Evening star., 1927-09-18

the formula of the gas his COM
patriots had used on April %, 1915
| cit was chlorine gas--C 12), but also
the formula of these four other gases
then in prepartion: Bromine (liquid)
| l-Br2; Benzly Bromide Oiquid)-C6
HIS CHE Br; Bromacetone Qiquid)-
C-H3 CO.CH2 Br; Methyl Chlorosul
fate (liquid)-SO2 CL-OCHs.
| As may be seen. none OF these
gases were blistering gases. They
were suffocating and tear gases
Even this was enough to put Ger
many outside the pale OF civilized so
ciety, but these were quite harmless
| compared to the gases they used
later-which raised such havoc in the
allied ranks.
! Having forwarded this information
| to the main office in the usual way.
I started for Essen to see IL could
| find out what was being done with
the enormous quantities OF gas sent
there. / was destined to learn things
of high Importance,
As is easily to be seen, one cannot
Just walk into factories like those at
Essen. The dynasty of the Krupps.
that powerful auxiliary Of the dynasty
of the Hohenzollerns, has since 1911
been granted many special privileges.
foremost among which is the right
to a private police force whose duty 1t
Is to guard their trade secrets. Ana
assure you that some OF their
secrets are really terrifying.
The factories, In which there were a
hundred thousand people at this time,
covered an area of 1900 acres, $50 Of
which were covered by buildings. One
of the mills--the one that most inter-
ested me, as 1t was the most difficult
to gain access to--was separated from
the rest by an actual Gordon Of SOL
diers.
Yet human nature is such that the
very existence of a secret makes peo-
pie want to discover 1t, Moreover, In a
community of workingmen like Essen
it is practically impossible to hide any
trade secret whatsoever. There are two
reasons for this.
In the first place. the specialists who
worked in that secret mill and received
much larger salaries than the others
incurred jealousy, bitterness and even
hatred-which was quite natural. In
the second place, each one Of these
men was under oath to say absolutely
nothing about the work he was doing.
Thus they were all under the constant
and disquieting scrutiny of the other
to worm their secrets out Of them. 1t
was all a matter of psychology!
To get the information I desired !
had hung around the saloons and res
taurants where the foremen and skilled
mechanics would gather, keeping my
ears open. Their conversation was of
technical details. But by piecing to-
gether various seemingly unconnected
scraps of information, / got. for ex-
ample, a pretty fair idea Of the number
OF machines Of all kinds produced per
day. was also able to make q rather
accurate estimate Of the number and
caliber of the shells turned out. Such
information was, Of course. important,
but 1t was not the information ]
wanted.
How could get this? Should I take
the necessary risks and try to worm
my way into the factory by disguis-
ing myself as a workman? But to do
this would require long and careful
1t was up to me to get re.
suits at once!
RACK there in the trenches, all the
way from the North Sea to the
Vosges. the Germans were about to
use y ucW Wedpuu VI ouchccs ~ W1S
being prepared here right under my
eyes. To destroy the effectiveness Of
this weapon we had to know what II
was. Above all, we could not risk hav-
ing it come as a surprise. We must
have our defenses ready before they
put 1t into operation.
/ was still plugging away at my in
quiry when, one day as ] was having
lunch at the Essener Hof that weird
which. like everything else
in Essen, is owned by the Krupp fam
ily), by the merest chance I heard
that within a few days they were 60
ing to try out a new kind Of projectile.