The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-02-20
Gas MASKS
FOR MILLIONS
lReciprocal News Service,
IS Queen Anne's Gate, London,
S. w. y.

in war dispatches because gas has
become an everyday occurrence on
every front. When the gas siren
or gong is sounded, the man in
the trenches whips off his steel he'll
met, snaps open his box respirator
from its alert position buttoned
high on his chest, tears out the one
piece mouth tube, nose clamp and
face covering In three seconds he
is ready for the worst the Hun can
send oyer-a wave or fusiladc of
gas shells.
| speak now of the British, Amer
leans and Italians, all of whom are
using the box respirator invented,
improved and manufactured in Lon
don. The French are still using
sort OF helmet as protection against
German poison, but their adoption
OF the British type may follow per
OF the British type may perhaps
follow next months gas conference
of the allies. The difference be-
tween the helmet and the rcspira-
tor is that the one is only chem
ically treated cloth sack having eye
windows while the mask is true
filter which prevents every deadly
particle from reaching the lungs.
1t IS said that no Tommy has yet
fallen in gas attack whose death
may be attributed to asphyxiation,
unless he was not able TO get his
mask on properly and in time. Reg
imcnts have slept wearing their
masks. Children have been com
PEELED to keep them on in shelled
villages, often with an American
Red Cross attendant standing by
for hours to see that they are not
removed. Even newspaper men are
equipped with them and must wear
them at the alert position when ap-
preaching the front. Altogether
the saving in lie has reached into
the hundreds of thousands.
Tests are constantly going on to
perfect the respirator mask, or
rather the mixture Of chemical gran
ules contained in the tin canister
which, with its charcoal and its
numerous layers of wadding, is the
filter part. 1t is the function OF the
chemicals in the filter to absorb,
exhaust or neutralize the gas. From
an examination of used masks re-
turned from France and from fire.
quent analyses of German gas, it
Is decided occasionally to alter the
composition of the chemical gran
uleS.
Masks with experimental mix
tures, as well as many samples of |
those constantly being made, are
regularly tested by chemist officers
of the Royal Engineers. They wear
the masks in chambers filed with |
the various deadly gases the Ger
mans use. AT the first taste of poi
son, they stop breathing and rush
out to fresh air. Many tasters have
been made i'll but none have suf-
fered permanent injury in this dan
gerous work, This brings me down
to the genius back of the British
box respirator, the man who has
been engaged in the British anti
gas work almost since the first Ger
man gas attack in 1915 and is now
in charge of the departmcnt-Lt.
Col. F. +. Harrison, whose staff
was recently transferred from the
Royal Army Medical Corps to the
Royal Engineers.
When the Germans introduced
the barbarouS use of gas on April
q, 1915, Colonel Harrocks was at
once assigned by the war office to
meet the menace and Lieutenant
Colonel Harrison and large staff
OF officers gradually became en-
gagged in it. Recently Colonel Har-
rocks has been transferred to other
work, but the anti-gas research and
the supply of box respirators con-
tlnue to expand and develop under
Colonel Harrison. On May | nose
pad had been improyised, manufac-
tured in some quantities and hur-
ricd to the trenches. This was fol t
lowed later by the Jelly bag a
tiannelette helmet with celluloid
windows. A modified type of %elly /
bag" next appeared. This one had {
two glass eye-pieces and the fan i
nelette was treated with a different 1
compound. Next was a helmet with .
a breathing tube of which many
millions have been issued. Mean
while the present type OF box res
pirator was evolved and reached 4
high degree of efficiency and it has
taken the place OF the older models.
There is another man who stands
out as deserving great individual
credit for equipping British sol
diers with box respirators. They
would have been made, but certain
ly not in sufficient quantities. if
1t had not been for this man. He
IS 4 contractor to the government.
but cannot be called a prohteer, for
instead Of the usual war profit of
10 per cent, he fixed his figure under
the income rate on war loans.
The owner of this great factory
making most Of the millions of face
shields of the British mask. at the
same time doing a great deal of the
assembling of the complete respi-
rator, is Of particular interest, more
over in that he is M. Klinger, an
American, blouse-maker, formerly
of Boston.
This is the way he told the story
to me: