Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-29

The mask, as you may have noted, consists
of face piece of rubber and cloth, con-
tanning eye pieces, and connected by flexi-
BILE rubber tube to canister supported in a
kn2psack hung from the neck The canister
contains charcoal and soda lime which filter
out the poisonous gas breathed into the tube
The content of the canister protects against
the following gases RI the gases do not ex-
coed one or two per cent of the air: sulphur
dioXide, hydrogen suphide, chlorine, carbon
b1sulph1de nitrogen peroxide, aniline vapor,
benzyl bromide, benzyl chloride, chlOrace-
Tone chlOrpicrin, hydrogen chloride, phos-
gene, sulphur chlorides, XyIyl bromide, STAN
mic Chloride titanium tetrachIoride, silicon
tetrachloride, hydrogen cyanide benzol, gas
ollne Vapor, and carbon tetrachlorde
The army masks were designed expressly
to protect against gases scattered in the open
air. Therefore they cannot be relied lIpon to
furnish protection for any length of time
against fumes stronger than the two per
cent mentioned. Other canisters could.
OF course, be made to protect against
heavier and different fumes for industries
and fire departments. The war department
made some canisters for combating a single
concentrated gas, but in the main. the army
preferred to use a single mask that would
protect against any gas that the Germans
might send over.
Until the armistice was signed, the chemi-
cal warfare service worked steadily testing
new combinations of chemicals in the canfs-
Cers, and just before the war ended it had
evolved new mask that was an imnrove-
ment over the one in general use, both as tn
Cne content or the canister and the comfort
OF the Wearer. The army is retaining all of
these new style masks for future use
Tbs war department states that the army
gas mask furnishes no protection against
carbon monoXide, as it does not supply fresh
oxygen to the wearer This indicates that
the army mask will not be widely used in
mining, as has been prophesied, for carbon
mOnoXlde is the poison contained in MANY
mine gases and liberated by fires and explo,
slons. Miners now use special oxygen-sup-
plying apparatus for protection against car
bon monoXide.
Fire department experiments with army
masks as protection against smoke have in
a number of instances been pronounced sue
cessful. The fire department of Richmond,
Va, reported unusual success, and plans to
equip all of it's fremen with the army masks
use OF gas masks for fire fighting was sug-
gested to the Richmond fire department when
the CHEERS son sent home a mask from
france. The department decided to make
smoke tests, and obtained new masks from
IN war department. Firemen wearing the
masks remained twenty minutes without in
convenience IN rooms containing fumes of
sulphur burning rubber, and tar roofing,
Men without the masks were unable to enter
the rooms where the tests were made
An am using test OF the army mask as an
aid to fire fighting was made in Washington
few days ago when a small fire occurred in
local hotel. An ex-soldier, stopping at the
hotel, noticed the fumes, and Immediately
seized and fitted on his trusty gas mask. He
then rushed down the hotel CORR .ors arous-
ing the occupants of EACH room and soaring
some of them into commissions by his bur.
glar like disguise. One man rose to the oc
casion with remarkable swiftness and hurled
pie into the face of his would be rescuer
AS result of this episode it was suggest
ed that the District of Columbia fire depart.
ment be furnished masks, and also that
masks should be hung in hotel Corridors
probably so that the guests might become
accustomed to them.
In spite of these successful attempts al
combating smoke with the army mask, the
war department refuses to recommend it IN
reservedly for indoor fire fighting. In OUT
door fires, such as forest fires, the smoke is
not concentrated and the danger from car
bon monoxide and carbon dioxide is almost
negligible. Under such circumstances the
army mask has proved of considerable value.
Gas masks of some sort will undoubtedly
soon be made a part of the fire fighter
equipment, but the peacetime use of the army
mask will probably be confined chiefly in in
dustries where poison fumes vitiate the air
or work rooms and laboratories and endanger
the health of the workmen.