Robert Rumble is the Project Curator for Lifesavers, a five-year project to explore how conflict has driven innovation in science and technology. Lifesavers is a collaboration between Imperial War Museums and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

Lifesavers is a project at Imperial War Museums, to discover the fascinating objects and stories relating to science and technology held in the museums’ collections.

Sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the project aims to discover how conflict has accelerated innovation, and how this has impacted on the world we live in today. 

The project serves to improve global safety by learning from the past. 

Discoveries one year on

One year into this exciting project, I’ve discovered many collections and themes around wartime innovation, and how they impact our lives today. 

From equipment used for safety at sea and innovative use of SONAR for detecting submarines, to air sea rescue. Wartime technology-inspired innovations in everything from computing and communications technology - from the Fullerphone of the First World War to the famous Enigma machine. 

But it isn’t just advanced electronic and technological systems that were invented during conflict. Everyday objects such as ballpoint pens, duct tape, or stainless steel have their origins from 20th century conflict.

IWM has more than 1 million objects in collections but my research so far has been focused around those that have a link to a range of global challenges, as highlighted by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. These range from Safety at sea to Safety of digital systems and Skills for safety. 

A view from the side of a helicopter of two crew members of the Air Sea Rescue Service. One of the crew kneels on the helicopter deck, guiding the winch and harness that holds the other crew member, who is either being lowered towards the water or being brought back onboard.
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 15288)
A view from the side of a helicopter of two crew members of the Air Sea Rescue Service.

A collaborative project 

Lifesavers is a truly collaborative project. As well as working with Lloyd’s Register Foundation, I'm also drawing on historical expertise and collections from around the world.

UK museums involved include the National Maritime Museum, National Museums Scotland, and the Science Museum. Globally we're talking conflict, maritime and science museums from the United States to Italy, South Korea to Singapore. 

This project also aims to collaborate with authors and academics through the IWM Institute, IWM's research and innovation hub. These include the writer and photographer Lewis Bush, exploring the dark history of space exploration, directly influenced by the German scientist Wernher von Braun, and his culpability in wartime Nazi atrocities.

I also plan to hold the first Lifesavers Expert Forum in Autumn 2024, followed by a potential IWM Institute Symposium on the subject of conflict innovation in 2025.

Dr Beryl Pong from the Institute for Technology and Humanity at the University of Cambridge will also be involved in the project, exploring the military and cultural impact of drone warfare, and unmanned aircraft developed during conflict.

Naval officer cadets learn how to operate Asdic sound locator equipment during instruction in anti-submarine warfare at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1959.
© IWM (TR 9577)
Naval officer cadets learn how to operate Asdic/Sonar sound locator equipment during instruction in anti-submarine warfare at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1959.

Lifesavers: Plans for year two

As Lifesavers moves into year two, new content focused on technology and innovation is being produced. This includes a series of online films exploring the role of technological innovation in 20th century conflict. 

We follow the story of the development of jet aircraft, from the race between Great Britain and Germany to build the world’s first jetfighter during the Second World War, to the ultimate development of the De Havilland Comet, the world’s first civilian jet airliner. 

We'll also be exploring the development of advanced electronics and computers, such as the new concept of aerial warfare, Suppression of Enemy Defences (SEAD), from their genesis during the Vietnam War, to their world-changing impact during the 1991 Gulf War. A series of short films on YouTube on IWM: Conflict Explained are set to explore various developments, such as freeze-dried food to cryptography will be published.

Another exciting prospect is presenting the Lifesavers project to the world. I’m privileged to have been accepted to present the project to the International Commission for Maritime History in South Korea in August 2024, along with the International Congress of Maritime Museums in the Netherlands and Belgium in September 2024. 

Wireless transmitter held in yellow box marked THIS WILL FLOAT
© IWM (COM 925)
This transmitter was designed to float and to be used on British Merchant Navy lifeboats, if the mother ship had been abandoned. It utilised both batteries and a hand generator for power, and its aerial was fixed to the lifeboat mast, or the range extended by using a kite aerial.

Exploration of IWM's Collections

Of course, the exploration of IWM’s collections continues. I’m looking forward to sharing fascinating stories of scientific and technological innovation, and delving into newly accessible film and photograph digital collections, so that we can learn from the past and understand the impact of conflict innovation over the last century, on our modern lives today.

A female war worker uses a set of Wickman gauges to check and gauge stainless steel turbine steam valve spindles at a marine engineering shop.
© IWM (L 421)
A female war worker uses a set of Wickman gauges to check and gauge stainless steel turbine steam valve spindles at a marine engineering shop, Britain, 1942.