{"id":1206,"date":"2011-03-04T01:00:04","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T06:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/info-libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2023-07-10T19:45:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T19:45:51","slug":"1917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/04\/1917\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 57 – 1917: War Inventions and How They Were Invented by Charles R. Gibson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published: London, 1917\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The tank. The U-boat. The fighter plane. The machine gun. The flamethrower. Poison gas. \u00a0These military technologies were all developed or enhanced during World War I, the first time science, technology, and mass production played a critical role in the course of a war. These technologies also played a critical role in the war\u2019s unprecedented carnage. Defined by destructiveness, scale, and technical innovation, World War I is seen as a watershed, the advent of the modern age.<\/p>\n

With our knowledge of the part \u201cwar inventions\u201d played in the First World War\u2019s horrors, today it seems a bit incongruous that this was considered a fitting subject for the fourth installment of the \u201cScience for Children Library\u201d as the war raged on in 1917. (MIT\u2019s copy is a 1919 reissue.) But as Gibson affirms in the preface, \u201cIt goes without saying that the subject of War Inventions<\/em> was suggested by the Great European War. During these years of warfare even children became interested in the instruments of destruction used in that barbarous thing which we call War<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gibson covers the development of guns from early canons to \u201cguns that fire one thousand shots per minute,\u201d ships from ironclads to submarines, explosive weapons from the first shells to torpedoes and mines, and flying machines from zeppelins to \u00a0\u201caeroplanes.\u201d (There is no mention of poison gas even though World War I is often called the \u201cchemists\u2019 war.\u201d)<\/p>\n

After 250 pages of genial but detached instructive prose, Gibson heads into moral terrain for a few closing paragraphs. \u00a0He writes, \u201cthe conclusion of the whole matter is that with the dreadful experience of the Great War all nations may agree to combine together in a \"\"<\/a>real endeavour to make further wars impossible.\u201d As for what had already transpired? In response to the \u201cworthless\u201d arguments of pacifists, conscientious objectors, and people who \u201csay we had no right to make such machines of war,\u201d he says \u201cwe are confident that our children\u2019s children will agree that we did the right thing in taking part in the Great War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find it in the library<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published: London, 1917 The tank. The U-boat. The fighter plane. The machine gun. The flamethrower. Poison gas. \u00a0These military technologies were all developed or enhanced during World War I, the first time science, technology, and mass production played a critical role in the course of a war. These technologies also played a critical role in the war\u2019s unprecedented carnage. Defined by destructiveness, scale, and technical innovation, World War I is seen as a watershed, the advent of the modern age. With our knowledge of the part \u201cwar inventions\u201d played in the First World War\u2019s horrors, today it seems a bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":false,"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4268,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/4268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}