48 auld: methods of gas warfare 



what nitric acid is to liigh explosives. Pure chlorine did not 

 satisfy quite all the requirements, as it is very active chemically 

 and therefore easily absorbed. Many men in the first attack 

 who ha^d sufficient presence of mind saved themselves by burying 

 their faces in the earth, or by stuffing their mufflers in their 

 mouths and wrapping them around their faces. 



There were several gas attacks of almost exactly the same 

 kind early in 1915. There was no gas between the end of May, 

 1915, and December, 1915, and by that time adequate protec- 

 tion had been provided. 



The first protection was primitive. It consisted largely of 

 respirators made by women in England in response to an appeal 

 by Kitchener. They were pads of cotton wool wrapped in 

 muslin and soaked in solutions of sodium carbonate and thio- 

 sulfate; sometimes they were soaked only in water. A new 

 type appeared almost every week. One simple type consisted 

 of a pad of cotton waste wrapped up in muslin together with a 

 separate wad of cotton waste. These were kept in boxes in the 

 trenches, and on the word ''gas" six or eight men would make 

 a dive for the box, stuff some waste into their mouths, then 

 fasten on the pad and stuff the waste into the space around the 

 nose and mouth. But this got unpopular after a bit, when it 

 was discovered that the same bits of waste were not always 

 used by the same men. During the early part of 1915 this was 

 the only protection used. 



Then came the helmet made of a flannel bag soaked in thio- 

 sulfate and carbonate, with a mica window in it. A modified 

 form of this device with different chemicals is still used in the 

 British army as a reserve protection. It is put over the head 

 and tucked into the jacket, and is fool-proof as long as well 

 tucked down. This stood up very well against chlorine. 



In 1915 we got word from our Intelligence Department of a 

 striking kind. It consisted of notes of some very secret lectures 

 given in Germany to a number of the senior officers. These 

 lectures detailed materials to be used, and one of them was 

 phosgene, a gas which is very insidious and difficult to protect 

 against. We had to hurry" up to find protection against it. 



