Weapons designers and engineers created a host of experimental weapons as they sought to deal with the new perils of the world?s first Industrial Age war — World War I.
As one response to the U-boat threat during World War I, in April 1917 the U.S. Naval Training Station at Newport, R.I., experimented with kapok-filled mattresses that could double as life preservers if sailors had to abandon ship.
Photo: National Archives
