The Greatest Inventions of the 1940s

[LizzieMaine]

10 -- The paint roller. (1942)

9 -- Microwave cooking (1945)

8 -- Pre-pasted wallpaper (1941)

7 -- Elmer's Glue (1947)

6 -- The atomic clock (1949)

5 -- The Aerosol can (1941)

4 -- The electric blanket (1947)

3 -- Tupperware (1946)

2 -- Cat Litter (1946)

1 -- Duct Tape (1943)

 

[Talbot]

Perhaps not great, but useful:

Velcro (1948)

 

[Talbot]

Definitely great:

The Jeep (1940)

 

[1930artdeco]

I am going to have to agree with Lizzie on this one. Duct tape is the greatest invention from the 40's if not ever. Probably the most influencing invention though would have to be atomic power though. It touched and still touches our lives in multiple ways outside of weapons.

Mike

 

[Stanley Doble]

The Bendix automatic washer

Torque converter transmission (essential to the modern automatic)

 

[EmergencyIan]

I am going to have to agree with Lizzie on this one. Duct tape is the greatest invention from the 40's if not ever. Probably the most influencing invention though would have to be atomic power though. It touched and still touches our lives in multiple ways outside of weapons.

Mike

In fact, duct tape has been brought on every NASA flight into space. And, I believe that the astronauts have had to put it to use more than once, over the years.

- Ian

 

[Stearmen]

In fact, duct tape has been brought on every NASA flight into space. And, I believe that the astronauts have had to put it to use more than once, over the years.

- Ian

Yes, Apollo 17 Astronauts used it to repair the fenders on their Moon Buggy!

 

[Stearmen]

December 16, 1947, the point-contact transistor.

 

[Stearmen]

Radial tire (1946) Supersonic Flight (1947)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes, Apollo 17 Astronauts used it to repair the fenders on their Moon Buggy!

Around here, duct tape over a rust hole spray-painted the color of your car will get you an inspection sticker every time. One of those astronauts must be from New England.

 

[Fading Fast]

Yes, Apollo 17 Astronauts used it to repair the fenders on their Moon Buggy!

Based on the Ron Howard movie "Apollo 13," didn't they use duct tape to make the air filters fit the jerry-rigged LEM that they survived in? (Smart people like me get their history from mass-market movies.:eusa_doh

 

[F. J.]

Apollo XIII . . .

Based on the Ron Howard movie "Apollo 13," didn't they use duct tape to make the air filters fit the jerry-rigged LEM that they survived in? (Smart people like me get their history from mass-market movies.:eusa_doh

That part was true.

Also, the real Jim Lovell cameo'd as the captain of the aircraft carrier in the film. You can see him at the end when Tom Hanks shakes his hand.


Here's a documentary with interviews with the people that were there, including two of the astronauts (Jack Swigert passed away in 1982):
[video=youtube;h3RSqdj_VnY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3RSqdj_VnY[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3RSqdj_VnY
(The Duct Tape is discussed starting at 29:32)

 

[Hercule]

10 -- The paint roller. (1942)
8 -- Pre-pasted wallpaper (1941)

Oh my, thanks for the memory! I wallpapered many a room with my dad when I was at home. Now that I look back on it, for which I sincerely thank you, I have fond memories of it being a very special, almost bonding thing I did with my dad. We had a special 6'+ or so homemade table (2 long, wide and thin planks length-wise hinged in the middle) that sat on fragile tall homemade saw horses. The table had a metal strip along the edge because way back when there was an edge to wallpaper that needed to be trimmed off, and of course remnants of long dried up and encrusted paste in the cracks. Though the wallpaper did indeed come pre-pasted, my dad insisted we needed to put on more paste - which we mixed to the consistency of very thin oatmeal. I can see him now mixing the paste in one of mom's biggest pots, he did it in a careful almost ritual like manner. Boy wallpapering was a wet process - brushing on the paste on and washing everything down after every strip.

Thank you for reminding me of those great times (though I probably didn't think so at the time) with my dad.

 

[GHT]

I am going to have to agree with Lizzie on this one. Duct tape is the greatest invention from the 40's if not ever. Probably the most influencing invention though would have to be atomic power though. It touched and still touches our lives in multiple ways outside of weapons.

Mike

Are you serious? You don't even give Alan Turin's first ever computer, the machine that cracked the Enigma code, even a second thought?
Or Hedley Lamarr's genius in coming up with the physics that would later be used for remote locking, remote cell phones, remote tv channel changers and a myriad of other uses? And where would we be if Sir Frank Whittle hadn't invented The Jet engine?
Then you have Robert Watson-Watt who came up with Radio Detection And Ranging. A system that became known by it's acronym: RADAR.
And how much was WW2 shortened because of Barnes Wallis and his bouncing bomb.

And what about Dr. Percy Spencer, who, in 1946, invented the microwave oven?

Or Percy Shaw, who, too drunk to find his way home from the pub, invented the cateyes.

Or Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicilin, or what we know as antibiotics, in 1940?

And. in 1948, Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera, at the same time Dennis Gabor discovered the secrets of Holography.
Whilst in the laboratories of Columbia Records, they came up with the winning idea of: The LP.

However, for the red blooded loungers, by far and away the best ever 1940's invention/concept/discovery had to be that of Frenchman: Louis Reard, who named his female swimsuit design after a now famous atoll:
"The Bikini."

 

[1930artdeco]

On second thought.......Ok those rank right up there with Duct tape and Atomic power. O.K. let me see if I have this straight. During the 40's, a period of slight upheveal where double digit millions of people died, people came up with most of the 'modern inventions' we use today. Giver or take a few. Talk about a strange thought.

Mike

 

[GHT]

Yep, necessity is the mother of invention.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some people are taking this thread way too seriously.

 

[DesertDan]

Here? Noooo....

 

[Stanley Doble]

On second thought.......Ok those rank right up there with Duct tape and Atomic power. O.K. let me see if I have this straight. During the 40's, a period of slight upheveal where double digit millions of people died, people came up with most of the 'modern inventions' we use today. Giver or take a few. Talk about a strange thought.

Mike

Let Orson Welles explain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNo8ld7ak8w

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fact is, I use duct tape every day of my life. I never use cellphone technology, use jet engines once every ten years, and am allergic to penicillin. So, duct tape for mine.