The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-04-13

hEMM$NHNNE which comprises about 100 Off
EM%GSRS$MU GERS and approximately 600 en-
- listed men.
The two principal factors in gas defense are eff
fective masks and thorough training of soldiers
in the use of masks and various methods OF avoid
ing contact with poisonous vapors.
Experts who have been sent to this country by
the allied governments have pronounced the pres
ent American masks the most efficient in existence.
The production of these masks is progressing at a
rate which insures that the requirements of the
American troops abroad will be amply supplied.
At each cantonment in the United States a gas
defense school has been established and placed in
charge of a divisional gas officer, who works in
conjunction with the chemical adviser, both trained
in the theory and practice of meeting gas Of
fensives. Through these schools every officer and
man receives instruction as to proper means of
gas defense.
The use of gas in warfare dates back to about
404 B.. G. The Spartans saturated wood with pitch
and sulphur and burned 1t under the walls of cit
les which they were attacking. For several cen
turtles gas had not been used in warfare and The
Hague convention definitely ruled against it,
However, on April %, 1915, the Germans liberated
great clouds of gas against Canadian troops near
Ypres. Terrible destruction and Generalization re-
suited from this first gas attack, and within q
week England made plans for gas warfare against
the Germans. Gas is now an everyday part Of
war.
Gases may be employed in the form of clouds,
or in shells, bombs and hand grenades. The first
gas attacks in the present war were in clouds.
Fumes were liberated from steel containers which
were distributed in groups of three or four at
intervals of so yards along the trenches opposite
the line to be attacked. Tubes, provided with a
stopcock attachment, were connected with the gas
tanks, and the end of the tube was passed over
the parapet. When the attack was intended, a
signal was given and the stopcocks were opened,
allowing the gas to escape in the form of liquid
which Immediately vaporized.
Soon after the first German gas attack Eng
fish and French women sent to the front hundreds
of thousands of homemade gas masks. For the
most part they were merely bandages impregnated
with chemicals to wrap around the mouth and
nose.
The next step In gas masks was a cloth helmet
or hood which had been dipped in neutralizing So
luton, the bottom of which was tucked in the
collar. The next Improvement was to put in an
exhaust or outlet for the exhaled air. This type
of mask has been used extensively.
The small box respirator mask was next de-
veloped, and it is the model of the mask we are
at present using. 1t is the highest development,
%affording good protection. 1t has an impervi-
Gus face-piece, with glass or celluloid e~yepieces,
held in place by rubber bands around the head. A
canister is carried in a small ~knapsack and n fex-
ibe tube connects the box in the face-piece. In
side the f~ace-piece is a small wire clamp with rub
her pads which fits on the nose and forces the
wearer to breathe through his mouth. The end
of the flexible tube has a rubber mouthpiece
through which the man breathes. The incoming
breath comes through the canister, which is filled
with several layers of special chemicals of an
absorbent nature which neutralize or render harm
less the gas-laden air. The outgoing breath
passes outside the ~face-piece through a small rub
Der valve.
The American gas defense service is divided
into three separate parts: ~ Field supply sec
ton (2) field training section; (3) overseas re-
pair section.
The function of the field supply section is to
manufacture or procure all gas-defense materials
and equipment. The big work of course is to
furnish our troops with effective masks. The
small box respiratOr type of mask, admittedly the
best mask in existence, was accepted us a model.
The manufacture of a gas mask of this type
presented q problem. No manufacturing firms had
experience with an article of this kind. More
than ordinary care must be used in making parts
because the slightest defect would render the
mask useless. The wide variety of materials going
into the mask made it necessary to have the parts
made in separate plants and assembled at a CEN
trail plant. 1t present about sixty manufacturing
firms contribute directly to the making of the
American mask.
With no actual experience to depend upon, much
experimental and research work was necessary.
An extensive experimental organization was built
up, with branches in several cities. Recently 1t
was decided to establish a ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
plant to handle the final assembling and the diff
hcult sewing operations on the face-piece. This
plant will soon be in full operation, with about
1000 employees.
The American mask, similar to the British, is as
, mechanically perfect as the best experts In the
\ country have been able to produce. The vital fea-
ture of any respirator mask is the chemicals con-
tanned in the canister. These chemicals and eb-
sorbents are made from secret formulate.
The facepiece consists of a base of cotton fab
ric. carefully rubberized. These face-pieces are
made to fit various types of faces. A network Of
elastic bands over the head holds the ~face-piece In
place. The ears are left uncovered.
The mask is carried in a knapsack at the left hip,
supported by a shoulder band. When troops ap-
proach a danger zone. the straps are shortened and
the ~knapsack is shifted to rest high on the chest,
ready FOR instant use. This Is known as the "alert
position" The soldier has merely to open the
knapsack, pull out the flexible hose with the face
niece attached, put the rubber mouthpiece In his
- -adLurt H. hnnds auar hs hand The