Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-19
WILL TEST POISON GAS
AGAINST u. S. NAVY

The use of poisonous gas against
naval vessels under simulated bat
tie conditions will be tested for the
first time during bombing expert
ments to be conducted off the Allan
tic coast beginning June 81. White
army and navy aerial forces are CO.
operating in an effort to demonstrate
the effectiveness of aerial bombs
against modern naval vessels, the
chemical warfare service of the army
will be launching a poison gas a.
tack from the air against one or
more Warships in an attempt to
show that the navy must Immediate
ly build up defenses against a new
and terrible ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ship to Garry Crew
Under present plans the ship to be
gassed Will have a crew aboard. Non"
explosive bombs filed with tear gas"
will be dropped and every man on
board the vessel will be required to
keep within the protected areas and
wear gas mask.
Officers of the chemical warfare
service believe that by using a gas
OF 1ntolerable concentration, that is
of sufficient strength to incapaCitate
but not to kill, the service can prove
its contention that in the next war
battleships must be made literally
alright to protect the crews.
The chemical warfare service and
the war department are cooperating
| IN conducting experiments in the use
| of toxic gases at sea and in building
| up adequate defenses to protect the
American sailors in the next war.
! AS result of these experiments i'm
portant changes may be made in the
| design Of new ships and of some al
! ready under construction, but not vet
| far advanced.
1ntolerabIe to Eyes
The tear gas" which the chemical
| Warfare Service proposes to use in
| the coming tests is known to chem
| lists as brombenzylcyani The mix
ture is intolerable to the eyes, but
| is not dangerous. The significance
of the effect on the battleship per-
| in the fact that it is of a concentra-
| ton and persistency exactly similar
| to the instantly fatal gases which
the chemical warfare service is pre-
pared to use against a hostile navy
| in time of war.
It was pointed out today by army
| officers that the ventilating system
| of all Warships was based on "a sue
| ton system drawing air through
tubes to every Part of the vessel.
Llllo cy olCIIJ IISy uGCIdI6u, WOuIu
| be thee hief ally of an enemy gas
attack, sucking into every nook and
| corner of the vessel the deadly gases
| introduced into the ship of deck
| piercing, shells dropped from aircraft.
| Gases already prepared and in stock
| are of such deadly MIXTURE, the of
| f1cerS declare, that one Whit will
kill almost instantly.
| Toxic Smoke Screen
The chemical warfare service has
a1cn 1pun1nna1
other deadly weapon to be used in
naval warfare in the future. 1t is
a toxic smoke" called diphenylchror-
arsine. 1t is designed to be used in
| place of the smoke screen heretofore
laid down by destroyers to shield the
main fleet from the enemy.
This toxic smoke consists of
| dense poisonous dust clouds design
ed to be liberated on the surface of
| the sea through bombs and smoke
boxes placed to WindWard of the
enemy force. The poison dust will
be drawn into the ventilating sys-
tenn of the hostile ships, the officers
assert, with particularly deadly eff
feet. 1t has not been decided wheth-
| er the toxic smoke" principal, using
| non-deadly ingredients, will also be
| given a trial during the coming
| tests.
A third innovation the chemical
| warfare service is working on is the
ueVelOpmenC OF system OIL placing a
| smoke screen over a fleet by the
use of smoke bombs attached to para
chutes and dropped from aircraft or
similar bombs fired into the air from
guns on the vessels. A smoke or
| gas is being developed for this use
| three hundred feet above the ships.
Fear Poison Menace Most
Naval officers admit that they are
concerned over the application of
| chemical science to war on the sea.
| At the annual chemical warfare serv-
| ice dinner held here recently Rear
| Admiral w. S. Smith, in charge of
| patents and inventions at the navy
| department, declared that the navy
| was not nearly so concerned over the
prospect of being blown out of the
water" by aerial bombs as it was
over the development of poison
gases, as an offensive weapon against
sea craft.