The two World Wars devastated the countries involved in them and are considered the bloodiest conflicts in history. However, all these war periods served as inspiration and encouragement for inventors and visionary companies to bring to light a series of products and articles that today would seem as common to us as if they had existed all our lives. Here are 10 of the most famous.
10. Instant noodles
Momofuko Ando's name doesn't seem to be familiar to anyone. However, this Taiwanese, born in 1910 and exiled in Japan during the occupation of the island during World War II, had the idea of producing a groundbreaking product industrially and at an affordable price:instant noodle soup.
His company, Nissin Productos Alimenticios, was the one that put the so-called Chicken ramen in stores, which was followed years later by the Cup Noodle soup.
9. McDonald's fries
J.R. Simplot was in charge of providing the United States Army with a groundbreaking product such as freeze-dried potatoes and vegetables. Having a longer shelf life, his frozen vegetables helped troops survive their missions in Europe.
After the end of World War II and his contract with the military he signed a contract with Ray Kroc to be his supplier of frozen fries.
Over time, the Simplot emporium, which has been the cause of the Idaho-potato association, became the supplier of more than half of McDonald's fries worldwide.
8. Chemical fertilizers
After the end of World War II, the industrial machinery that had been used to mass-produce ammunition through nitrogen synthesis was repurposed to produce chemical fertilizers.
Thanks to this product, agriculture became profitable and crops began to grow exponentially due to the relationship between nitrogen levels in the soil and crop yields.
7. female tampons
Feminine hygiene has a before and after since the development of a light, highly absorbent gauze called Cellucotton.
The Kimberley-Clark company manufactured it to help treat wounded American soldiers in combat. After World War I the leftover stock of Cellucotton was used by Red Cross nurses during their menstrual cycles. Kimberley-Clark heard about it and from there he manufactured the first compress.
Tampax was inspired by the Kotex brand to start producing what we know today as tampons in the midst of World War II.
6. Teflon
Allied scientists endeavored to perfect military weaponry one step ahead of that of the fascists. Teflon was accidentally discovered in 1938 by Roy J. Plunkett in an investigation to find a material that would resist the volatile components of early atomic bombs.
It was developed within the Manhattan Project that unfortunately ended with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After this, Teflon found a new use:as a nonstick coating on pots and pans, as well as a stain-resistant coating on clothing.
5. Saccharin
The sugar substitute was discovered by the chemist Ira Remsen in 1879, although it is also claimed that Constantin Fahlberg a year earlier. However, it was not until World War I that it began to be used as a sweetener.
And it was not for weight loss reasons but because sugar began to be rationed as its supply could not be guaranteed. The same thing happened during World War II, but in 1957 Benjamin Eisenstadt, who had been the inventor of sugar packets, and his son Marvin Eisenstadt, combined dextrose and saccharin in a revolutionary product called Sweet'n'Low. .
This granulated saccharin that came packaged in pink sachets survived the return of sugar to the American diet.
4. Microwave oven
Before its manufacture as an indispensable appliance in any kitchen, the concept of the microwave was nothing more than a side effect of the radar emitters of World War II.
Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer who was researching magnetrons, realized that the heat they gave off could be used in the kitchen. After this, the first microwave ovens began to be manufactured in 1955.
3. American tape
Duct tape came into use during World War II. American soldiers needed a flexible, waterproof material that they could use to repair anything.
The Johnson And Johnson company was commissioned to manufacture for the troops some rolls of medical tape that had a self-adhesive side. After the war, this exclusively military product began to be demanded by the rest of the population:the duct tape was born.
2. Disposable syringes
During the American Civil War and World War I, soldiers who were wounded in combat suffered untold suffering, resorting only to morphine to ease their pain.
In World War II, the traditional glass and metal syringes were replaced by a new product called the 'syrette', compact and disposable. Then they came preloaded with a single dose of morphine and were distributed among the medical detachments of the armies.
It was the precedent of the current plastic syringes. From then on, hardly anyone would remember those old syringes that had to be boiled to sterilize them.
1. Disney
Disney was not born as an entertainment company in World War II. However, at that time the American government, faced with a possible bankruptcy of the company founded by Walt Disney, commissioned him to make a series of animated films to spread Latin American culture and thereby curb the popularity of Fascism in the population of countries. South Americans like Brazil or Chile.
That is when Disney became the superpower of the show that has survived to this day.