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 1 st 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?