World War II Innovations that Changed Civilian Life

Christmas Deal! Go to nordvpn.com/sideprojects to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount.
Got a beard? Good. I've got something for you: beardblaze.com
Simon's Social Media:
Twitter: / simonwhistler
Instagram: / simonwhistler
This video is #sponsored by NordVPN.
Love content? Check out Simon's other KZbin Channels:
Biographics: / @biographics
Geographics: / @geographicstravel
MegaProjects: / @megaprojects9649
Casual Criminalist: / @thecasualcriminalist
TopTenz: / toptenznet
Today I Found Out: / todayifoundout
Highlight History: / @highlighthistory
XPLRD: / @xplrd
Business Blaze: / @brainblaze6526

[@Sideprojects]

Christmas Deal! Go to nordvpn.com/sideprojects to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount.

[@barrydysert2974]

Spookily acute ads. AGREED

[@jwenting]

NordVPN, worse for mankind than nuclear war.

[@nomdeplume7537]

War ... is the mother of all inventions, it creates the necessity. Wars are also bench marks for upheavals in society

[@thetruthwillout9094]

Why did you feature the Boeing 707 when it was the Comet that was the first commercial jetliner?

[@jwenting]

@@thetruthwillout9094 worse, he's British I think...

[@kylefowler5082]

In the thumbnail it looks like Simon has some hair, I clicked on the video just to see if it was true LOL

[@deviljelly3]

We should buy Simon a wig... I'll start a gofundme

[@janetizzy6741]

Grease build-up, too much beard oil on his head.

[@Hadw1n]

Same

[@georgedobinson6152]

Was definitely made to look that way

[@thefourshowflip]

Sponsored by Keeps 🤣🤣🤣

[@rikspector]

Simon, I have a personal link to this show, In 1944 as a 2 years old I was very ill from blood poisoning due to a very serious eye injury. A hospital in New York City was able to save my eye(not the sight) and cure the poisoning with massive doses of the "wonder drug" Penicillin which had been massed produced as a product of World War medical research. Cheers, Rik Spector

[@nickdanger3802]

"Whittle had originally pitched his idea for a jet engine to the government back in 1929 but it was rejected. Cash-strapped, he allowed the patents to expire in 1933. However Whittle's son Ian, himself a former RAF man, believes the failure to take his father seriously was a missed opportunity." "It's all conjecture, of course," he said. "But had the authorities sat up and taken notice, then we could have had RAF planes with jet engines in operational service and it might have given Hitler something to think about." BBC

[@mayoite160]

Hans von Ohain said pretty much the same thing when he met Whiitle after the war

[@lehammsamm]

Simon and team have taught me more in a month than a year of schooling. Keep up the great work!

[@Sideprojects]

Will do, and thank you :)

[@viridiscoyote7038]

There's a few industries that ban the use of ballpoint pens on the manufacturing area. If a pen accidentally falls into a vat of molten metal, the ball won't melt; instead, it acts as a massive stress riser inside of whatever it ends up in.

[@MyPokergirl]

I’m Bulgarian so seeing John Atanasoff’s contribution to world technology and innovation makes me so happy

[@dominicmanzella5493]

I feel like it should be mentioned that the Boeing 707 wasn't actually the world's first commercial jet airliner, but rather America's first commercial jet airliner. The world's first commercial jet airliner was the DeHaviland Comet. Unfortunately it wasn't very successful.

[@mechanikos84]

Was about to say this

[@thetrevor861]

Yup, beat me to it.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Yeah well, this is an American channel, so facts seem to come second to American propaganda.

[@terrynixon2758]

@@owenshebbeare2999 Simon is a Brit living in Belgium? So yes, an American channel

[@robg9236]

The 707 was the first successful commercial jet. People became reluctant to book a trip on a plane that crashed regularly.

[@spankflaps1365]

My Grandad spent WW2 sailing tankers full of aviation fuel, being chased by U-boats for 5 years. He saw some horrendous carnage, so he was no fan of war. But he did always say “wars advance technology like nothing else”.

[@jwenting]

yup, necessity (and the budgets that come with it of course) is the mother of all invention and nothing creates necessity more than war.

[@RuthD913]

My great uncle Job Whitehouse had an important job involving Eniac. He was a slender man who ran back and forth inside the machine changing vacuum tubes.

[@brianspendelow840]

You can't mention penicillin without mentioning gangrene. This infection that set in after an operation cost enormous numbers of lives until brought under control by penicillin. Its application also made countless amputations unnecessary.

[@NotProFishing]

It has literally saved billions from grevious injury's that didn't get infected to simple infections from everyday life to STDs, penicillin was the first widely available and paved the way for future antibiotics.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:30 - Chapter 1 - Computers 4:20 - Chapter 2 - Ballpoint pens 6:55 - Mid roll ads 8:25 - Chapter 3 - Jet engines 9:55 - Chapter 4 - Radar technology 11:20 - Chapter 5 - Medical marvels

[@grzegorzpiasek9076]

6:42 - Polish-Russian chemical dictionary :D

[@cobra5087]

There is still problems with pens. When I first get one and start writing. The ink is full and my writing but over time I suppose the ball picks up lint or dirt and the ink streaks. I hate that.

[@peterszeug308]

World War II Innovations that Changed Civilian Life 1. Meth 2. Amphetamines

[@jamestamis9207]

No mention of Alan Turing considered by many to be the Father of computing

[@manickn6819]

Sad he was overlooked.

[@rebasack21]

When i was going to college and needed pens I found a bag of 100 pens at a dollar store 50 black 50 blue just 1 dollar. I figured for that price if only 10 pens worked i still won, so i took them home and went through the bag to test them. All 50 black pens worked and not one blue pen worked. Still ended up lending out pens regularly. Since then having learned how they work it seems that whoever makes pens that reliably bad must know it.

[@archstanton6102]

Did you ever work out why the blue ones were duds?

[@stevensimms7014]

How strange, I listen to your channels daily and I visited Bletchley Park today and so "today I found out" about Colossus twice. Very fun coincidence :)

[@timmy7201]

I'm sure World War III will bring us many new inventions in the future. Inventions such as: stone tools, diy radsuits, glow in the dark camping gear, ...

[@LarryWater]

Those invention aren’t new.

[@janetizzy6741]

Who would have thought that there are 2 billion places to lose your pen every year!

[@chrisknight6884]

The Boeing 707 was NOT the first jet powered commercial aircraft. That accolade goes to the deHavilland Comet.

[@piperdude82]

Fact check: the first commercial jetliner was the de Havilland Comet, not the Boing 707.

[@sd906238]

The Comet was first then 3 of the Comets crashed. Boeing may of been 2nd but they won the battle.

[@walterrudich2175]

@@sd906238 actually, they were 3rd behind the Tupplev 104, which entered Service in 1955.

[@CosRacecar]

You should cover ball point pens a little more deeply. I can't remember if it was bic or biro, but one of them came up with a way to manufacture the balls in ball point pens in a way that they were ridiculously smooth and cheaper to produce, which is what caused the price to drop massively. Edit: of course, there's always the chance I learned that from another Simon whistler video... Another edit: i think they covered it on one of the "fascinating origins of everyday things" episodes on Simon and Davan's Brainfood podcasts, which they really should bring back

[@rogaineablar5608]

Never heard of Jonas Salk but have def heard of Charles Drew. And no one uses regular penicillin anymore, not for at least 30 years. These days it's all derivatives like ampicillin or amoxicillin.

[@MaxRideout]

It's always funny to me to see those "penicillin saves lives!" pamphlets, cause I found out I was allergic to it by coming within a nap of dying after taking it. They gave it to me for pneumonia when I was 18, and later that night, the ER doctor basically told me that if I had decided to let myself fall asleep instead of coming in - or, possibly, if they had made me wait much longer to be seen - that I likely would've suffocated internally. Moral of the story: always pay reeeal close attention when given any antibiotic for the first time.

[@jwenting]

I too am allergic to the stuff, though not to the same degree you are. It makes me pretty sick and gives me a full body rash, not pleasant at all. When I first had it my doctor diagnosed the symptoms as chicken pox and gave me, yes, penicilin, to cure it (wrong treatment we know now, as chickenpox is a viral disease, but giving penicilin for everything was common in the 1970s) which of course only made things worse, so more penicilin was prescribed. It wasn't until after 3 courses of penicilin didn't work to cure the "chicken pox" that he prescribed something else and within days the "chicken pox" was gone...

[@murdelabop]

My father became allergic to penicillin late in life, when he was in his early fifties. Any use of penicillin can trigger an immune response that will cause an allergic reaction on subsequent uses, so the stuff should be used judiciously rather than indiscriminately.

[@shannonmcstormy5021]

Just to be clear, pretty sure the good antibiotics (and vaccines) have done in our lives FAR outweighs the downsides to a micro-sample of humans. After all, some people having nut allergies doesn't mean that we should outlaw nuts or humans shouldn't cultivate, sell or eat them.

[@tinman7551]

I still call them Biros, what can I say, stuff from your childhood sticks with you.

[@carlstanland5333]

Eventually hipsters will bring back the ENIAC in a coffee shop.

[@levisprague4866]

I don't know if it would be appropriate for this channel, or maybe mega projects, but I would love to see a video about the Oroville dam (it is the biggest earthen dam in the united states)

[@murdelabop]

Seconded!

[@laneputman7098]

This is the earliest I've gotten to one of these videos. I always know at least one of his channels will have something fresh for me to listen to on my way to work

[@michaeldeaktor8190]

Well Done, It would be nice to see "Space Race Innovations the Changed Civilian Life" covering those by products of space travel that we use today. From CorningWare to Transistors.

[@seed_drill7135]

Don't forget Tang. Sadly, the real Pyrex is no longer made (except maybe in Japan). Corning sold off it's consumer products division and the stuff under that trade name is no longer the material they made the shuttle tiles from (and has been known to explode in ovens).

[@stevefox3763]

We still call ball Point pens a Biro, radar is not used in most speed cameras though, they use lasers!

[@rickr5193]

My Dad was a pathologist who worked for Chain & Florey at Oxford Radcliffe Hospital developing penicillin and injected Rudolf Hess with penicillin as he had syphilis.

[@markgrissom]

Great video. No mindless, ignorant, and biased political commentary.

[@TheVietnam0725]

Actually Simon, I'm a Radar technician so I do know what it stands for. Take that peasants

[@sandhilltucker]

Damn.

[@AirborneSapper82]

Thanks for the great video !!!!

[@handyandyaus]

How about a video on smart phones? The invention that has literally taken over the world.

[@davidioanhedges]

When actor Stephen Fry once asked his good friend Steve Jobs if the famous logo was based on Turing, Jobs replied, “God, we wish it were.”

[@pamelamays4186]

Suggestion: Sci-fi tech.that has become reality, i.e. Star Trek communicators which are definitely fancy cell phones.

[@mulgerbill]

Lieutenant Uhura DEFINITELY approves of Bluetooth earpieces

[@anthonyC214]

I have not purchased a pen in years as in NYC most banks give them away all the time.

[@murdelabop]

Many hotels as well. Marriott, particularly, gives away excellent pens. :)

[@murdelabop]

On fountain pens, a surprising number of people use them today, for their perceived better writing experience. In the past there was a fairly clear class division in writing equipment. Rich people wrote with fountain pens, middle income people used dip pens, and poor people used pencils. Many schools continued to use dip pens into the 1970s. Even today, some desks in older schools still have holders for ink wells. Today, disposable fountain pens are available for as little as US$1 each at retail. Some Asian manufacturers mass produce fountain pens in huge quantities. Fountain pens do take some skill to use well, but that's kind of the point. Notably, in signing the Brexshit agreement, Ursula von der Leyen used a Pelikan M800, and BoJo used a Parker Duofold, which still carries a royal warrant. HM, The Queen is known to prefer the Parker 51. Fountain pens even have their own social media following. Try them, you may like them.

[@mattfleming86]

Nyet. Bic is fine.

[@thechancellor3715]

Middle and Eastern Europeans at the beginning of the 20th century carried their fountain pens in their jacket breast pockets. Status symbols signaling that they were literate and doing nicely enough to afford them.

[@JamesAllmond]

My Dad was a first generation programmer on one of those old computers (ENIAC no less), at the Pentagon c 1943-46. They also use them to do calculations for large guns, that is what he did...then at IBM after the war. Prior to WW2 (1936 I think) my Dad was also a test case for penicillin after an injury that would normally have taken his arm. He was the 1st person to survive gas gangrene (you can look up my last name in medical journals of the time) without an amputation. So, if it weren't for 2 of these discoveries and WW2. I would not be here...kinda freaky. Oh, and of course, I work in IT...

[@bencappello5324]

Hey fact boy! The 707 was not the first commercial jet!!! How dare you! Lol. Great video as always.

[@asemalshoura519]

I was digging also my friend , Frequency hopping spread spectrum was on the radar as well... with my best regards

[@uprebel5150]

Sixth grade teacher: "You won't always have a calculator in your pocket."

[@sylviahoffman9440]

A lot of current technology we use today was due to military innovation. Excellent video!

[@CaptainCalculus]

My great-uncle was one of the people that designed and built the first Colossus at Bletchley and used it break Lorenz/Tunny. There is a tree there that he used to have lunch under which is now named after him.

[@viridiscoyote7038]

The thumbnail made me think Simon had a mohawk for a moment.

[@budwilliams6590]

Pencils don't have ink that leaks and freezes in the winter, just saying. No judgements here.

[@SovereignwindVODs]

The marks they make are also a lot easier to mess with and the tips prone to breaking. Can't take the time to bust out a sharpener while trying to take aerial notes of the battlefield.

[@hydorah]

12:27 ... 2.3 Million 'DOSIS' haha! That's some fancy new lingo right there!

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@pwmiles56]

Magnetron. Spam. err... EDIT: Biros! I never knew about the Miles Aircraft Co.'s role in introducing the biro. (No relation).

[@grahambaker6664]

Would love to see a World War One equivalent video

[@rayturnerakathebeardeddrag6901]

And yet, there are Internet Idiots who claim that all Human Innovation comes from Aliens. Why they can't just accept that some people are SMART will always baffle me. Love these videos. Hope to see many more.

[@Rekuzan]

Duck tape, used to seal ammo boxes, called thus because of it's waterproof outer layer.

[@jennivamp5]

Literally went to Bletchley Park today! 😂

[@AlexDahlseid2002]

The preposed X-4 wire guided AAMs where precursor to Sidewinder, Sparrow and atoll missiles.

[@lordMartiya]

I was expecting to find the jerrycan here. That container made a lot of things easier after all...

[@jeremyjeaurond]

Nice mohawk in the thumbnail, must've used Keeps

[@randylplampin1326]

12:28 "Two point three millions 'dosis'." Yeah, right.

[@jubb1984]

War only accelerates some innovation, but at a reckless speed and at tremendous cost. We shouldn't give war the credit for innovations, it was just an unavoidable side effect of it.

[@strizldizl3035]

Nice video, but first commercial jetliner was the de Havilland Comet

[@danielnystrom7310]

Two favourit historians, simon and sabaton. Sabaton is a tad heavier than simon but enjoying them both. Keep up the good work pal

[@davecasler]

What about the peaceful use of nuclear power?

[@walterrudich2175]

It’s nothing to be proud of

[@spit_in_my_mouth420]

Without nuclear power, space travel would not be where it is today.

[@Underestimated37]

Technically more of a post war thing, nuclear processes were invented and weaponised for the war but the idea of using them for power generation is distinctively a post war invention, thus the link is fairly tenuous.

[@bjw4859]

Has anyone ever heard of the lost pen paradox ?, also associated with the coat hanger, missing sock & cloths peg paradoxes ?. The theory goes that in everyone has these mysterious portholes that open up & either spit out or suck in these household items, they usually center around couches or sets of draws. Just ask yourself how many pens, etc, you remember buying & how many you actually have, also with socks but the other way. This had to do with the advent of the ball point pen as I bet fountain pens didn't have this problem, but who has ever bought a coat hanger ?.

[@timengineman2nd714]

Sorry, the De Havilland Comet was actually the First Commercial Jet, the Boeing 707 (and it's cousin the ORIGINAL 717 aka C-135) were the first successful large jets used to move people (and in the case of the C-135 both people and cargo, but rarely both at the same time!)!!! Also, in the US, the first Microwaves were made by Amana and called Radar Ranges. I think the USAF used earlier versions for their long range (and long flight time) aircraft, I do know that we "owe" SAC (Strategic Air Force) for the entire concept of "TV dinners"

[@richardpatton2502]

I was expecting Simon with a Mohawk….

[@rwm2986]

Thanks for an interesting video. So, in the USA, 2 billion ball point pens are sold annually but how many are lost each year?

[@seafodder6129]

Approximately 2 billion...

[@reacher72]

Fantastic

[@TheQuickSilver101]

Heck, these are barely sideprojects. There were some truly amazing things that came out of WWII. Thanks!

[@seed_drill7135]

My house was previously owned by the man who invented the electroplating process for the combustion chamber of the bomb. Of course electroplating existed prior to WWII, but his method became the primary method for commercial use after the war.

[@carmatic]

you could have segwayed from the section on WW2 era computers to the NordVPN spot, since they are both about encryption

[@dhc4ever]

Simon, The first commercial jet liner was THE COMET an English aircraft..... Not the 707.

[@chrisyanover1777]

A good side project would be this same topic but innovation that affected civilian life that came from the Apollo missions or NASA!

[@dougcook5167]

Although chilling in its destruction and its slave-labor production, no list of WWII innovations should leave out the one technology that has had the most pronounced impact on the world...the gyroscopic liquid-fueled rocket. The Nazi's V-2 rocket is the precursor of just about every space vehicle launched even today. In fact, the most successful rocket platform, the Soviet R-7 series rockets, still use many of it's designs.

[@balazskuglicz614]

Small footnote: Laszlo Biro name is pronaunced like: Laslo Beero ;)

[@ernest795]

Thumbnail makes Simon look like he has hair. Good on ya mate!

[@richardsawyer5428]

Wasn't the DH Comet the first commercial jetliner not the 707?

[@WormholeJim]

On a side-note, sort of by association - if you're looking for outdoor equipment that will last, that will fit and that won't encumber you - look no further han the nearest military surplus outlet. It's equipment that has been refined through centuries of war to keep the individual soldier alive longer than his adversary so he may stand a better chance of winning the war. You can not go wrong of the military in this regard: their equipment is hands down the best available.

[@rcknbob1]

Perhaps, but as a former soldier I must remind you that these items were also designed for those whose profession includes killing people and breaking things - and that a lot of that equipment was provided by the lowest bidder.

[@WormholeJim]

@@rcknbob1 I'm not entirely sure what your point is, I've got to admit having tried for some time now. Or rather, I'm not sure how the possoble points I'm able to make relates to what I'm saying. I also used to be a soldier. Out of patriotism and a huge humbleness for my grandparent's generation and what sacrifice they brought. But I quit my contract before time after my first tour, seeing what it was I was supposed to do and how that was contrary to all the ideals that had caused me to join. Now I'm a happy hippie. Not exactly a pacifist as they come, but certainly abhorrent of all forms of violence. But itreasure my equipment and I treasure all the cadaver-disciplin that has made me able to set up camp in pitch darkness, tear down camp again, also in pitch darkness and move on without a single itme forgotten or even in a different order than I originally packed it. Some is that cadaver disciplin, the training that got drilled into me. Most of it is the equipment itself how it is extensions of my body, right up to the 35-40 pound mark.

[@rcknbob1]

@@WormholeJim My point - and I do have one (or two) - is that in some cases the equipment I got when I was in the Boy Scouts has served me better than my US - issued gear in the outdoors, both in terms of utility and craftsmanship. In fact, in terms of traveling on foot with all you need in terms of snivel-gear, you can supply yourself better (in my opinion) at a good sporting goods store, although the surplus store will beat them on price in some cases because the gear is in fact surplus to military needs and has been disposed of.

[@WormholeJim]

@@rcknbob1 Oh, right. I had the sense that you were circling around how there are examples throughout history of how - on paper - woefully inadequately equipped armies would make 'short work' of highly skilled, ultra-modern (both in terms of material and doctrine to go with the material) the best example being maybe the war in Russia '42-'45. Well, in my opinion and experience, the civilian stuff - the serious stuff, the professional stuff that people will depend on for their comfortable experience, if not outright survival, in the wilderness - is based on military designs. In fact, historically and drawing on the lessons learned from WWI, the boy scout movement was originally though to be a pre-military training of young boys, so the nation would have a batch of able bodied youth to quickly mobilize a force of competent field operatives. Hitler famously took the whole idea to new heights with his Hitler Jugend organization which was for all intends and purposes a paramilitary unit, whose members would get recruited directly into waffenSS as officer trainees upon coming of age at 16. So, they were issued military equipment and it's not until modern times, when the scout movement became more like a social thing for outdoor oriented youth, that civilian designed products found it's way, even had a market with these. Then, even as you can get very good equipment today from civilian producers, lots of times this equipment is also trying to cater to fashion and trends. So you often times have a lot of unnecessary straps and zippers and buttons and all kinds of protruding whatnots that are there only to look good and as a consequense will work detrimental to it's purpose once in the field. Anyway, my main point of OC, and connecting back to the video, was just a reflection of how war is doing something to us in terms cutting to the bone of the matter and getting stuff done as efficiently as possible. There's little room for horsing around when trying to survive - as an individual or as a nation - and this is what is manifested in, among other aspects, the equipment.

[@marsgal42]

War always produces medical advances: an epidemic of trauma in otherwise-healthy young people.

[@wildshadowstar]

Don’t know if gps falls under radar or not, but I’d consider it for this list.

[@seed_drill7135]

The Germans also developed the first magnetic tape during WWII.

[@ditto1958]

I grew up writing with 19 cent Bic pens

[@kerryelks4314]

Hi Simon and the team. (Free Danny ) been a fan for years across most of your channels. Sorry but there are many many vids like this one (not complaining) but could you also return to little known subjects? You were my bastion of new knowledge for a while but now everyone seems to be doing the same subjects.

[@garycarter5031]

I think the scientist working on penicillin might be my grandfather. Can you tell me where you got the picture and if it's Carol Harold Emerson

[@brodericki4281]

With the computer section…I thought it was Alan Turing? Or is that a popular misconception?

[@zit11owner]

So ballpoint pens cost over $100 in WW2? Seems like it would've been uncommon 🤔

[@paulherman5822]

Even if that's today's money, it seems like they would have been a bad deal, as there were several fountain pens by that time that were as leak free as ballpoint pens on aeroplanes. And the iconic Parker 51 (like is still used by Queen Elizabeth II) wasn't much more expensive (around $150 in today's money.)

[@murdelabop]

@@paulherman5822 Parker even had a pen called the "Flighter", which was intended for use by pilots, and could write in two different line widths.

[@paulherman5822]

@@murdelabop Ironically, the design hasn't really changed from the flawed ballpoint pens that were rushed into production early on. I use exclusively fountain pens. Not out of anything but necessity, as they are not painful to use, for me. With the right pen/ink combination, I don't have a need for a ballpoint pen at all.

[@hardworkerforlife4081]

Just imagine what comes out of ww3

[@benpirie13]

No wonder Americans think they did everything first in life. The dehavillan comet was the first jet airliner xoxoxox

[@johnkey1682]

dosis?

[@reynard2ki]

Yep, I cringed at that.

[@robertb1802]

I would recommend Astrill vpn if you live behind the great firewall. But that's just me.

[@MatthewHarrold]

Sidenote ... today (yesterday for me) was sound check day ... 121221. Tsu tsu. $0.02

[@robertboydston5834]

2 most stolen items in the world are both made by BIC... Pen and Lighter

[@adde9506]

The Army also invented tampons, but I think that was the Korean War.

[@RealityCheck6969]

So the computer, ball pen, jet engine, radar, penicillin, dried blood plasma transfusion, vaccines.

[@ImGoingSupersonic]

Here we go, ive talked about the GOOD that comes from warfare. Unfortunate thats the catapult to get things in overdrive, but hey.

[@garycarter5031]

If he is Carol Harold Emerson then that picture is of a scientist who cured his own leukemia

[@elemar5]

You don't get an additional month *for* free, you get it free.

[@theemissary1313]

War! Huh! What is it good for? Quite a lot as it turns out.

[@manickn6819]

No mention of the German rocket programme? Hmmm. So much depends on that.

[@jagvetattdinpappaehet8175]

could you please include sources in the video? Makes it much more trustworthy

[@ArjayMartin]

'2.3 million dosis' omg

[@TheRedjack77]

ohhh! first 50! on the bounce today