Searching for the Best Respirator and Mask 



Styles in poison gas masks 

 change more rapidly than 

 Parisian styles in bon- 

 nets. Officers and men 

 are constantly searching 

 for a more efficient mask 

 which will enable the sol- 

 diers to resist the thickest 

 clouds of asphyxiating gas. 

 The favorite method of 

 testing the efficiency of a 

 new mask is to call for 

 volunteers, who descend 

 into a tunnel which is filled 

 with the deadly • fumes. 

 Many volunteer to per- 

 form this hazardous ex- 

 periment, though the out- 

 come is xincertain at best. 

 They know that it may 

 mean the saving of many 

 lives, even if it is at the 

 actual sacrifice of their 

 own. More and more the 

 war resolves itself, in its 

 minor phases, into battles 

 of science, and science de- 

 mands a laboratory. Here 

 is the laboratory of the 

 respirators 



If these men 

 come out of 

 the gas-filled 

 tuTinel unaf- 

 fected, the 

 mask will 

 perhaps be 

 adopted. At 

 least, it will 

 be given a 

 further trial. 

 We have not 

 heard how 

 many of these 

 devices have 

 been tested in 

 this manner 

 and found 

 faulty, but 

 it is certain 

 that many sol- 

 diers would 

 rather be in the 

 trenches than 

 in a gas-filled 

 tunnel with 

 an untried 

 respirator 



202 



