Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-04-25
ESTABLISHED 1855
DEADLIEST POISON GAS
Americans Went Germans Seventy.
two Times Better
PREPARED TO KILL WHOLE NATION
Terrible Compound Manufactured IN
Secret Would Have Been Capable OF
Destroying Whole Cities, and it Nee
essary Whole Nations.


essary Whole Nations.
New York Times.
1t had the fragrance Of geranium
blossoms. 1t was an oily amber hQulo'
highly explosive and bursting hlo
,iame with water. 1t was the Amerl-
can super-poison gas, deadly by con-
lact or by inhalation Of the smallest
dctectable portion. A drop on the
nand would cause intolerable agony
end death after few hours 1t was
called methyl (partly because that
name did not describe it) and 1t was
the climax of this country's achieve
meLt in the lethal arts.
The signing Of the armistice spared
the enemy any first hand acquaintance
with the terrors of the methyl. Major
Gen. w. l.. Sibert, in command OF the
chemical warfare service, had directed
that 5000 tons of it, in shells and
drums. be In readiness on the battle
field March l, 1919. Ten tons day
were being produced in an eleven-acre
plant near Cleveland, Ohio, and the
plant was two months ahead OF its
schedule when Foch crossed No Mans
Land to offer terms to beaten zoe.
1t is estimated that ten tons OF methyi
is one ton more than enough to depop-
ulate Manhatten Island and so 1t Is
not difficult to guess what would have
happened had Hindenburg and his
cohorts persisted until Spring.
Two days after the armistice was
signed workmen began dismantling the
big plant. They scrapped the compli-
Gated and expensive apparatus, every
piece of which had been specially plan
ned and manufactured for the pro-
duction of the most terrible instrument
of manslaughter ever conceived. On
Feb. the work Of demolition was
complete. There remained no trace OF
that scatte. ling array Of barracks and
laboratories which had been cradle
OF death. But the formulas, processes,
and personnel were painstakingly set
down for the records at Washington
against the contingency of another
war.
There did remain, however, tons and
tons Of methyl. What was to be done
with 1t now that there was no longer
any active occasion for exterminating
Germans? Cleveland did not want the
deadly stuff dumped into Lake Erie,
and there seemed no practical method
of neutralizing its deadlfness chemi-
~. Almost enough was on hand to
destroy the entire people Of the. United
States, and some safe way must be
found to dispose of it.
The ocean was selected as its catch
basin. Difficulties were men in trans
porting the stuff from Cleveland to the
ocean. Handling such quantities was
perilous. Some was put into big iron
containers, for it does not react on
iron, and those containers were loaded
into freight cars. Then there was as
sembled the most extraordinary train
probably that ever traversed Amer-
can railroad tracks. 1t moved under
an armed guard and on a special Sch
edule. No railroad employe rode on
It except the engine driver. The train
moved slowly, so that two days were
consumed in the journey from Cleve-
land to the Edgewood Arsenal near
Baltimore. And then the iron contain
ers were slowed gently in ship and
taken fifty miles to sea, where they
were lowered over the side into water
three miles deep.
Rust will eat pinholes into those
containers, and there will be minute
and gradual intermiXture Of water
with their fatal contents. In such cir
cumstances there is no flame, but a
slow chemical reaction. Experts do
not believe even that fish will per-
ish from the presence on the ocean
bed of this quantity Of poison. When
the salt water of the Atlantic embraced
the last Of those iron tanks, fms was
written to a chapter In American war
effort which, until now, has been a
secret scrupulously guarded.
Compare this secret new compound
with mustard" which the chemists
dubbed king of poison gases" Mus
tard was first used by the Germans,
with terrific effect, at Ypres. July 20,
1917. Thereafter its use became gen.
eral, and afforded such marked tacti-
cal advantage to the enemy that reta-
liation by the Allies became imperative
as a. matter of self preservation.
American chemists devised a formula
one-fourth more toxic than that used
by the Germans. The gas, known to
chemists as dichlorethyl sulphide, is
now the common property OF the COM
batant nations. The processes by
which it is made are generally known.
It is a sweetish liquid, both in taste
and smell, about as volatile as turpen-
tine. In contact with the skin its pres
ence is at first not noticed. Then there
begins the burning and swelling which
prompted it's nickname among the
Tommies. It spreads through the tis-
sues, and on reaching the lungs breaks
them down, setting up what is called
chemical" pneumonia, usually fatal.
Methyl is somwhat more volatile, and
is comparable in that regard with ben
zol. Instead of being inoffensive at
first contact, it sets up an acute and
almost unendurable pain. 1t does not
spread through the tissues, but poisons
the blood and attacks first the kid
neys, then the heart and lungs. 1t
hardens the cell tissues Of the lungs,
and causes simultaneously strangula-
ton and a heart affection which speed
lily produces violent death. If taken
into the lungs by inhalation in any
perceptible quantities 1t kills almost
instantly. 1t is estimated to be seven
ty-two times deadlier than mustard.
The processes of manufacturing the
two poisons differ radically. 1t is not
permissible even now to tell what basis