June, ’23] 
KUHN: FUMIGATING BUILDINGS 
325 
office, which was infested with roaches and ants; the Barracks mess hall 
kitchen and store rooms infested with roaches; the Army Music School 
mess hall, kitchen and store room which were infested with roaches and 
bedbugs; non-commissioned officers’ quarters infested with bedbugs; 
and an officer’s residence infested with red ants; the record rooms, ex¬ 
ecutive offices and the commanding general’s office of the Army War 
College which were infested with ants and roaches. The cubic contents 
of the buildings gassed ranged from 20,000 to 200,000 cubic feet. The 
maximum concentration used was six ounces of sodium cyanide mixed 
with three ounces of sodium chlorate per 1,000 cubic feet. This con¬ 
centration was used in the Quartermaster’s office, mess halls' and the 
non-commissioned officers’ quarters. For the officers’ residence and 
the Army War College the sodium chlorate was reduced to one and one- 
half ounces with six ounces sodium cyanide per 1,000 cubic feet. 
The gas was generated by dropping bags made of two thicknesses of 
cheese cloth containing six ounces of sodium cyanide, crushed to about the 
size of a bean, mixed with the required amount of granulated sodium 
chlorate into a three gallon crock containing 1,500 cubic centimeters com¬ 
mercial hydrochloric acid which had been diluted with 1,500 cubic centi¬ 
meters cold water. With a three gallon crock such as we used, double 
charges sufficient for 2,000 cubic feet, i.e. twelve ounces of sodium 
cyanide, six ounces sodium chlorate, three liters of commercial hydro¬ 
chloric acid and three liters of water, can be used. The gases are a mix¬ 
ture of cyanogen chloride and hydrocyanic acid, generated according 
to the following formulae: 
3 NaCn+NaC10 3 +6 HC1=4 NaCl+ CnCl+3 H 2 0 
Na Cn+HCl=NaCl+HCn 
The usual time of exposure was two hours, with the exception of the 
non-commissioned officers’ quarters where the time of exposure was three 
hours. It was found that bedbugs required longer time of exposure to kill 
than do roaches. The buildings were aired out by opening the windows 
and in every case they cleared out so that it was not necessary to use a 
gas mask within one-half hour. The casualties on roaches, ants, 
bedbugs, rats and mice were practically one hundred per cent. There 
was no evidence of corrosion of any sort of metal or any injury to any 
sort of fabric in any of the dwellings or buildings gassed. In the dwel¬ 
lings there were pianos, victrolas, brass beds, silver ware, bronze statuary 
and clothing of all sorts which were uninjured. In one of the mess 
halls there was a large rubber plant and two aspedistra plants all of which 
were placed close around one of the generators and after the gassing 
