Focus On Science and Technology: 1950-1959

[Music] in 1950 american scientists were perfecting color television tranquilizers and xerox copying machines amateur inventors all over the world were creating gadgets galore to make our lives easier and more fun was the radio controlled golf caddy [Music] and the robot lawn mower to make our suburban life even more mobile one ingenious angler built a flying boat as a way around or over traffic jams on rivers and lakes and a company in ohio considered marketing an inflatable plane that could fold up and fit in the trunk of a car there were many advances in flying in the early 50s like the world's largest jet helicopter built by howard hughes and radical new turbo prop fighters that could take off and land vertically [Music] by mid-decade boeing was testing our first jetliner the 707. and our new intercontinental b-52s were in fail-safe positions all over the world in 1957 major john glenn flew a navy crusader coast to coast in three hours and 23 minutes reaching speeds of better than a thousand miles an hour in 1959 the navy x-15 rocket plane flew at 3 000 miles an hour and altitudes of 300 000 feet the x-15 was designed to carry our first astronauts into space and at the end of the decade test pilots were practicing moon landings on the desert [Music] the most dramatic medical advance of the 50s was the soft vaccine that immunized us against polio when a bill was presented for congress to provide free soft vaccine to all children mrs ovita kopp hobby hike's secretary of health was horrified she called the plan socialized medicine through the back door [Music] other medical news was not so good in 1953 smoking was first linked to cancer and heart disease cigarette consumption dipped for two years but resumed its rise in 55 after the tobacco industry pumped millions into tv advertising for new filter tips straight down the pike it's time right now for a lucky strike [Music] yes first looking at your boundary like you just can't beat a the first hydrogen bomb explosion in 1952 opened a new era of deathmanship since 1945 when the first a-bomb was exploded american scientists had argued the morality of developing perhaps a thousand times more destructive than those dropped on japan the decision to create an arsenal of new nuclear weapons was made right after russia exploded her own atom bomb in 1949. [Music] [Music] high on the pentagon shopping list was the atomic cannon an awesome piece of hardware that was semi-retired when ground-to-ground missiles became operational at the end of the decade [Music] and in 1954 mrs eisenhower christened the nautilus the world's first atomic submarine the nautilus could circle the globe underwater and in 1958 the ship sailed submerged from hawaii to great britain under the north pole [Music] not all atomic research of the 50s was military since hiroshima scientists were experimenting with nuclear energy as an alternative to oil gas and coal in 1957 an atomic power plant the pilot model for three mile island was proudly unveiled to the public [Music] other visionaries were not so certain that the public would ever accept nuclear power fearful of another oil cut off after iran's refineries were nationalized in 51 scientists began to experiment with solar batteries on october 4th 1957 soviet scientists shocked the world by orbiting a sputnik around the earth [Music] we were worried that if the russians could launch a baby moon in outer space they could certainly reach america with intercontinental missiles president eisenhower assured us there was no missile gap speed of progress in the satellite project cannot be taken as an index of our progress in ballistic missile work our satellite program has never been conducted as a race with other nations i consider our country's satellite program to be well designed and properly scheduled to achieve the scientific purposes for which it was initiated [Music] in 1958 america finally launched a 30-pound satellite into orbit and as the decade ended russia and the us set their sights on the moon [Music] you