# From War Room to Living Room - Voyager (and wife)'s new book

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-war-room-to-living-room-voyager-and-wife-s-new-book/1010241>\
**Category:** Marketplace\
**Tags:** movies\
**Created:** [November 14, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-war-room-to-living-room-voyager-and-wife-s-new-book/1010241 "2024-11-14T03:07:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-war-room-to-living-room-voyager-and-wife-s-new-book/1010241/1 "2024-11-14T03:07:08Z")

</div>

[![](https://cwc-fremontareawriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/war_book.jpg) ](https://cwc-fremontareawriters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/war_book.jpg)

My wife and I have a book published by Bloomsbury on how military innovations got adopted for civilian use. There are 46 entries from computers and the internet to Cheetos and Kotex.  
My wife did the chemical, clothing and biology stuff. I did the tech stuff.

Interesting things I found out:  
The problem with Kotex (developed from a cotton substitute used for bandages in World War I) was that in those days the clerks in stores were men, so women didn’t want to ask for them. The ad man for Kotex and its spinoff Kleenex was the guy who invented Smoky Bear.  
The inventor of the microwave, a top engineer at Raytheon, never graduated elementary school.  
Jerry cans were a top German secret before World War II. The design and samples migrated from Berlin to the US under mysterious circumstances in what would make an excellent Indiana Jones movie.

The book is a bit expensive (Bloomsbury puts it out in paperback in two years) so ask your library to order it. It is in at least 30 already.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-war-room-to-living-room-voyager-and-wife-s-new-book/1010241/2 "2024-11-15T19:10:52Z")

</div>

For the paperback tell Bloomsbury to make your names more visible!

Congratulations, though. Sounds fascinating.