10 вещей из армии, которыми вы пользуетесь каждый день

Every morning, you use dozens of things without thinking about their origins. The microwave, the internet, GPS, superglue, reinforced tape, canned goods, aviator sunglasses, cargo pockets, SUVs, EpiPens, Velcro, ballpoint pens, bandages, membrane fabric—none of these things started in the kitchen or the store. They all started in war. Military engineers solved specific problems: how to feed an army of millions, how to prevent a pilot from going blind, how to administer an antidote to a dying soldier in seconds, how to provide a submarine with precise coordinates anywhere in the ocean. The tasks were tough, the solutions were universal. Percy Spencer received two dollars for a patent on the microwave. Paul Baran invented the internet to survive a nuclear attack. Earl Dixon invented the bandage because his wife cut her fingers in the kitchen. None of them thought about you. But it's for you that this works every day. Sources: Smithsonian Magazine — "The Accidental Invention of the Microwave Oven" RAND Corporation Archives — Paul Baran, "On Distributed Communications," 1964 U.S. Department of Defense, GPS.gov — official history of the NAVSTAR program "The Duct Tape Book" — Tim Nyberg, Jim Berg, 1994 Johnson & Johnson Heritage Archives — history of Band-Aid "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance" — Atul Gawande, chapter on field medicine W.L. Gore & Associates — official history of the creation of Gore-Tex National Museum of American History — collection of military technology in civilian applications "The Disappearing Spoon" — Sam Keene, chapter on Thomas Midgley