One such example was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), one of the first general purpose computers. However, the war demanded rapid progression of such technology, resulting in the production of new computers of unprecedented power.
Similar to radar technology, computers had been in development well before the start of World War II.
By the 1950s, radar became a key way for meteorologists to track rainfall, as well as storm systems, advancing the way Americans followed and planned for daily changes in the weather. Using radar technology, meteorologists advanced knowledge of weather patterns and increased their ability to predict weather forecasts. The development and application of radar to the study of weather began shortly after the end of World War II. More than solely changing the way Americans warm their food, radar became an essential component of meteorology. The ease of heating food using microwaves has made this technology an expected feature in the twenty first century American home. Putting this wartime technology to use, commercial microwaves became increasingly available by the 1970s and 1980s, changing the way Americans prepared food in a way that persists to this day. Spencer began to experiment with different kinds of food, such as popcorn, opening the door to commercial microwave production. The common story told claims that Spencer took note when a candy bar he had in his pocket melted as he stood in front of an active radar set. Percy Spencer, an American engineer and expert in radar tube design who helped develop radar for combat, looked for ways to apply that technology for commercial use after the end of the war. After the war came to an end, cavity magnetrons found a new place away from war planes and aircraft carrier and instead became a common feature in American homes. Radar technology played a significant part in World War II and was of such importance that some historians have claimed that radar helped the Allies win the war more than any other piece of technology, including the atomic bomb. During World War II, the ability to produce shorter, or micro, wavelengths through the use of a cavity magnetron improved upon prewar radar technology and resulted in increased accuracy over greater distances. This name of the device-the cavity magnetron-may not be as recognizable as what it generates: microwaves. This device not only proved essential in helping to win World War II, but it also forever changed the way Americans prepared and consumed food. When looking at wartime technology that gained commercial value after World War II, it is impossible to ignore the small, palm-sized device known as a cavity magnetron.
The scientific and technological legacies of World War II became a double-edged sword that helped usher in a modern way of living for postwar Americans, while also launching the conflicts of the Cold War. Added to this, advances in the technology of warfare fed into the development of increasingly powerful weapons that perpetuated tensions between global powers, changing the way people lived in fundamental ways. Wartime medical advances also became available to the civilian population, leading to a healthier and longer-lived society. Technologies developed during World War II for the purpose of winning the war found new uses as commercial products became mainstays of the American home in the decades that followed the war’s end. Of the enduring legacies from a war that changed all aspects of life-from economics, to justice, to the nature of warfare itself-the scientific and technological legacies of World War II had a profound and permanent effect on life after 1945.
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