too low like a rifle shield, and was pierced through by rifle bullets. After the war, melted down as scrap metal

I couldn’t pass by such a wonderful stroller (though it was post-war). Great Britain, 1938

And finally, “an armored public toilet stall - pepelats.” Armored observation post. Great Britain.

It’s not enough to sit behind the shield. How to “pick out” the enemy from behind the shield? And here “the soldiers (soldiers) are cunning… They used very exotic means.

French bomb-throwing machine. Medieval technologies are in demand again.

Well, absolutely... a slingshot!

But they had to be moved somehow. This is where the engineering genius and production capacity came into play again.

Urgent and rather stupid modification of any self-propelled mechanism sometimes gave birth to amazing creations.

On April 24, 1916, an anti-government uprising broke out in Dublin (Easter Rising) and the British needed at least some armored vehicles to move troops through the shelled streets.

On April 26, in just 10 hours, specialists from the 3rd Reserve Cavalry Regiment, using equipment from the Southern Railway workshops in Inchicore, were able to assemble an armored vehicle from an ordinary commercial 3-ton Daimler truck chassis and... a steam boiler. Both the chassis and boiler were delivered from the Guinness brewery.

You can write a separate article about armored railcars, so I’ll just limit myself to one photo for a general idea.

And this is an example of the banal hanging of steel shields on the sides of a truck for military purposes.

Danish “armored car”, made on the basis of the Gideon 2 T 1917 truck with plywood armor (!).

Another French craft (in this case in the service of Belgium) is the Peugeot armored car. Again without protection for the driver, engine and even the rest of the crew in front.

How do you like this “aerotachka” from 1915?

Or something like this...

1915 Sizaire-Berwick "Wind Wagon". Death to the enemy (from diarrhea), the infantry will be blown away.

Subsequently, after WW1, the idea of an aero-cart did not die out, but was developed and in demand (especially in the snowy expanses of the north of the USSR).

The snowmobile had a frameless, closed body made of wood, the front part of which was protected by a sheet of bulletproof armor. In the front part of the hull there was a control compartment in which the driver was located. To monitor the road, the front panel had a viewing slot with a glass block from the BA-20 armored car. Behind the control compartment was the fighting compartment, in which a 7.62-mm DT tank machine gun, equipped with a light shield cover, was mounted on a turret. The snowmobile commander fired from the machine gun. The horizontal firing angle was 300°, vertical - from -14 to 40°. The machine gun's ammunition consisted of 1000 rounds.

By August 1915, two officers of the Austro-Hungarian Army - Hauptmann engineer Romanik and Oberleutnant Fellner in Budapest designed such a glamorous armored car, presumably based on a Mercedes car with a 95 horsepower engine. It was named after the first letters of the names of the creators of Romfell. Armor 6 mm. It was armed with one Schwarzlose M07/12 8 mm machine gun (ammunition capacity of 3000 rounds) in the turret, which could, in principle, be used against air targets. The car was equipped with a Morse code telegraph from Siemens & Halske. The speed of the device is up to 26 km/h. Weight 3 tons, length 5.67 m, width 1.8 m, height 2.48 m. Crew 2 people.

And Mironov liked this monster so much that I will not deny myself the pleasure of showing it again. In June 1915, production of the Marienwagen tractor began at the Daimler plant in Berlin-Marienfelde. This tractor was produced in several versions: half-tracked, fully tracked, although their base was a 4-ton Daimler tractor.

To break through fields entangled with barbed wire, they came up with a hay mower like this.

On June 30, 1915, another of the prototypes was assembled in the courtyard of London's Wormwood Scrubs prison by members of the 20th Squadron of the Royal Naval Air School. The chassis of the American Killen Straight tractor with wooden tracks in the tracks was taken as a basis.

In July, an armored hull from the Delano-Belleville armored car was experimentally installed on it, then a hull from the Austin and a turret from the Lanchester.

FROT-TURMEL-LAFFLY Tank, a wheeled tank built on the chassis of a Laffly road roller. It is protected by 7 mm armor, weighs about 4 tons, is armed with two 8 mm machine guns and a mitrailleuse of unknown type and caliber. By the way, in the photo the weapons are much stronger than stated - apparently the “holes for the gun” were cut with a reserve.

The exotic shape of the hull is due to the fact that according to the idea of the designer (the same Mr. Frot), the vehicle was intended to attack wire barriers, which the vehicle had to crush with its body - after all, monstrous wire barriers, along with machine guns, were one of the main problems for the infantry.

The French had a brilliant idea - to use small-caliber guns firing grappling hooks to overcome enemy wire barriers. The photo shows the calculations of such guns.

Well, as soon as they didn’t mock motorcycles, trying to adapt them to military operations...

Motorcycle car on a Motosacoche trailer.

Another one.

Connection.

Field ambulance.

Fuel delivery.

A three-wheeled armored motorcycle designed for reconnaissance missions, especially on narrow roads.

The only thing more interesting than this is the Grillo tracked boat! Just chasing alligators on the swampy shores of the Adriatic, firing torpedoes... In fact, he participated in sabotage operations and was shot while trying to sink the battleship Viribus Unitis. Thanks to a silent electric motor, he made his way into the port at night and, using the tracks, climbed over the enclosing booms. But it was spotted by security at the port and sunk.

Their displacement was 10 tons, their armament was four 450-mm torpedoes.

But to overcome water obstacles individually, other means have been developed. Such as for example:

Combat water skis.

Combat catamaran.

Battle stilts

But this is R2D2. Self-propelled electric firing point. Behind her, a “tail” cable dragged across the entire battlefield.

The First World War forever changed the face of battle, making it massive, bloody, dynamic and merciless. The use of toxic substances, the appearance of mortars and fragmentation grenades, the massive use of anti-personnel mines and machine guns, the production of tanks and aircraft carriers, a leap in encryption and intelligence, this is just a small list of what this war gave to humanity.

1.Armored mobile combat device Tsar Tank, developed by engineer Nikolai Lebedenko in Russia in 1914-1915.

Strictly speaking, the object was not a tank, but a wheeled combat vehicle. The tank was built and tested in 1915. Based on the test results, it was concluded that the tank was generally unsuitable for use in combat conditions, which led to the closure of the project. The completed copy was subsequently dismantled for scrap.

2. The British did this invention better. Tanks were first used during the First World War and were the “answer” to the problem of protracted “trench warfare”, when the sides could literally sit in their trenches opposite each other forever. For several decades to come, tanks became the main striking force in land battles.

3. For the first time, aircraft capable of carrying a serious bomb load appeared. Bomber Ilya Muromets is the general name of several series of four-engine all-wood biplanes produced in Russia during 1913-1918. The aircraft set a number of records for carrying capacity, number of passengers, time and maximum flight altitude.

4. Medical care has improved. A Renault truck with a mobile X-ray unit is another know-how of that war, which greatly facilitated the treatment of wounded and maimed soldiers.

5. The appearance of iron helmets among soldiers is another invention of the First World War. Considering the massive use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades, a hail of bullets, shrapnel, and shell fragments literally rained down on the soldiers’ heads. In addition, the “trench” nature of the fighting meant that the most vulnerable part of the infantryman’s body was precisely the head, which, willy-nilly, periodically “leaned out” from the trench.

6.The evolution of military thought did not stop there and turned to the Middle Ages. Personal armor could stop bullets and shrapnel

Russian troops were the first to use so-called mobile barricades.

7.The First World War was marked by a competition between armor and projectiles. Trains, cars, ships and even motorcycles were booked.

8. The First World War was the time when machine guns began to be used en masse on the battlefield, forever changing the dynamics of battle.

Legendary Lewis Machine Gun (below)

9.Wired and wireless communications have become widely used. German signalmen use a tandem bicycle to charge the generator of a mobile radio station. Rear of the Eastern Front, September 1917

10. Mortars began to be actively used only during the First World War. Its purpose was to deliver fragmentation or shrapnel charges into enemy trenches. Then mortars began to be actively used in chemical warfare. Several hundred mines were fired at one area in one gulp and immediately created a thick cloud. All living things perished in this cloud. Mortars of a simpler design, called gas launchers, were used to fire chemical ammunition. The first to use mortars in the First World War were German artillerymen during the siege of the Belgian
fortresses of Maubeuge, Liege, Antwerp in August 1914.

British 81-mm mortar of the Captain Stokes system (top)

9-cm bomb launcher type G.R. and 58-mm mortar FR model 1915 (above)
The British are in position with a gas launcher (below)

The British carried out their first gas launcher attack on April 4, 1917, near Arras. With the advent of gas launchers, chemical warfare entered its most dangerous phase.

11.The massive use of submarines also began during the First World War.

12. British aircraft carrier HMS Argus, 1918. Aircraft carriers - ships that allowed aircraft to take off and land on their decks - were first used during the First World War.

13. The officer takes from the pilot the camera that was just used to film the area. The massive use of aviation, both in military operations and for reconnaissance, is another innovation of the First World War.

War spurs scientific and technological progress. States leading wars try to destroy enemy soldiers more, and, at the same time, protect their soldiers from defeat. Perhaps the most prolific period of invention was the First World War.

R2D2. Self-propelled electric firing point. A cable trailed behind her across the entire battlefield.

French trench armor against bullets and shrapnel. 1915

The commander and driver of the English Mark I wore such a mask to protect their faces from shrapnel.

Mobile barricade

German soldiers captured a mobile barricade

Mobile infantry shield (France). It’s unclear why there’s a guy with a cat

Experimental helmets for machine gunners on airplanes. USA, 1918.

USA. Protection for bomber pilots. Armored trousers.

Various options for armored shields for Detroit police officers.

An Austrian trench shield that could be worn as a breastplate. He could have, but there were no people willing to constantly carry such a heavy piece of iron.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from Japan.

Armor shield for orderlies.

Individual armor protection with the simple name “Turtle”. As far as I understand, this thing did not have a “floor” and the fighter himself moved it.

Sidecar, UK 1938.

Armored observation post

French bomb throwing machine

Military slingshot

As for armored vehicles, there were the most unimaginable designs

On April 24, 1916, an anti-government uprising broke out in Dublin (Easter Rising) and the British needed at least some armored vehicles to move troops through the shelled streets.

Armored tires

Truck converted into an armored car

Danish “armored car”, made on the basis of the Gideon 2 T 1917 truck with plywood armor (!).

Peugeot car converted into an armored car

Armored car

This is some kind of hybrid of an airplane and an armored car.

Military snowmobile

The same, but on wheels

Armored car not based on a Mercedes car

In June 1915, production of the Marienwagen tractor began at the Daimler plant in Berlin-Marienfelde. This tractor was produced in several versions: half-tracked, fully tracked, although their base was a 4-ton Daimler tractor.

To break through fields entangled with barbed wire, they came up with a hay mower like this.

And this is another one that overcame any obstacles.

And this is a prototype of a tank

FROT-TURMEL-LAFFLY Tank, a wheeled tank built on the chassis of a Laffly road roller. It is protected by 7 mm armor, weighs about 4 tons, is armed with two 8 mm machine guns and a mitrailleuse of unknown type and caliber. By the way, in the photo the weapons are much stronger than stated - apparently the “holes for the gun” were cut with a reserve.
The exotic shape of the hull is due to the fact that according to the idea of the designer (the same Mr. Frot), the vehicle was intended to attack wire barriers, which the vehicle had to crush with its body - after all, monstrous wire barriers, along with machine guns, were one of the main problems for the infantry.