The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-03


 through a pipe connected with which Is small rubber valve that prevents
 the poisonous gas coming in. This
 mask has face piece through which 1 the gas cannot come. This is held in place by 8 rubber band around the head. It has also goggles of glass or
 celluloid The chemicals used are secret. they are liable to change as
 new combinations of gases are in- vented.
 The mask Is usually carried in a knapsack at the left hip, but in the danger zone the knapsack Is shifted so that it rests high on the chest ready for instant use All that the man has
 to do is open it, pull out the flexible hose with the face piece attached, put the rubber mouthpiece in his mouth and faSten the bands over his head. His ears are outside the mask, The scientific construction of a gas mask necessitates a knowledge of all the
 materials used in 1t. This includes the eyepieces, which must be so made that they will not be dimmed by the mois- ture within. The antitoXins or neutral i izing chemicals must be such that they will keep good through the longest gas attack. This is so in all our latest gas masks, the chemicals being good for 10 times such a period. The masks have to be tested from time to time to prevent any danger of the chemi- calls being worn out.
 Connected with our gas warfare wa
 have new oxygen bottles for use in l field and base hospitals. Many of these have been modelled after those pro- duced by our bureau of mines, and much of the research work along such lines came from that bureau before the war began. This was also the case as to the instruments and other methods for detecting gas in the trenches. We have all heard of the use of canary birds and white mice as a part of our army in Europe. The ca nary bird has been used for a long time in the coal mines of the United States to detect various gases. and it Is still employed for that purpose Mice have also been used, but 1t is found that the mouse sometimes grows sulkv and you cannot tell whether 1t has been doped with the gas or has q fit of the sulks The canary is quite as sensitive, and 1t always keeps up it's spirits. It jumps about and preens itself in the cage, and when 1t stops doing that in trench or a mine you
 may be sure something is wrong. The
 gas effects the bird much more quickly
 than man. Indeed the man has eight minutes to get out of the trench after the bird has been affected. Canary birds are employed by the sappers and miners of our armies and the allies and also by the Germans and this fact is well known. I heard yesterday of British gang of miners which had been working for three months tunnel ing under the trenches and fortifca- tions of the Germans with the Intent to blow them up They were very near the time for setting off the explosives when one of their canary birds got loose and flew away into little tree in No Mans Land. The British were afraid the Germans might see 1t and thus realize that they were being undermined They called out twelve sharpshooters and had them fire at the hird. but 1t flew about so that they were unable to hit 1t. They then brought in one of the French 75s and blew the tree and the canary to pieces Tn the meantime the Germans had not discovered the bird. Tn the dispatches describing the bat ties in France we read much of gas shells and gas containers of one kind or another. The truth Is there is no such thinr as gas shell-that Is. q shell which contains gas. AS the shell goes forth from the gun 1t contains a licuid or solid which is atomized or turned 10 a gas only when 1t exolodes, The shell is usually of steel with this stuff inside It. It has time fuse on the end like that of a shrapnel. and this is SO gaueed that 1t will burst just when over the enemy, and the liuuia will 20 forth in a mist or gas so fine that the particles cannot he seen, IT will All the air with this terrible stur and it may sprinkle the ground so that one lying down would be pois- oned by the gas getting into his clothes Some such shells are fired from mortars. and of the larger ones each may contain as much as SIX pounds of material During a great en- gagement these shells are sent forth so that the gas may deluge an army and if there were no masks 1t would be destroyed. In one of the German attacks on the western front 100000 of these shells were fired every day for four days and if is estimated that each shell contained about five pounds of chemicals. After that the Germans | sent forth clouds of smoke soaked with gas against which the soldiers 1 had to use extension filters.
 The chemists of both armies are con stantly experimenting to discover new gases and combinations of gases which will be even more destructive than those we have now. Gas has been used | in warfare as along ago as 400 B. C., when the opdTtttnS saturated WOOu Wltu pitch and sulphur and burnt 1t under the walls of the cities which they at- tackled. It was used later, but for sew eral hundred years 1t has not been employed and The Hague convention definitely ruled against 1t. The Ger
 mans were a part. of that convention, but nevertheless on April 22, 1915, they liberated great clouds of gas against he Canadian troops near Ypres. The l destruction and demoralization which resulted were terrible, but within a week England had plans for gas war fare in retaliation and today we have gases said to be superior to anything the Germans have been able to make | The first gas attack was of the drift gas type. It consisted of chlorine $ sent out in large quantities from the
 enemys trenches and when the wind was blowing toward the trenches of the
 allies. This gas is rather heavy. It is green in color and under high pressure i it turns to a liquid. This liquid was
 stored in cylinders and forced through
 pipes that had been secretly laid down | in No Mans Land The cylinders lay in
 the trenches of the Germans and the
 mouths of the pipes faced the trenches l of the allies.
 This method of fighting has since been replaced by the gas shell and the hand grenade, and the chlorine gas first used has been largely improved upon
 as destructive weapon. Chlorine Is