The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1922-02-25
POLICE PLAN Use
OF NEW GAS BOMB.
Device to Prevent Destruction oi
"The Evidence" in Liquor Raids
Favored by Peace Officers
of Winisemucca

HovObc0 ~ 0aCo OWbSSHD
of Win,enucea
Woe unto the bootlegger and his
tribe! The war has been their un-
doing, for Sheriff G. w. Brady plans
adoption Of war measures to combat
them in Winnemucca and Humboldt
county. The bootleggers' ability to
quickly do away with discriminating
evidence is to be discounted, and
in manner that will make want to
forget he ever had anything to do
with forbidden juice.
For now when a raid is to take
place the first thing the bootlegger
will know Of it, unless some sympa-
thetic friend tips him off in advance,
will be a cloud of white smoke, fol-
lowed by an uncomfortable flow Of
tears and desire to leave the place,
and leave the place they will-or
be carried out.
This will all be brought about by
the tossing Of a small copper ball
about the size Of a baseball, and
the smoke will develop when it hits
the floor. The end will come when
officers walk in, in undisputed pos
session, and gather up whatever evi-
dence is to be found.
The idea comes out Of Chicago,
where the police department has
adopted the scheme, and where, by
the way, the only really efficient
work has been accomplished against
the bootlegger. The device used Is
called the Lewis Hughes Police
Grenade, and was invented by DR..
w. Lee Lewis, professor of chem
istry of Northwestern university at
Evanston, Illinois, and F. C. Hughes
of the University of Minnesota. DR..
Lewis was an officer in the army
and is now a major in the reserve
corps, chemical warfare service.
The superiority of the device over
guns and clubs lies in the fact that
it will not kill or permanently in
jure the culprit, that it contains no
explosive or infammable material,
that any officer who can throw q
baseball can use it effectively; that
the officer can use it without ex-
posing himself either to the effects
of the grenade or the bullets of
the culprit, and that positively no
one can withstand the powerful
fumes which it generates. The cul-
prit is forced into immediate abject
surrender, although a few minutes
later he RECEIVERS entirely from its
effects.
The grenade consists of round,
hollow copper shell about the size
of a baseball. It encloses chemi-
Gals, SO arranged that when the
grenade strikes an object the inter-
action of the chemicals on each
other produces a dense mixture of
intolerable smoke and gas. The
gas formed is one of the most pow
erful tear gases known to science,
a gas which almost instantly pene-
trates every corner of a room, base
ment, boxcar, automobile or what
ever other compartment desired. No
one can withstand it; everyone
plunges for the open air, ready to
take any other punishment rather
than continue to breathe the fumes.
The grenade can be thrown
through windows, into barricaded
houses, thus causing the occupants
to vacate in a very few seconds
after breathing the gas. 1t can be
used in dispensing mobs and break
ing up riots; it can be used in
stopping fights between men or be-
tween beasts without danger to any
one. It can be used in raids on
places of vice in which operations
are conducted behind closed doors.
In the case Of bootlegging, as a
usual thing, the evidence is de-
stroyed before the officers can pre-
vent, but If a grenade is used first
it is claimed, the occupants will i'm
mediately flee, leaving all evidence
behind.
An animal or criminal wounded
and at bay will fight with renewed
desperation, but exposed to a chok-
ing, irritating mixture of smoke
and gas has no fight left; nature
drives the victim to retreat, sur
render or any other immediate re
course to avoid the terrible pair
that closes the eyes and irritates the
throat and lungs, and burns beyont
endurance.
The Orouada In not inf1ammablt