The effect of World War II on industrial science

The second world war made considerable demands on science within industry itself, whose scientists consequently experienced fewer basic changes of job than did their academic and Government counterparts; thus there was rather less upheaval, surprise, discontinuity, and exciting change, although of course there were new demands and new kinds of urgency. Moreover, it is possible to draw some rough conclusions about the effects of the war on industrial science by studying, on the one hand, overall economic trends and, on the other, the general pattern of innovation before, during, and after the war.