Advancements in Technology

In the 1950’s

By, Deborah J. Ragone

WWII was over!

• Advancements were made in the areas of

• Space

• Medicine

• Nucleur energy

• Television

• Computers

The Early Space Age

• WWII – Jet planes replaced propeller planes

Problems with Jets…

• The Jet plane could not fly into outer space

• It needed air to work

• No air in outer space

Early Rockets

• Robert Goddard experimented with rockets in 1926

• The US Army used his ideas

• Rockets would work outside the earth’s atmosphere

The Soviets Beat US!!!!!!

• The Soviets made the first journey into space

• They put a satellite in space.

• The satellite (Sputnik I) orbited the earth

The US sends a Satellite

• In January of 1958, the US sent up Explorer I

• Since then, both the soviets and the US have put many satellites in orbit.

Satellites…

• Have many uses…

• Give information about weather

• Send television signals

• For spying

• Take pictures of earth

Humans in Space!

• Soviet, Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space

The US goes up!

• The US sent up astronaut Alan Shepard. He traveled 116 miles into space

And UP!!!!!

• In 1962 the US sent John Glenn into space.

• He orbited the earth three times!

New Medicines!

• Imagine a world without antibiotics

Before antibiotics…

• Simple infections became killers.

Antibiotics

• Were known as wonder drugs or miracle drugs.

• The 1st was Penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928

• In the fifties, we learned how to mass produce antibiotics.

Vaccines

• A vaccine is a dead or weakened form of a virus

• If exposed to the dead or weakened form, the body builds immunities to the virus.

Line up for the Polio vaccine!

• Polio was a crippling epidemic

• John Salk discovered

• the concept of a vaccine

• Cows & milk

ladies

Atomic Power

• Atomic Power comes from splititng an atom

• IN the late 50’s the US began using nucleur energy to produce electrical power

• In 1957 the US had it’s first nuclear-power plant

Television

• Were at first small with greenish screens

By 1953….

• 20 million TV sets had been sold in America!

Television = Entertainment

• I Love Lucy, most popular TV show.

• Sports became more popular as the games were televised

• The 1952 Presidential election campaign was televised (Eisenhower)

The First Computers

• The early computers were slow

• They were as big as a room

• They cost hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Change in the 1950’s

• Americans quickly got aquainted with…

• Television,

• Jet planes, wonder drugs

• Spaceships

What changes are happening in our society today?