In 1873 Joseph Glidden patented barbed wire in the United states. Although he was not the first one to invent it, he improved the design of it. Barbe wire was originally used as a way to fence areas and mark one's property, it had a great impact on the American west. In World War One, Barbe wire had a much deadlier effect. It was placed on areas which were being defended, like trenches, and used to entangle people up in it, making them a much easier target.
One of the biggest killers of Worl War one was the machine gun. Machine guns were capable of firing from 400 to 600 rounds per minute. The modern machine gun was invented by the American Hiram Maxim in 1884. During the war, the British used the Vickers machine gun while the Germans used the Maschinengewehr. The machine guns in WWI were still fairly primitive as they were very heavy, around 60 pounds, often jammed up and required a system of constantly being cooled because they would heat up very fast. They required a crew of about 4 to 6 men to operate it; some to fire it, others to feed it bullets and others to cool it down. Because of those reasons machine guns were used for defense and not for offense.
The deadliest weapon in all of World War one was Artillery. Artillery accounts for 75% of casualties during WWI. Artillery shells were mostly used for sieges, as both armies were fortified inside trenches. Artillery had the advantage of taking a curved path as opposed to a straight one, Meaning it could go over any cover that the enemy had. Artillery had to take into account factors such as wind and temperature but it could be very precise by using mathematical calculations. Artillery shells weighed around 300 pounds and could fire about 25 miles in the air.
World War one is the first instance of poisonous gas being used in war. The Germans were the first to use Poison gas, chlorine gas to be exact. They launched gas canisters filled with gas and let the wind carry the gas cloud toward the enemy. Later in the war, gas would be launched from mortars, making it more precise. Chlorine gas would attack the eyes and the lungs. Mustard gas burned any exposed skin, membrane or tissue and took longer to disperse than other gasses and would even burn through clothing. In order to counter the gas, many countries developed masks to protect against the effects of the gas. But gas was an unreliable weapon. It depended on the wind to carry it to the enemy, but if the current of the wind changed, it would go back at the person that launched it. As deadly as gas sounds it only accounted for very few of the deaths in WWI, only about half a million deaths.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/technology/machine-gun
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-glidden-applies-for-a-patent-on-his-barbed-wire-design
http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/artillery
http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/weapons
You did good research to describe how these creations were beneficial to the war. I also like how you added pictures in order to show us what the invention is so that we can actually know what it was like or what it looks like.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the weapons you described were invented or patented in the United States, which is very interesting and helps further explain why the US economy grew so rapidly during the war since it was able to produce and sell these newly created weapons to the British and French. It is also very interesting to know that the machine gun was not used for offense as much because of how cumbersome it was, and that artillery was a main offense of the war. The differences in weapons for this war compared to others shows why it was fought in trenches and why it took so long for either side to gain ground. I wonder if the US's military was more familiar with some of the new weapons because they were invented in the US or if all armies had an adjustment period to the new types of machinery being used. For more information on how the US utilized the new weapons: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/americas-military-power-in-world-war-one/
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