Rapid Technological Innovation

The artillery fuze underwent dramatic and rapid changes during the American Civil War. These changes were made possible by advances in technical knowledge and industry’s new ability to produce large quantities of identical items. Prior to the war, the artillery fuze had slowly evolved with changes that were incremental in nature. During the war, the changes were both rapid and exponential. These changes were so dramatic that a new paradigm evolved that, in time, would supplant many of the older fuze designs.In order to fully understand the evolution of the artillery fuze during the American Civil War it is necessary to understand the relationship between military need, technological availability, and industrial capability when any weapon system is considered. These three items are the three base points of the pyramid that support the weapon system. The lack of any of the three base points will create a situation in which the weapon system will not be able to exist. While all three items are dependent upon numerous other factors and cannot be considered in isolation, they are the main factors in determining the creation and success of any weapon system.The new rifled artillery technology that was used by the military during the war created the need for a new type of artillery fuze. Mechanically ignited fuzes were developed as one possible answer to this problem but the technology for these fuzes was in its infancy and industry had never manufactured them in large numbers. The American military had to quickly encourage the development of this technology and find factories that were capable of producing fuzes that required close machining and tight tolerances. The military knew what it needed but translating that need to technical reality and finding companies that could take the concept and produce it was the challenge. This was a challenge to which Northern inventors and industry were able to respond. In contrast, a similar effort in the South failed. The success of the North and the failure of the South in this effort can be explained by the production triad of military need, technical availability, and industrial capability for it was during the American Civil War that this production triad came of age.