War is the driving force behind much of the innovation in the 1940s. In a desperate attempt to secure aerial supremacy, the British win the race to develop the jet engine. Under the Reich, a German engineer builds what is now recognized as...See moreWar is the driving force behind much of the innovation in the 1940s. In a desperate attempt to secure aerial supremacy, the British win the race to develop the jet engine. Under the Reich, a German engineer builds what is now recognized as the world's first true computer. In the United States, the microwave is born after a self-taught inventor realizes that military equipment is responsible for melting a chocolate bar in his pocket. A U.S. Air Force doctor is ordered to stop experimenting on himself, and so he duplicates himself, giving us the first crash test dummy. And, a sailor returns home and hits pay dirt with an invention that finally brings cats in from the cold: kitty litter.
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