Newark post., 1919-01-15
GAS PLANT FOK
GOVERNMENT
Local Yaung Man Part of
Great Working Force


is given an account of the work done
in the great poison gas laboratory at
Edgewood Arsenal, near Baltimore,
where Sergeant Broddus Mitchell, son
of DR.. S. G. Mitchell, has been station
ed for some time. The location of the
plant and the work done at this impor-
tant station We're for obvious reasons
known only to those who were actively
engaged there and the casualties were
known only to the families whose
members gave their lives in this I'M
portant and necessary field of war
work. This branch of the service
averaged casualties of 1-2 per cent.
daily or 100 per cent month, figure
far higher than the average casualty
percentage of our line troops in ac-
ton in France.
The experimental laboratory of the
huge plant alone was producing at
the time of the cessation of hostilities
more poison gas than the combined
plants of the allied nations.
Despite the rigid precautions which
were enforced to prevent injuries IN
the plant, many of the enlisted men
and officers suffered from the effects
of the products. Shower baths OF
special chemicals, designed to coun-
teract the effect Of the deadly gases
being manufactured in the plant, were
provided everywhere, he says, so any
person coming in contact with the
gases might leap under them immed-
lately. No air from the factory was
allowed to escape direct to the outside
where it might have injured passersby,
but was sucked into huge towers,
where it was filtered through water
spray and then discharged high above
the ground.
At one time when a small quantity
of chlorine gas leaked from tank car
in the grounds, 5000 civilian laborers
became panic stricken and fled. Trat-
fic on the Pennsylvania railroad near
by was stopped for five hours until the
leak was stopped. The panic occurred
during the night, and many of the lab
orers who were on an off-shift fled
without waiting to dress and num-
ber failed to return to secure either
their clothing or wages due them.
How Workers Are Protected.
Workers in the plant, engaged in
filling shells stood in constant draft
which was designed to tarry any
fumes that might escape away from
them. Every fifteen minutes they
were required to wash their hands in a
counteractive chemcal solution and to
change their gloves. Only phosgene
gas, it is said, affects the lungs ma
terially, the mustard gas having to
come in direct contact with the flesh
to iniure one. However, small parti-
cles of mustard gas would soak thru
clothing despite the utmost precau-
tions. causing injury. Leather and the
heaviest clothing will not prevent the
gas reaching the body, rubber and
metal being the only substances it
will not affect Immediately.
Mustard gas is pale yellow in color
and in the latter days of the war was
used not in drums to be carried across
enemy trenches by the wind, but in
shells which are usually 75-millimeter
size, with charge of TINT in the nose.
When the shell explodes, the liquid is
volatized or separated into minute
particles, which float about in the air.
The action of this gas is due to direct
contact of these particles with the
flesh. The resultant wound will not
heal quickly.
Tear gas, or chlor-pierin, is con-
tanned in another tube. 1t is used in
trench mortars and shells of many
calibers. 1t causes those who come in
contact with it to weep violently, so
they cannot fight or be of use in any
manner.
Titanium tetrachloride, or the SUBJ
stance used in filling smoke bombs, is
a transparent liquid and, when vola-
tilted by the explosion of shell, is
suffocating and lachrymose in effect,
although it is designed simply to
create a screen to hide troop move
ments. 1t produces a dense, white
cloud.
Phosgene gas, the deadly combina-
tion of carbon monoxide and chlorine
is the most dangerous gas used in
trench warfare. When inhaled it has
hardening effect on the lung tissues
At the time Of the signing of the ar
mistice drums containing one ton each
of phosgene were being manufactured
at the Edgewood arsenal, ostensibly
for use in bombing from aeroplanes
Such drum would have killed every