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

or their gas masks. Whistles or horns cannot be heard when the heads of the men are covered with masks, and there are special watchmen's rattles and spe- cial kind of horn which is blown by 8 tank of compressed air by simply turn ing a wrench. It then gives forth a blast that can be heard a mile
 As 1t Is now the standard time in which the soldier Is expected to put on his mask afer the alarm is given is only six seconds In this time the ma six must be taken out of its knapsack hanging on the chest and fitted so tightly over the head that no gas can get in. This re- auires the elimination of all waste mo- tons, and is only accomplished after considerable practice.
 The men are taught also how to detect the gas in the trenches and to treat 1t so that it will do the least damage. One of these methods is by the use of flap pers which look like big fly swatters Each fapper has a handle about two feet long and this ends in a square fan of stiff canvas reinforced with braces The fan is bigger than a page of this newspaper. By beating the bottom of the trench with this fan and throwing 1t well up on each blow air currents are set in motion that drive the gases out of the trenches. The dugouts have blanket doors that may be dropped when LDG .RdS alaTln SOuIluS. ne gases are taken out by lighting a fire and letting the draft sweep through the dugout and out through hole in the top.
 Training of this kind is carried on in the cantonments, where they have trenches and dugouts just like those of France. Every man Is given his assign ment, the sentries are posted and the alarms are made ready. Then, without warning, clouds of these terrible gases foJ I,xy& fv,ct rd fha man who does not put on his mask as the alarm sounds is likely to be gassed. At the time the soldiers sleeping in the dugouts are aroused and the curtains are lowered After the attack Is over the trenches are cleared, and the ar testeo before permission to remove the masks is given Sometimes the boys are taken to the heights and treated to smoke cloud shot off some distance away They have to put on their masks at the sight of the cloud. Or it may be the instructor will throw a gas bomb that stlngs the eyes like the concentrated Julce or thousand onions.
 We have scores of factories now making gas masks and hundreos ol chemists who are doing notnlhs el9e but experimenting on new cheinicalS to nut inside the masks to neutrallze the poisonous gases sent forth oy 'ne enemy It is to get such materials that the government wants all tue peach pits and nuts, which are pelhs collected by grown-ups and children all over the country.
 General Sibert says he belieVes tna' we have the best gas mask III eNis tence, and that our troops are just little better protected against the enc my's gases than the enemys troops are against ours The first gas masks used by the allies were manufacturea by English and French women, wno made them at home and sent them 10 the front They were for the most part merely bandages, impregnaleo with chemicals. to wrap around the mouth and nose. These were followed by cloth helmets or hoods, each Of which had two eye goggles The cloth had been soaked in neutralizing chemicals and the men breathed in and out through the cloth. The process was clumsy and after short time the soi- diers became faint from the lack or good air Then an exhaust for the breathed out air was produced. ana after that respirator mask which en- abled one to inhale and eXhale with out trouble. This is so of most of the masks now in use The breath coming in is made harmless by passing through several layers of chemicals, whereas the outgoing breath goes