Page 79 - All About History - Issue 28-15

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Chemical FOR MORE ON WWI, CHECK OUT

Warfare

It was thought too horrible to ever use; so
terrible it was made illegal seven years before the
outbreak of war. Yet it became a valuable tool ON SALE NOW

01 unbearable. The symptoms could last AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD NEWSAGENTS & SUPERMARKETS,
The use of chemical
weapons is known to
for five weeks before death, and if a
OR ONLINE AT WWW.IMAGINESHOP.CO.UK
soldier did survive, they were scarred
antiquity, and even
for life.
Leonardo da Vinci
gave a ‘recipe’ for
Neither side was prepared for
suffocating enemies. But it was not this. At first the only protection was
until about 5pm on 22 April 1915 that a cloth soaked in urine clamped (BT NBTLT
Allied troops in Ypres saw a greeny- against the mouth and nose, but by The Small Box Respirator, developed in 1916, was
yellow cloud wafting across no-man’s 1915 the entire British army had been
land towards them. Although illegal equipped with the newly designed the first practical and effective gas mask ever made
under the 1907 Hague Convention, Hypo helmet. These consisted of a
the Germans had begun the large- flannel bag with a celluloid window,
scale use of poison gas. By the end covering the entire head. Then,
of 1915, both sides had the noxious in 1916, troops were issued with a
weapon in their armouries. Mustard Small Box Respirator. This had a Metal pipe
gas caused the highest number of mouthpiece connected via a hose to Exhaled air was
casualties. Once inhaled, it rotted the a box filter. It was this design that breathed out along
body from inside and out; the skin would become the standard for many a metal pipe and
exited via a flapper-
blistered and the pain was almost years to come.
type check valve
outside the mouth.
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Soldiers in gas masks at the These were made
Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 of cellulose.
Condensation could
easily be wiped
away by pushing
in the baggy fabric
from the outside of
the mask.

Box
This was a metal
tin filled with highly )PTF
absorbent charcoal The filtered air was
and chemicals inhaled through
through which air a rubber hose,
was filtered. which connected
to a snorkel-shaped
mouthpiece held
between the teeth.

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