--- title: World War I Anniversary: 5 Inventions of the Great War description: If necessity is the mother of invention, it stands to reason that war has often provoked more than its fair share of light-bulb moments. canonical: https://time.com/4725511/world-war-one-i-inventions-centennial/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-06T14:00:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:56.033Z article:section: History og:title: World War I Anniversary: 5 Inventions of the Great War og:description: You've probably used at least one of these items og:url: https://time.com/4725511/world-war-one-i-inventions-centennial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5787497c0c7d9bc1/6988c1724dd2157746efe67d/elgin-watch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1307 og:image:height: 735 og:image:alt: Elgin Watch og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World War I Anniversary: 5 Inventions of the Great War twitter:description: You've probably used at least one of these items twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5787497c0c7d9bc1/6988c1724dd2157746efe67d/elgin-watch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 5 Most Surprising Inventions to Come Out of World War I > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: What to Know About Why the U.S. Entered World War I in 1 Minute [Watch (HLS stream): What to Know About Why the U.S. Entered World War I in 1 Minute](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mttXx07O.m3u8) (1:03)  _Published 2017-04-05. It was precisely 100 years ago this week that the U.S. made a decision that would alter the course of history for the nation and the world._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 6, 2017 2:00 PM UTC  A wristwatch made by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Illinois, in 1917. A wristwatch made by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Illinois, in 1917. Courtesy of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 6, 2017 2:00 PM UTC If necessity is the mother of invention, it stands to reason that the [life-and-death ](http://time.com/4105085/veterans-day-world-war-i-memorial/)situations of war have often provoked more than their fair share of light-bulb moments. Such ideas and items are later associated with everyday peacetime life, but their origins are on the battlefield. In light of the 100th anniversary of America entering [World War I](http://time.com/4717087/women-wwi-video/) on [April 6, 1917](http://time.com/4718767/american-troops-wwi-excerpt/), TIME has compiled some of the most surprising innovations that came out of U.S. involvement in what has been called the first real technology war, with the help of Doran Cart, senior curator at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Mo. **Kotex and Kleenex** As battlefield injuries grew, the cotton supply shrunk. The company Kimberly-Clark developed a substitute made from wood pulp and dubbed it Cellucotton. The new material was pitched to the U.S. surgeon general as a substitute for cotton surgical dressing for war wounds and as a filter in gas masks. Two employees developed the material after visiting European pulp and paper mills in 1914 and seeing that manufacturers overseas were using processed pulp to make something that could stand in for cotton. During the war, the company [claims](http://www.cms.kimberly-clark.com/umbracoimages/UmbracoFileMedia/ProductEvol%5FFemininePads%5FumbracoFile.pdf) it produced 380 to 500 feet of Cellucotton per minute, according to the company. Red Cross nurses started using the new material as sanitary pads during their menstrual periods, ditching the old-fashion diaper-like flannel products that American women typically washed and reused, according to _The Curse, A Cultural History of Menstruation_. Post-war, Kimberly-Clark had to figure out what to do with the surplus of Cellucotton that was left over, which the company had bought back from the government. After hearing about how the nurses were using it, they made a version to sell to consumers. It was hand-produced and sold in 1920 at 60 cents per 12-pack — making it the company’s first consumer product: Kotex sanitary napkins. Then researchers figured out another use for the invention. They ironed out heavyweight material into thin sheets, tweaking the ingredients and using different pups to produce a thinner, softer tissue that became known as Kleenex — which likely took its name from its ability to clean, “while the capital ‘K’ and the ‘ex’ ending were adopted from Kotex, which had been introduced four years earlier,” [according to](https://www.cms.kimberly-clark.com/umbracoimages/UmbracoFileMedia/ProductEvol%5FFacialTissue%5FumbracoFile.pdf) the company. **Wristwatches** Uniforms for soldiers on the battlefield had to hold so many things that pocket watches lost their places. The solution was to adopt something that might have previously made troops turn up their noses. “\[Wristwatches\] existed before the war, but they were primarily worn by women because they were seen as jewelry,” says Cart. A watch for battle needed to be fairly large with luminous dials that could be seen in the dark. One example of such a timepiece, made by the [Elgin National Watch Company](http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah%5F851776) of Elgin, Ill., is in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The white numbers are covered in the radioactive substance radium so that they glow in the dark, while a shrapnel guard protects the fragile dial. Wristwatches were used to synchronize movements of artillery and tanks (another invention of World War I, originally designed for agricultural use but then outfitted with armor and guns to transport soldiers across the muddy no man’s land). **Meatless sausages** These were one of the many substitutes concocted by Germans amid food shortages due to British blockades, which also included using sawdust to make bread and dyed strips of newspaper for clothes, according to Cart. Konrad Adenauer, the mayor of Cologne (who would later be elected Chancellor of Germany after World War II) invented a vegetarian sausage made from soy, flour, corn, barley and ground rice that became known as “Kölner Wurst” or “Cologne sausage.” It did not catch on much in Germany after the war because it wasn’t as flavorful as the meat version, but such meat substitutes are now common in the American diet. **Plastic surgery** In light of the number and magnitude of wounds that resulted in facial disfiguration among World War I troops, doctors developed eye, ear, nose and jaw reconstruction procedures. (Previously, those who suffered such wounds would have been confined to wearing a mask.) Harold Gillies and Henry Pickerill were two of these doctors, who served victims from Great Britain and New Zealand at Queen Mary’s Hospital at Sidcup, Kent. It was Gillies’ idea to use patients’ own tissue to reduce the risk that the body would reject the skin graft. He published the textbook _Plastic Surgery of the Face_ in 1920. ## Transcript The Great War began in 1914, the US didn't join until 1917. But even though the Unites States was neutral it was still involved, for example providing supplies to the British was big business. And some Americans went off to join armies abroad. American civilians who crossed the Atlantic were Were also at risk of attack by German submarines. That's what happened in May 1915, when the Lusitania was torpedoed and more than a 100 Americans were killed. Eventually Germany promised to stop the torpedoes. The US stayed neutral. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson campaigned for reelection, with a slogan reminding Americans that he'd kept the country out of war. He won. However, he also began beefing up the military. In early 1917 German submarine warfare resumed and the British decoded a message from Germany's foreign minister to his ambassador in Mexico. The telegram offered a deal to entice Mexico to take sides against the U. S. The exact reasons why the U. S. joined the war are complicated. That message is seen as the final straw. A few weeks later, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war. On April 6th 1917 the resolution passed. And the US entered World War I. 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