CHAPTER I.

TOXIC GASES.

The first recorded use of suffocating gases in warfare was about 431 B. C., sulphur fumes having been used in besieging the cities of Platea and Belium in the war between the Athenians and the Spartans. Similar uses of toxic substances are recorded during the Middle Ages. In August, 1855, the English Admiral Lord Dundonald, having observed the deadly character of the fumes of sulphur in Sicily, proposed to reduce Sebastopol by sulphur fumes, and worked out the details of the proposition. The English Government disapproved the proposition on the ground that "the effects were so horrible that no honorable combatant could use the means required to produce them."

That the probable use of poison gases was still in the minds of military men is evidenced by the fact that at The Hague conference in 1899 several of the more prominent nations of Europe and Asia pledged themselves not to use any projectiles whose only object was to give out suffocating or poisonous gases. Many of the Powers did not sign this declaration until later. Germany signed and ratified it on September 4, 1900, but the United States never signed it. Further, this declaration was not to be binding in case of a war in which a non-signatory was or became a belligerent. Admiral Mahan, a United States delegate, stated his position in regard to the use of gas in shell, at that time an untried theory, as follows:

The reproach of cruelty and perfidy addressed against these supposed shells was equally uttered previously against firearms and torpedoes, although both are now employed without scruple. It is illogical and not demonstrably humane to be tender about asphyxiating men with gas, when all are prepared to admit that it is allowable to blow the bottom out of an ironclad at midnight, throwing four or five hundred men into the sea to be choked by the water, with scarcely the remotest chance to escape.

The Second Hague Peace Congress in 1907 adopted rules for land warfare, and among them was article 23 which read as follows: "It is expressly forbidden to employ poisons or poisonous weapons."

The use of toxic gas in the great war dates back to April 22, 1915, on which day the Germans employed chlorine, a common and well-known gas, in an attack against the French and British lines in the northeastern part of the upper Ypres salient.

The methods of manufacturing toxic gases, the use of such gases, and the tactics connected with their use were new developments of this war; yet during the year 1918 from 20 to 30 per cent of all American battle casualties were due to gas, showing that toxic gas is one of the most powerful implements of war. The records show, however, that when armies were supplied with masks and other defensive appliances, only about 3 or 4 per cent of the gas casualties were fatal. This indicates that gas can be made not only one of the most effective implements of war, but one of the most humane. It will, of course, be necessary to remove the noncombatant population from a greater depth of country immediately in the rear of the fighting lines than formerly, in order that women and children may not be gassed. This additional sacrifice of territory for war uses is another element of effectiveness in the weapon.

Since Germany had chosen to utilize toxic gas in warfare, the allied nations were compelled to adopt like tactics; accordingly England and France, faced with the desperate situation resulting from advantages secured by the Germans through the employment of these new weapons, immediately turned their attention not only to devising methods for protecting their own troops, but also to securing supplies and equipment necessary for the utilization of toxic gas as an agent of warfare against the German Army.

Germany originated thereafter the use of most of the new forms of gas, but the allied nations and America were actually producing, at the time of the armistice, gases on a much greater scale than Germany was ever able to attain. In fact, America itself was producing gases at a rate several times as great as was possible in Germany.

Prior to the entry of America in the war our overseas observers had been collecting information bearing upon gas warfare, referring the facts so obtained to the Ordnance Department in Washington, where the information was turned over to Lieut. Col. E. J. W. Ragsdale, who was then in charge of the Trench Warfare Section.

In the early days of our belligerency it was seen that we should need a plant for filling artillery shell with toxic gases. The Government in the fall of 1917 bought a large tract of land near Aberdeen, Md., to be an artillery proving ground. Approximately 3,400 acres of this reservation, about one-tenth of it in area, was set aside as the site for the gas shell-filling plant. This reservation was known as Edgewood, and the plant erected on the site was called the Edgewood Arsenal. Work started on the construction of the arsenal on November 1, 1917.

None of the toxic gases in use in Europe, except chlorine and small amounts of phosgene, had ever been commercially prepared in the United States. It was the original intention to interest existing chemical firms in the manufacture of these gases; but there were many difficulties in the way of such a project, not the least of which was the ruling of the Director General of Railways that such products as poison gas be transported only on special trains.

Also we discovered that the private chemical companies were loath to undertake such manufacture. The exhaustive investigations necessary before quantity methods of manufacture could be devised would be uncertain and expensive. There would be great danger to the lives of those employed in such work. Many of the private concerns were already crowded with war work. Finally, the new plant equipment which must be set up would be worth nothing when the war ended, since the manufacture of such gases would be limited to the period of hostilities. These and other considerations explain the reluctance of the commercial chemical industry to undertake the production of war gases.

Consequently the Government was forced to adopt the plan of building various chemical plants at the Edgewood Arsenal in connection with the filling plant. By December 1, 1917, it had been decided to build at Edgewood a chlorpicrin plant and a phosgene plant. The contracts were immediately let, and the work was pushed through the rigorous winter of 1917-18.

In March, 1918, the Edgewood project was taken from the Trench Warfare Section of the Ordnance Department and made an independent division under the command of Col. Wm. H. Walker. In June, 1918, the Chemical Warfare Service was organized, and the Edgewood Arsenal was transferred to it. Gen. W. L. Sibert, Director of the Gas Service, took charge of the activities of the arsenal in May prior to the official transfer.

Chlorine, the raw material for the manufacture of which is common salt, was one of the principal materials required in the gas-production program. Although chlorine was a standard product in the United States prior to the war, it was soon seen that we had an inadequate commercial supply to meet the requirements of our proposed gas offensive. Chlorine was used not only by itself, but it was also the active agent in the manufacture of nearly all the other toxic gases which we required. Consequently we decided to build a Government chlorine plant with two 50-ton units, giving a daily capacity of 100 tons of liquid chlorine. The ground for this plant at Edgewood was broken on May 11, 1918, and the actual production of chlorine begun on September 1.

In July, 1917, the Germans introduced the so-called mustard gas. It was immediately realized that for certain purposes of fighting this chemical was the most effective product so far employed, and a large number of Government experts here at once concentrated their energies in developing methods for its manufacture on a large scale. Not only were the uniformed experimenters busy at the Gas Service's American University Camp, at Washington, D. C., but experimental units were established at the plant of the Dow Chemical Co., at Midland, Mich., at the plant of Zinsser & Co., Hastings-on-Hudson, N. Y., and at the Government plant which had been started by the Trench Warfare Section, at Cleveland, Ohio.

Eventually it was decided to erect a large plant at Edgewood for the manufacture of mustard gas. Not until April, 1918, however, did we feel that we possessed sufficient knowledge and information to justify the construction of a mustard-gas plant on a large scale. France and England also were long in working out satisfactory methods of mustard-gas production. We began to make mustard in June, and continued with rapidly increasing output until the signing of the armistice.

It soon became evident that we could not depend upon civilian labor in the operation of the various chemical plants at Edgewood because of the danger involved. It was decided, therefore, to utilize enlisted men in the working crews. As the projects at Edgewood increased in size and number, the forces at the arsenal grew, until at one time there were 7,400 troops at this point.

Meanwhile the Government had at last been able to persuade a number of private chemical firms to manufacture toxic gases. The Government agreed to finance all new construction, but the operation was to be in the hands of the contracting companies. At each plant the Government stationed one of its representatives with necessary assistants. In the spring of 1918, these scattered factories by official order were made part of the Edgewood Arsenal, each plant being designated by the name of the city or town where it was located. Thereafter in Army usage the term "Edgewood Arsenal" embraced not only the group of factories on the Edgewood reservation, but also included the following projects:

Niagara Falls plant, operated by the Oldbury Electro-Chemical Co. Project--the manufacture of phosgene.

Midland, Mich., plant, operated by the Dow Chemical Co. Project--the sinking of 17 brine wells for the purpose of securing adequate supplies of bromine.

Charleston, W. Va., plant, operated by the Charleston Chemical Co. Project--the manufacture of sulphur chloride.

Bound Brook, N. J., plant, operated by Frank Hemingway (Inc.). Project--the manufacture of phosgene.

Buffalo plant, operated by the National Aniline & Chemical Co. Project--the manufacture of mustard gas.

In addition to these, the Edgewood Arsenal built at points advantageous to supplies of raw materials four other plants, and operated them as well. These were as follows:

Stamford, Conn., plant. Project--the manufacture of chlorpicrin.

Hastings-on-Hudson, N. Y., plant. Project--the manufacture of mustard gas.

Kingsport, Tenn., plant. Project--the manufacture of brombenzylcyanide.

Croyland, Pa., plant. Project--the manufacture of diphenylchlorarsine.

In constructing and equipping the Edgewood Arsenal we laid 21 miles of standard-gauge railway and 15 miles of narrow-gauge railway, built nearly 15 miles of improved roadway, and set up two water systems, one with a capacity of 1,500,000 gallons per day for the manufacturing purposes of the chemical plants, and the other providing a fresh-water supply pumped 4 miles with a daily capacity of 2,000,000 gallons. In all 558 buildings were put up on the grounds of the arsenal. There were 86 cantonment buildings, with a capacity of 8,400 men, as well as adequate quarters for officers and civilian employees. Three field hospitals, a complete base hospital, and separate buildings for Y. M. C. A. and K. of C. activities indicated the extent of the building equipment. Three power houses were provided, with a total capacity of 26,500 kilowatts.

In the construction of buildings every precaution was taken to avoid accidents from the handling of toxic gas, the ventilating systems being as near perfection as human science could make them. It is notable that out of the thousands of men employed only four met their death by gas poisoning. Three of these casualties were due to phosgene and one to mustard gas.

To show that all of the danger of the war was not confined to the front, the following table of casualties in 1918 at the Edgewood Arsenal proper is here given:

-----------------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+------- Toxic agent. |June. |July. |Aug. |Sept. |Oct. |Nov. |Dec. |Total. -----------------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+------- Mustard gas | 14 | 41 | 190 | 153 | 227 | 47 | 2 | 674 Stannic chloride | | 3 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 3 | | 50 Phosgene | | | 3 | 7 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 50 Chlorpicrin | | 14 | 18 | 9 | 3 | | | 44 Bleach chlorine | | 2 | 39 | 2 | 1 | | | 44 Liquid chlorine | | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 5 | | 18 Sulphur chloride | | | 2 | 1 | 6 | | | 9 Phosphorus | | 2 | 7 | 5 | 1 | | | 15 Caustic soda | | | 3 | | 3 | 4 | | 10 Sulphuric acid | | | 4 | 3 | 1 | | | 8 Picric acid | | | 2 | | | | | 2 Carbon monoxide | | | | | 1 | | | 1 +------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+------- Totals | 14 | 63 | 279 | 197 | 293 | 76 | 3 | 925 -----------------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-------

As has been noted, chlorine was the only war gas produced on a commercial scale in America prior to the war. At the ordinary temperatures chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas of strong, suffocating odor. Through the combined effects of cold and pressure it is readily condensed to a liquid and is ordinarily shipped in this form, stored in strong cylinders.

Chlorine is prepared commercially by the electrolytic process. A current of electricity is passed through a solution of common salt. The greenish gas at once arises, leaving behind it a residue of caustic soda. The apparatus in which the salt is decomposed by the electric current is known as a cell. The Government plant used Nelson cells, each with a capacity of 60 pounds of chlorine and 65 pounds of caustic soda per 24 hours.

The Government chlorine plant at Edgewood was ready for operation in August, 1918, but was not actually started until September 1. The plant consisted of (1) a cell house, which had a total capacity of 100 tons of chlorine per 24 hours; (2) an electric substation for supplying the current; (3) a brine building, where the salt was mixed with water and the resulting brine purified; (4) a boiler and evaporation building, for concentrating the caustic soda from the cells; (5) a caustic fusion building, for drying the caustic soda and fusing it into solid form for shipment; and (6) a liquefying plant to condense and liquefy 50 tons of chlorine per day.

With the exception of chlorine, chlorpicrin was the first war gas to be manufactured on a large scale in this country. When pure, chlorpicrin is a colorless liquid which boils at a temperature approximately of 112° C. The compound has been known since 1848. While not so poisonous as some of the other products used in gas warfare, it is, nevertheless, an active poison, and has the additional advantage of being a fair lachrymator, or tear producer.

Chlorpicrin is made by the reaction between picric acid and chlorine. The chlorine is best supplied in the form of so-called bleaching powder, which is ordinary chloride of lime. In the manufacturing process as originally carried out, free picric acid was mixed with bleaching powder held in suspension with water. Later it was found advantageous to use calcium picrate instead of picric acid.

Accordingly, the final process was as follows: The bleaching powder was creamed with water and mixed with a solution of calcium picrate in large stills holding 5,000 gallons or more. A jet of live steam was then introduced at the bottom of the still, and the reaction began at once, the rapidity depending upon the amount of steam introduced. The resulting chlorpicrin, together with a certain quantity of steam, passed out of the still and was liquefied in the condenser. The resulting mixture of chlorpicrin and water was run into tanks, where the chlorpicrin, being insoluble in water, gradually settled to the bottom and was run off and used directly in gas shell.

In developing this process the Government was assisted by the Dow Chemical Co., the Semet-Solvay Co., and the American Synthetic Color Co., of Stamford, Conn., the principal work being done by representatives of the Bureau of Mines at the Stamford plant.

---------+-------+-------+-------+-----+--------------+-------+------+----- | | | | | | | | |Tita- 1918 |Liquid |Gaseous|Chlor- |Phos-|Mus- |Brom- |White | Tin |nium |chlor- |chlor- |picrin.|gene.|tard |benzyl |phos- |tetra-|tetra- |ine.[33]ine.[34] | |oil. |cyanide |phorus |chlor-|chlor- | | | | | | | | ide |ide. ---------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+--------+-------+------+------ January | | | 10 | | | | | | February | | | 27 | | | | 34| | March | 40| | 59 | | | | 74| 38| April | 176| | 33 | 15| | | 59| 116| May | 378| | 130 | 18| | | 70| 51| 50 June | 546| | 263 | 23| 6| | 60| 95| July | 512| | 499 | 100| 21| | 80| 112| 27 August | 243| | 646 | 314| 36| | 162| 94| 53 September| 438| 191| 564 | 327| 144| | 125| 96| 26 October | 242| 649| 445 | 664| 361| | 265| 75| 25 November | 148| 264| 100 | 155| 143| 5 | 77| 18| | | | | | | | | | +-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+--------+-------+------+------ Total | 2,723| 1,104| 2,776 |1,616| 711| 5 | 1,006| 695| 181 | | | | | | | | | Amount | 1,488| | 1,903| 420| 190| | 171| 106| shipped | | | | | | | | | overseas | | | | | | | | | Total | 895| 1,500| 1,500|1,050| 900| 90| 100| 91| 30 monthly | | | | | | | | | producing| | | | | | | | | capacity,| | | | | | | | | Nov. 1, | | | | | | | | | 1918 | | | | | | | | | Estimated| 1,100| 2,250| 1,500|1,650|4,000| 90| 100| 91| 30 capacity,| | | | | | | | | Jan. 1, | | | | | | | | | 1919 | | | | | | | | | ---------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+--------+-------+------+------

[33] Procured from commercial agencies.

[34] Manufactured at Edgewood.

_Shell, grenades, Livens drums, and drop bombs filled._

---------+----------------------+-----------------+--------+---------------- | 75-mm. shell. | Grenades. | Livens |Incendiary drop | | | drums. | bombs. 1918 +-------+-----+--------+-------+---------+--------+-------+-------- |Chloro-|Phos-|Mustard | White | Tin | Phos- | | |picrin |gene | oil | phos- | tetra- | gene |Mark I |Mark II. | | | |phorus |chloride | | | ---------+-------+-----+--------+-------+---------+--------+-------+-------- July | 62,866| | | 8,696| 1,639| | | August |125,951| | |170,160| 56,763| 1,738| 350| September|110,358|1,988| 75,529| 51,421| 127,319| 6,355| | 1,998 October | 09,704| 12| 79,272|110,928| 147,669| 12,026| 184| 100 November | 15,892| 9| 224| 98,948| 30,386| 5,570| 8| 6 +-------+-----+--------+-------+---------+--------+-------+-------- Total |424,771|2,009| 155,025|440,153| 363,776| 25,689| 542| 2,104 | | | | | | | | Total |300,000| | 150,000|224,984| 175,080| 18,600| | number | | | | | | | | shipped | | | | | | | | overseas | | | | | | | | ---------+-------+-----+--------+-------+---------+--------+-------+--------

_Total monthly capacity of filling plants on date of armistice (Stokes shell, drop bombs, and other special containers not included)._

75-mm. shell (ultimate capacity) 2,400,000 4.7-inch shell 450,000 155-mm. shell 540,000 6-inch shell 180,000 Gas grenades 750,000 Smoke grenades 480,000 Livens drums 30,000