Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-04-02
THE SILENT DEATH
Gas She'll Has Become One Of the Most
Terrible Of Weapons.

Gas She'll Has Become One Of the Most
Terrible Of Weapons.
Gas warfare is as yet in its infancy.
II has already revolutionized military
methods almost as completely as did
the invention OF gunpowder, and
doubtless IL will undergo ar enor-
| nous and very horrible development
before the present century comes TO
all end.
This war may bc finished in the
| chemical laboratory. The poison gas
problem is occupying the attention
OF thousands Of skilled chemists a'!
over the world. With eager hopeful
ness they are trying to find a gas that
is extremely deadly, yet odorlcss and
colorlcss, so that 1t may be neither
| smcllcd nor seen.
| What they seek is the invisible death
ii gas that will poison the air, yet
give no warning OF its presence. Whole
armies may be destroyed by ii with
out even knowing that they are In
danger. Let an American chemist dis
cover such 4 gas, and the war Is won.
TO serve satisfactorily for CLOUDS
u gas must be heavier than the air.
and must meet certain other definite
requirements. Hence 1t comes about
that only two. chlorine and phosgene
haze been found available for this
purpose. But where gas shells arc cCh-
| cerncd, the whole domain Of organic
| chemistry is opened up.
Any poisonous compound that is re-
solvablc into vapor by heat may b"
used for loading n gas shell-thc fluid
or solid being transsol med into gas by
| the explosion of u charge of T. y. L.
| which with a fuse) the shell carries.
There Is no dependence upon fa-
voring wind. and the lethal vapor Is
liberated inst where 1t is likely to do
| the most damage.
Gas shells ordinarily weigh only six
pounds, and Il veritablc storm of them
| may be thrown from a few batteries
of small quick firing guns. At Cambria.
in this way, the Germans soon filed
wood so full of poison vapor mot
knowing that the British had vacated
iU that human beings could not have
long survived there. even with the
protection OF gas masks.
1t will he understood, then. why II
is that today, in the new warfare. gas
shells are playing vastly more i'm
portant part than gas clouds. Virtu-
ally all bombardments are with mixed
projectiles, some gas and others not.
which are marked with crosses Of
different colors for ready recognition.
the artillrrymcn being provided with
programmes for firing them.
Gas shells are not used for bar
RACES. They are fired at picked tar
gets-say. for example. a field howitzer
occupying a pit with an overhead
cover Only "a direct wihiff-put- the
gun out of business, but gas will
enter the gun-pit If shells burst near
it. perhaps killing some of the gum
ners, but at least compelling them 10
don masks. This lowers the rate of
the howitzcr's fire; for, with masks on.
the artillerymen work at a disadvant-
age:
Or it may be that the target is q
crossroads. where there is always more
or less confusion when supplies and
ammunition are being transported to
the front. a few we'll placed gas shells
especially at night. the range hav-
ing been ascertained in the daytime,
will throw everything into disorder.
incidentally impeding the work by
compelling the men to put on their
masks.
The first poison shells were used at
| the Somme by the Germans In 1916,
and since then they have exhibited a
most devilish ingenuity In developing
new kinds Of gases for loading such
projcctiles. They have even expert
mcntcd with a "sneezing gas" with
induces stcrnutative spasms of such
violence that q man can hardly keep
his mask on.
The tear shells" (another Hun in
| 'ention) contain substances derived
from coal tar. and which. in the ordi-
| nary kind, are so powerful that one
part OF the vapor in 100000 OF atmos-
phcric air is enough to make a man
almost helpless with weeping. This
sort Of stun. however, is mild COM
pared with the mustard gas"-so
| called, though 1t smells more like gar
lic-which has no immediate effect on
the eyes except n slight irritation. But
after several hours have elapsed the
eyes begin to swell, becoming inflamc,l
and even blistered. These symptoms
are accompanied by intense pain, with
profuse discharges from the nose.
coughing and sometimes vomiting.
Mustard gas was first used by the
Germans at Ypers. in July. 1917. Aft
crward. at Nieuport. they fircd no
fewer than $4,000 shells loaded with
the abominable stuff in a single night.
Popular Science.