ABSTRACT
Civilian and military technologies have often advanced together. Although internal combustion was first developed for the factory and private transport, the military soon applied internal combustion to aircraft and tanks. Earlier, the Wilkinson boring machine, which made the Watt steam engine possible, was in large part developed for the manufacture of cannon. In the twentieth century, defenders of substantial government expenditures on military research pointed to significant civilian spillovers-although, in recent years these crossovers appear to be smaller in number, as military and civilian technologies diverge.
