Born on the battlefield

From foxholes to fashion: 10 wartime innovations you can’t live without

Image: Евгений Новиков

Since time immemorial, conflict and the urgent necessities of war have driven rapid innovation. Many everyday products trace their origins back to military needs. From wristwatches to instant coffee, items that once kept soldiers alive, efficient, or comfortable now fill our kitchens, closets, and offices. Here are 10 objects with surprisingly martial origins.

Image: Paul Bright

Now a ubiquitous fabric present in everything from clothes to carpets, nylon debuted in WWII as a replacement for scarce silk in parachutes, ropes, and tire cords.

Its lightweight durability made it indispensable for military supplies. After the war, nylon quickly transitioned into civilian life, with stockings becoming its first big hit.

Image: Marcus Urbenz

First patented in the late 19th century, zippers gained traction during WWI as fasteners for military uniforms and gear. Buttons proved slower and less reliable under battlefield conditions, making zippers a more efficient choice.

The military’s adoption helped standardize their use, and after the war, zippers spread rapidly into civilian clothing, luggage, and countless household items.

Image: Calle Macarone

In 1795, Napoleon offered a prize for a food preservation method that could feed his armies on long marches without risk of spoilage.

Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner, spent 15 years experimenting before developing a process of sealing food in glass jars and heating them to sterilize the contents. Appert received the prize in 1810, and before long, the technique was adapted to tin cans, which soon found their way into military rations.

Image: Amr Taha™

A precursor to modern instant coffee appeared during the American Civil War as a concentrated coffee, milk, and sugar mixture called Essence of Coffee. Soldiers mixed a teaspoon with hot water, but many complained it had the consistency of axle grease (yikes!).

In the decades that followed, the concept was refined, and by WWI and WWII, the U.S. military was mass-issuing instant coffee to troops for convenience and morale. Civilian popularity grew alongside military adoption.

Image: Bryan Angelo

During WWI, officers found pocket watches impractical during fast-paced and unpredictable combat conditions. Many soldiers began strapping them to their wrists for quick time checks, turning a personal improvisation into a battlefield necessity.

The first true wristwatches were designed specifically for this purpose, and the term "trench watch" soon became common. Surprisingly, these early designs already featured enduring innovations, such as luminous dials for nighttime visibility.

Image: Roman

When the U.S. entered WWII, the Army invited more than 130 companies to develop prototypes for a lightweight, four-wheel-drive reconnaissance vehicle; only Bantam and Willys-Overland responded. The resulting Willys MB "Jeep" proved rugged, versatile, and indispensable to soldiers.

After the war, surplus Jeeps hit civilian markets, sparking the off-road craze and laying the groundwork for modern SUVs.

Image: Markus Winkler

Instant noodles were inspired by post-WWII food shortages in Japan. Momofuku Ando, founder of Nissin Foods, invented them in 1958 as a quick, affordable, and portable meal, ideal for a country struggling with limited food supplies.

The noodles were flash-fried to remove moisture, making them lightweight and long-lasting. The concept was influenced by military-style rations, designed for easy storage and preparation.

Image: aaron boris

Zippo lighters were standard issue for U.S. troops in WWII and Vietnam, valued for their windproof flame and reliability in harsh conditions. Throughout the conflicts, the company devoted its full production capacity to meeting military demand.

Afterward, the iconic design and dependability spoke for themselves, turning Zippos into a pop culture symbol of ruggedness among civilians.

Image: Lacey Raper

Specially designed in the 1930s for British paratroopers, cargo pants featured extra pockets for maps, ammunition, and essential supplies, allowing soldiers to carry gear hands-free during airborne operations.

The practical design proved so effective that it was widely adopted by other Allied forces throughout WWII. After the war, the durable pants transitioned into civilian life as reliable workwear for laborers, hikers, and adventurers.

Image: Devin Rajaram

While freeze-drying, or lyophilization, has been known for centuries—the Inca were freeze-drying potatoes as early as the 13th century—it wasn’t until WWII that a commercially viable process was developed.

The military needed a way to preserve blood plasma and penicillin for soldiers in harsh battlefield conditions, where refrigeration was a rare luxury. This demand drove the development of modern freeze-drying techniques, which are still used today for food, medicine, and scientific materials.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.