14 Popular Products That Came From Military Research

Since time immemorial, humans have been researching new and innovative ways to destroy one another. While this is generally a bad thing, military research and innovation have had the positive side benefit of providing us with certain products that have improved our standard of living. Consider, for example, the internet. Life without the internet these days is unthinkable — in fact, you couldn't even read this article without it. As Britannica maintains, you can thank the military for this. The first networks that developed into today's internet were developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1950s and 1960s. The major breakthrough occurred in 1969 with the development of ARPANET, which is considered the first general network for computers.

There are many other products that stem from military and defense research that, at first blush, you wouldn't think have anything to do with defense. But as we shall see, military research is a big thing. In 2022 alone, the Department of Defense requested a research budget of $112 billion — the largest ever. Let's take a look at some of the products military research has given us, from the quirky to the mundane to the useful.

One vital product that curiously derived from the military is women's sanitary napkins for menstruation. Smithsonian explains that until the early 20th century, most women had to rely on homemade sanitary products. There were some exceptions for sale such as Lister's Towels, but these were expensive and not widely used. Then in the late 19th century, the company Kimberly-Clark developed Cellucotton. This was made from wood pulp and proved to be much more absorbent than standard cotton. 

Cellucotton was used to produce bandages, and during World War I, it was the bandage of choice for the wounded. Nurses, however, found that Cellucotton bandages also made for effective sanitary napkins. Fast-forward to after the war in 1921, and disposable sanitary napkins made of Cellucotton appeared as Kotex –- a name derived from the product's cotton-like texture. Smithsonian notes that the impact of Kotex was that it "jumpstarted the feminine hygiene product market."

War shortages inadvertently brought joy to millions of children around the globe. Author Tom Quinn's "Science's Strangest Inventions" explains how, during World War II, there was an acute rubber shortage. Rubber was a vital product for the war effort, not only providing needed material for vehicle tires, but also the very boots worn by the troops. According to HowStuffWorks, the War Production Board enlisted the scientific community to come up with a way to make cheap synthetic rubber. All sorts of materials were tried out. James Wright from General Electric was working with silicon and in one experiment combined it with boric acid. The result was a putty, but not just any putty. It was a putty that bounced and stretched. It also made nice copies from newspapers. Wright had, in fact, invented Silly Putty.

The problem was that while it certainly was interesting, there was no practical use for it. So the goo was shelved until 1949, when toymaker Peter Hodgson marketed it as a novelty. Silly Putty had entered the annals of toy legend. It was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2001.

During World War II, the Allies were heavily involved in the development of radar. In the United States, there were several labs working on the technology; according to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, one of them was manned by the Raytheon company. One of their engineers was Percy Spencer, who was working closely with radio wave-emitting magnetrons. After working with one he found, to his surprise, that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. While Popular Mechanics reports that Spencer's grandson asserts it was a peanut cluster bar, not a chocolate bar, the result is the same: These radio waves could cook. Further tests on popcorn kernels and eggs confirmed this, and the microwave oven was born.

Early microwave ovens were mammoth. The first, 1947's "Radarange," was 6 feet tall and tipped the scales at 750 pounds. It also cost two grand. It took a couple of decades for prices and sizes to shrink enough to make the device so ubiquitous that 90% of homes in the United States have a microwave oven.

While flying a drone is a popular hobby these days, their origins are much more bellicose. A drone, according to Britannica, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be controlled remotely or by its programming. The Imperial War Museum tells us that the earliest drone-like vehicles go back to World War I, when both Britain and the United States began to experiment with radio-controlled aircraft. In the years leading up to World War II, primitive drones were used as targets. The technology kept advancing through the Cold War and beyond. Today units fly in various directions, and some even use solar power. The military is looking at ways to make drones the primary attack aircraft in highly dangerous conflicts instead of sending piloted aircraft.

Drones have also been widely adopted by other sectors. They are used to monitor environmental change and are very popular as a tool for digital photography. Whatever the use, they are growing so popular that the FAA has a raft of regulations concerning their use.

In any military operation, time is of the essence, so armed forces since time immemorial have looked for ways to keep good track of time. Timekeepers used pocket watches by the 19th century, but in the heat of battle, these devices were far too cumbersome. The New York Times tells us that the more practically designed wristwatch was first worn by women and meant to be a fashion statement. However, the German navy experimented with wristwatches, and according to the Wall Street Journal, wristwatches were used during the Boer War (1899-1902).

A small market for wristwatches developed in the early 20th century, which expanded with pilot watches after the launch of the new field of aviation. But the first general adoption of the wristwatch came during World War I in the form of trench watches that featured a simple design with luminescent hands. It was, in fact, during World War I when the phrase "synchronize your watches" came into common parlance since no soldier wanted to be caught out in the open during an artillery barrage. 

Today, Jeep is a major brand of automobile known for its rough-and-ready vehicles that can handle any terrain. So it should be no surprise that Jeep has its origins in the Army, back when the organization was seeking a lightweight reconnaissance vehicle. Autoweek describes how, prior to America's entry into World War II, the U.S. Army was rightly worried that the United States would be drawn into the conflict. War planners realized they needed a vehicle that was fast and agile enough to handle all sorts of terrain. They issued a request for proposals, with a tight deadline. A small carmaker, the American Bantam Car Company, responded with the first Jeep prototype.

This prototype, which was designed by freelance engineer Karl Probst in just 18 hours, did extremely well. However, in order to ramp up production, the War Department enlisted automakers Ford and Willys-Overland to bid for the contract based on Probst's design. The final version of the Jeep included elements from all three companies, and over 637,000 were built during the war. Afterward, as told by Car and Driver, Jeep entered the civilian market. Even though the brand and vehicle were popular, its corporate history was fraught with mergers and losses, usually due to failures of other brands or bad management. Jeep, however, keeps selling.

For T-shirts, we have to thank the U.S. Navy. This simple shirt's story begins, according to Gizmodo, in the 19th century with "union suits." These were one-piece red flannel affairs, complete with a posterior flap, that were popular among the working set. Eventually, some enterprising proletarian decided to cut it in half since the one-piece was too hot in warmer weather. This created "Long Johns."

Fabric choices and experimentation led to an undershirt that was adopted by the U.S. Navy into its uniform. The thinking was that they were simple, easy garments without buttons. It was perfect for the many young, single men who joined the Navy. By regulation, a monochrome undershirt had to be worn under the uniform –- white turned out to be the chosen color. This then became the working shirt in warm weather. During World War I, it was widely adopted by the Army. The T-shirt quickly filtered through most of American culture and really got a boost with Marlon Brando's character Stan Kowalski wearing a tight-fitting one in 1951's "A Streetcar Named Desire." T-shirts may very well be the best-selling clothing item in the world.