The Greatest Inventions of the 1940s

[lolly_loisides]

My cat Mango & I are very grateful that Fred Lowe invented kitty litter in 1947.

 

[sheeplady]

Benadryl. Seriously saved my life more than once.

If this was the 1950s, it would be Doxorubicin. Still used in breast cancer treatment 60 years later (as a first line chemo drug, no less). Oldie but goodie.

 

[Stanley Doble]

May I give an honorable mention to DDT? It saved millions of lives in WW2. One of the reasons that war was comparatively free of epidemics was the use of DDT in Allied controlled areas.

 

[LizzieMaine]

DDT is a perfect example of the human tendency to latch onto any useful technology and overmarket and overuse it to the point where it becomes a menace. Antibiotics are another. It's a pity we can't invent a solution to that problem.

DDT eliminated malaria in the United States -- which was no small accomplishment given how common it was in the Deep South prior to the 1940s.

DDT also gave a generation of teenage girls one of the best slang phrases to come out of the Era: if some boy was bothering you you told him to "DDT!", meaning, of course, "Drop Dead Twice."

 

[sheeplady]

DDT is also apparently very good at killing bed bugs- one of the most effective things against the buggers. One of the reasons why they are on the rise in the U.S. again.

If people had used it more appropriately, it wouldn't be banned in the U.S. But when you have a hammer...

 

[Dan Allen]

What !! you mean that the Old WW2 bomber that use to strafe our house in Florida in the early sixties emitting a cloud of the stuff every morning was not "appropriate" Imagine that

 

[Bruce Wayne]

What !! you mean that the Old WW2 bomber that use to strafe our house in Florida in the early sixties emitting a cloud of the stuff every morning was not "appropriate" Imagine that

When I was a young lad living in the Florida Keys back in the 80's, I remember that if I got up early enough Douglas C-117's would be strafing over the land spraying a cloud of insect repellent. Pick-up trucks would come through in the evening.

 

[GHT]

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.

Aw, Lizzie, surely there's a place in your heart for Messrs Dupont and The Nylon Stocking?

The company decided not to register nylon as a trademark, according to Dupont they, "choose to allow the word to enter the American vocabulary as a synonym for stockings, and from the time it went on sale to the general public in May 1940, nylon hosiery was a huge success: women lined up at stores across the country to obtain the precious goods."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Aw, Lizzie, surely there's a place in your heart for Messrs Dupont and The Nylon Stocking?

I'm more of a cotton-stocking kind of gal myself, but nylon does have its place.

 

[Benny Holiday]

A couple of Aussie inventions: the classic Hills Hoist rotary clothes dryer from 1946, and Howard Florey's pioneering work in developing antibiotics from penicillin.

 

[MikeBravo]

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?

I think you're a bit confused there, Hedley Lamarr is a character from Blazing Saddles, Hedy Lamarr was the actress and inventor.

Hedley Lamarr


Hedy Lamarr

 

[GHT]

I think you're a bit confused there, Hedley Lamarr is a character from Blazing Saddles, Hedy Lamarr was the actress and inventor.
Hedy Lamarr
View attachment 16343

Talk about embarrassing, I read an amazing story about Hedy Lamarr, how she figured out the physics in remote control, she gave it for free to the American Military, who, not knowing what to do with it, locked it away. Did I really write Hedley?

 

[1930artdeco]

GHT, yep. but I knew who you meant. I t was an honest mistake as they look alike:eeek:

Mike

 

[rjb1]

Which is why Hedley had to keep shouting, "That's HEDLEY!"

 

[vitanola]

DDT is also apparently very good at killing bed bugs- one of the most effective things against the buggers. One of the reasons why they are on the rise in the U.S. again.

If people had used it more appropriately, it wouldn't be banned in the U.S. But when you have a hammer...

Actually, bed bugs, at least those which are newly infesting our cities, seemed to have become resistant to DDT, as have many other insects. Still the result of indiscriminate use of that miracle pesticide, though.

 

[sheeplady]

Actually, bed bugs, at least those which are newly infesting our cities, seemed to have become resistant to DDT, as have many other insects. Still the result of indiscriminate use of that miracle pesticide, though.

Wonderful. Urgh.

I did a quick search and my understanding is that this is due to bed bugs coming predominately from areas where DDT is still used, and therefore are immune.

I wonder why the selection for this gene is still happening in the U.S.; given the fact that it gives no survival advantage since we no longer use DDT. There's something going on there- with that gene being tied to something else- unless it is just genetic drift. But insects and other organisms don't tend to retain genes that have been actively selected for in past generations, but are no longer necessary in the current environment. But there is so much we don't know.

 

[vitanola]

Wonderful. Urgh.

I did a quick search and my understanding is that this is due to bed bugs coming predominately from areas where DDT is still used, and therefore are immune.

I wonder why the selection for this gene is still happening in the U.S.; given the fact that it gives no survival advantage since we no longer use DDT. There's something going on there- with that gene being tied to something else- unless it is just genetic drift. But insects and other organisms don't tend to retain genes that have been actively selected for in past generations, but are no longer necessary in the current environment. But there is so much we don't know.

Because DDT acts the same way as do the many Pyrethinoid insecticides which are currently our first line of defense against bed bugs.

 

[Harp]

Definitely great:

The Jeep (1940)

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."

View attachment 16312

Definitely the Jeep and the bikini.

 

[Talbot]

^^^^I can see some synergies there.

 

[GHT]

^^^^I can see some synergies there.

You and me both!

[video=youtube;RN0eaOuBnIs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN0eaOuBnIs[/video]