American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1919-02-07
WHAT GERMANY NARROWLY ESCAPED.

fare. For the cold processes vast re-
frigerators were built. These cover
acres. Half a mile away were enor-
nous boilers and hot rooms for fus-
ing. Then curious towers of spindle
steel looking like miniature Eiffel
Towers, scattered about the grounds,
support pipes down which, in a diff
erent process, are dropped two chem
ical elements which thus are forced to
fuse by gravity.
/ Chiefly impressive, once n be-
came accustomed to the thought that
all this ingenious, costly mechanism
was built to generate poison for the
sole purpose of horribly manning and
frightfully killing, was the orderli-
ness, the immensely, and the stabil-
ity of the plant The Bethlehem Steel
Mills or the Bridgeport Rifle Works
are no better built.
"The most remarkable thing about
this plant may not be apparent as
you look at it," said Colonel Cahoon.
at is the fact that when the govern
ment started to build it there were
no existing models for some of the
machinery needed. That is where
Colonel Walker came in. He literally
invented this factory while it was in
, process of being built. There is
nothing like it anywhere else in the
world, and it had to be created and
operated as we went along. The
French and the British both sent
their best experts to assist us, but
they stayed to get pointers to take
back to their own governments. Ma
ior Aud, the chief British expert on
war gas, said frankly, L came to
teach, but l stay to learn
Soldier Heroes.
When he armistice was signed
there were 1000 drafted American
soldiers at work at $50 a month; at
one time they numbered $4,000. At
ter examining the casualty records
: 1 went through the hospitals and saw
the men who had been struck down
by the fiendish gases while at work;
l some with arms and legs and trunks
: shriveled and SCARED as by a horrible
!, fire. some with the deep suppura-
tons still oozing after weeks of care
4 full nursing.
In one case a drop of mustard oil
d had fallen from a conduit pipe under
i which a soldier had walked, hitting
S his shoe. He wiped it off, thinking
d that made him safe. The next day
S his flesh began to peel. Now, five
e weeks later, his foot looks like a
charred ember. Another had acct
: dentally kicked over what he thought
d was an empty pipe. 1t contained
n phosphorus, which flew over his face
g and upper body. Now, weeks later
he is still a mass of horrible burns
Another case Zone of the fatalities
l. was that of an officer who came IL
is from the works to the office. HI
wore rubber gloves, as they all do
when near the gasses, but did no
" know he had been near enough u
lie pick up the mustoard oil. He picked
e. up a chair and placed it in front o
Is his desk, intending to seat himself
er At that moment the telephone RAM
r and he stepped to the wall to answer
Is A friend, another officer, entered an
n look the seat by the desk. Forty
e. eight hours later the second office
ry was dead. The first officer had &C
ed cidentally rubbed mustard oil On tn
I'D back of the chair. 1t went throug
Id the clothes and into the spine OF In
re second.
Id Working Amid Perils.
y. When the figures are all final
at published it may appear that no d
IL VISION III rance mas d hlShcl pti
lit centage of casualty than vas dc
er. veloped at the E~dgewater arsenal ]
Baltimore (the official name of til
e. poison gas plant in August, l9l
n That was the month of excessive hef
If when the gases were most ola
he and when the weather made the so
ar. dicrs somewhat relaxed in their Wig
list lance to avoid accident.
ut. During that month the hospital
ed were filled at the rate of three an
I'D a half per cent of the entire force
xic the mustard gas plant per day,
its one hundred per cent casualty p'
month.
he If that is the casualty which mu
oh be endured in making the stuff, CT
one imagine the casualty of Il
enemy who receives it? AS 20 VIII
, a the enemy had in prospect Colon
ids Walker said:
zen I'VE had been working for son
as, time on a device whereby mustd
could be transported in large co
tanners by ~airplane and released ov
nc fortresses of the Metz type, and
last it was perfected, fully sixty da
mel before the armistice was signe
Mustard has been found. for a
[ dIOullu pun pOHtof " w ~
fective gas used in warfare, becau
ave it advances comparatively easily al
nly also because it is the most difficl
to protect against. People used
ore think prussic acid was terrible. We
to the Germans discarded the use
ale prussic acid because it was too m
our and used mustard gas instead.
.ov- Gould Annihilate Fortresses.
ere, "Our idea was to have containe
of that would hold a ton of mustard e
carried over fortresses like Metz a
Coblenz by plane, and released wit
lick a time ufse arranged for explosi
rats several hundred feet above the for
hot The mustard gas, being heavier tn
of air, would then slowly settle WI
the IT also dispersed. A one-ton CO
in tainer could thus be made to accoi
and for perhaps an acre or more of ter