Sathyajith Pinikeshi
CHC2DB
Mr.Pasquontonio
May.25.2015

How Modern Technology In World War 1 Changed The Face Of The Earth

In 1914, July 28th the First World War broke out bringing in more military advancements making it easier to kill millions of men than ever before. World war one being the first world war also had many other firsts. Air warfare, Sea warfare, and Chemical warfare, were all firsts that made the traditional method where ‘lines of men take turns shooting each other’ un-usable. Although they were all methods making death easier they also brought upon new developments for commercial uses.
WW1 was the first to be fought partially in the air due to advancements in Air warfare. Observation balloons were used in previous wars but they were only used for artillery spotting. The aviation industry was extremely slow up until WW1, when they were used for fighting purposes. The first winged aircraft was made by Sir George Cayley in 1804 and about a century later Samuel Langley made the first gas powered engine which was unmanned and flew for about half a mile.1 Only in 1903 was the first manned aircraft created by the Wright Brothers. Eleven years later WW1 broke out and mankind needed aircraft to fight, which is when the aircraft industry really took off. Faster and lighter aircraft were being produced, there were more air craft carriers in the ocean than ever before and by 1916 the U.S. navy made pilotless drones to fight their battles.2
1 ‘Airplane Timeline.’ N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2015.
2 ‘12 Technological Advancements of World War I.’ Mental Floss, n.d. Web. 2 June 2015.
With all these air craft flying around there had to be some way of communication, but wired comm. lines were being tapped all the time and waving your hands frantically to signal pilots was rather unreliable due to miscommunication. Which is why wireless communication was able to send voices to airplanes in 1917 by the U.S. Army, to have a safer and more reliable communication system.3 Although these advancements in aviation were used to accelerate killing in the war they are still used today for commercial purposes. A century after the war these developments are in use today as wireless communication, Army air drones, Military airplane carriers and the planes themselves for commercial purposes, even though they aren’t as basic as they used to be. These are but a few advancements which were birthed from WW1.
Sea travel goes way back to ancient times but even so there were many other advancements regarding sea warfare. In the wars before WW1 sea warfare existed, but it was only on water. The submarine was perfected by John Phillip Holland in 1896 and was bought by the American Navy.4 The submarine had been in only two wars prior to WW1. However it was only in WW1 that submarines had the greatest impact. German U-boats carried twelve topedos and by the end of 1914, they had sent two hundred British ships to the ocean floor. Even civilian ships were at risk from the U-boats. With such dangers floating in the ocean where no one could see them, there obviously were some counter measures. So came along hydrophone and depth charges. The first Hydrophone was invented by Reginald Fessenden in 1914 and was later improved by Paul Langevin.5 The hydrophone is a mic emits and collects sound waves to locate enemy submarines. Another counter measure was the developed to prevent submarines from dangerously swimming the vast seas.
3 ‘(‘12 Technological Advancements of World War I’)

4 (‘History of Submarines’)
5 (‘12 Technological Advancements of World War I’)
Depth Charges were perfected in 1916 by the Royal Navy’s Torpedo and Mine school.6 The charges were thrown off the deck and would go off after reaching a certain pressure level to ensure that none of the surface vessels would be harmed. Now all of these developments are only used for military or research purposes.
On the battle field there was a completely new type of warfare which didn’t have many uses