The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-06-26
AMERICAS PART IN
GAS PRODUCTION
HOW L. S. INDUSTRY PROVIDED
MUNITIONS FOR Z. S. ARMY.
llionMasksin France
Book Being Prepared Under the Di-
rection of General CrOwe1l Dis
closes Many Secrets.

narrative of the part American indus
try played in providing munitions for
the American army in the great war
is unfolded in book being prepared
under the direction of Assistant Sec
retary Crowell, of the war depart
ment, who was director of munitions
up to the close of hostilities, when he
was specially assigned by the presi-
dent to direct the rehabilitation of
material.
Advance pages of two sections of
the book, those dealing with the
chemical warfare material, offensive
and defensive, and with the equip
ment for the signal corps, were made
available today, telling for the first
time officially and completely not on
ly Of the stupendous scope Of the
projects, but of the difficulties and
delays encountered and of the pa
triotic support of the war programme
given by American business general
ly.>
The chemical warfare section tells
of the original work done by the ord
nance department toward obtaining
toxic gassesr and anti-gas devices for
the use of American troops. Subse-
quently this service became a sepa-
rate branch of the army, under the
direction of Major General w. L. ST.
bert.
Among other secrets disclosed is
the basis of frequent statements that
at the time of the signing of the ar
mistice the United States alone was
producing gas for military use at a
rate ten times, in excess of the best
production Germany could obtain.
The Germans produced with all their
facilities about six tons of mustard
gas per day, while the United States
was producing more than so tons a
day, and employing methods of pro-
duction far more modern and efficient
than anything attained by the enc
my.
There were three plants at work on
mustard gas, the Edgewood (Md.)
arsenal, which was manufacturing 80
tons day by November II, and had
turned out I'll tons up to that day;
the plant at Hastings, N. Y, which
was to have a capacity of so tons a
day, and was ready to operate on
Novembe1 II, and the 5O-ton plant of
the National Aniline and Chemical
company, at Buffalo, N. Y, which
was 80 per cent. complete.
The chemical name of this COM
pound is dichlorethylsurplide, and it's
popular name of mustard gas comes
from its odor.
Another element of the programme
was the production of tear gases.
not deadly under ordinary circum-
stances, but designed to produce
blindness, thus forcing the troops to
use masks extensively, impairing
their military efficiency. The founda-
ton of these gases was bromine, the
main supply Of which is obtained
from subterranean solutions found
chiefly in the vicinity of Midland,
Mich, where the government fl
nanced the sinking of II brine wells.
under direction of the Dow Chemical
company, which were prepared to
supply 650,O00 tons year.
The other chief gases are the So
called Killers" the gases so deadly
as to bring about death unless safe
guards are provided, chlorine and
chlorpicrin and phosgene. The only
one Of these produced commercially
in the United States was chlorine, and
even with that the supply was utterly
inadequate to the demand.
Thousands Of Tons Of Gas Shipped.
A statistical table shows that 1,486
tons of chlorine in liquid form, 1908
tons of chlorpicrin, 420 tons of phos-
gene and 100 tons Of mustard oil
were actually shipped overseas from
January to November, 1913. In ad-
dition 100000 75-mm shells loaded
with chlorpicrin and 10000 loaded
with mustard oil went abroad, the
shipments including 224,000 phos-
phorus grenades as smoke bombs and
1S,6OO phosgene bombs for Livens
mortars. The capacity for filing
shells and bombs on the day of the
armistice exceeded 4,800,000 al
At that time the practice of
shipping gases abroad in bulk to be
loaded into projectiles on the other
side had been abandoned.
eve, therefore, shipped to Europe