Part 9

Only those who saw the low-lying, swamp-lined shores of Gunpowder Neck during the winter and spring of 1917-1918 can fully picture the obstacles with which our gas-makers were confronted. Have you ever seen a Virginia road after the spring rains? Yes? Imagine, then, this Virginian clay mixed with Mexican adobe and diluted with New Orleans molasses and you will have a slight idea of the nature of the soil over which enormous quantities of material had to be hauled and on which was erected the greatest manufactory of poison-gas in the world. It may be recalled, moreover, that the winter of 1917-1918 was the severest in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. For weeks on end the shores of the Chesapeake resembled the shores of Greenland, but, in spite of cold and mud and rain, in spite of apparently insurmountable difficulties in obtaining building materials and in securing transportation for those materials on the congested railways, in spite of strikes and labor troubles of every kind, the work forged steadily ahead, officers and men working themselves as a negro teamster works his mules. Scores of miles of roads were built and metalled, a network of railways was laid down, and over them snorted panting locomotives hauling endless caravans of freight-cars. The building sites were illuminated by hundreds of arc-lights, the working force was divided into shifts, and the reservation resounded both night and day to the creak of derricks, the clatter of riveters, and the rasp of saws. A total of 558 buildings were constructed on the grounds of the arsenal, including, in addition to the huge structures of steel and concrete which comprised the filling and the various chemical plants, 36 cantonments with quarters for 8,400 men, 3 field-hospitals, a base hospital with more than 400 beds, bunk-houses for civilian workmen, officers’ barracks, Y. M. C. A. and Knights of Columbus huts, and one of the most completely equipped laboratories in the country. Edgewood is, in reality, a collection of great manufacturing plants, with all that implies in housing, sanitation, heating, storage, hospitalization, and other agencies. And the work was done by men every one of whom, from the commanding officer down, was in civil life when the war began. Not a single officer or man of the Regular Army had any responsibility for the construction or operation of Edgewood Arsenal from the day that the ex-professor of chemistry, Colonel Walker, assumed command, until its operations were terminated by the Armistice.

Any one who has had practical experience in manufacturing well knows that it is usually a long step from laboratory experimentation to factory production, a step which it often takes months and sometimes years to make and which is frequently beset with all manner of difficulties and problems. But there was no such time at the disposal of the Edgewood gas-makers. In all their experiments they were never permitted to slack up on production. The need was too vital. Our armies in France were clamoring for gas, gas, gas. There were no existing models for much of the machinery needed, but the corps of brilliant young men with whom Colonel Walker had surrounded himself invented as they went along. Yet, as a result of the experiments at Edgewood, numerous new and more economical processes were discovered. The slow and dangerous water-cooling method of producing phosgene, as followed in Europe, was supplanted by an entirely new system and a plant was perfected which could turn out forty tons of this gas every twenty-four hours. When the Edgewood plant was put into operation the government was paying one dollar and fifty cents a pound for phosgene, but when the Armistice was signed we were manufacturing it at the theretofore unheard-of price of ten cents per pound and would have brought it to an even lower figure had the production been continued. The systems devised for filling, painting, and marking the shell were marvels of mechanical ingenuity. These discoveries were not intended for commerce. They were the result of patriotic effort on the part of the workmen to see the nation excel in the particular thing in which it was then engaged—war. They were the outgrowth of impatience over slow and dangerous methods, or a desire to do the work in hand a little better or a little more quickly than it had been done before—a quality inherent in the American character.

It is a remarkable commentary on the efficiency of the Edgewood organization that notwithstanding the fact that the manufacture of poison-gases in quantity was a new industry in the United States, that the machinery was improvised or designed from the ground up, that the workmen were without previous experience—many of the drafted men, mind you, were fresh from offices, stores, and farms—and that they were engaged in a peculiarly hazardous occupation, only four fatalities were directly traceable to poisoning by gas. This should not be construed as minimizing the peril attached to the work, however, for, though every possible precaution was observed in the construction and operation of the plants, there were 925 casualties between June and December, 1918, of which 674 were due to mustard-gas. During the month of August, when the gases were most volatile as a result of the excessive heat (during that month the mercury stood at 106 degrees for three days in succession), and when the weather caused the soldiers to somewhat relax their precautions, the hospitals were on several days filled at the rate of 3½ per cent of the entire force of the mustard-gas plant, though this rate of casualties was not maintained, of course, throughout the entire month. I might add that several of the divisions which took part in the St. Mihiel offensive sustained a considerably smaller percentage of losses, which shows that the dangers of the war were not entirely monopolized by the men who served in France.

Long before the chemical plants were completed it became evident that civilian labor could not be utilized in their operation. Not only was such labor difficult to obtain, but the wages were abnormally high, the work was, as a whole, extremely inefficient, and it was virtually impossible to maintain the discipline and secrecy imperative to the success of the undertaking. Moreover, it was found that such civilian labor as was available could not be depended upon to work in the chemical plants because of the danger attending the manufacture of such highly poisonous materials. It was decided, therefore, to utilize enlisted men. As the project progressed, increasing numbers of soldiers from the National Army were detailed to the arsenal, the force reaching a strength of 7,400 at one time. The soldiers, no matter how much they disliked the work, could not quit like the civilian laborers; they had no option but to obey orders, and so, morning after morning, they rose at the summons of the bugles in the dim light of early dawn, hurried through their breakfasts at the long tables in the mess-halls, and marched to their respective tasks, whether making chlorine, chlorpicrin, phosgene, or mustard gas, filling or painting shell, working in the great refrigerating-plants through which the shell were passed to be chilled before filling, loading trains and boats, building roads, digging ditches, or firing boilers—all for thirty dollars a month. To the men who wore the blue-and-yellow hat-cords of the Chemical Warfare Service, the men who performed their dangerous work without advertisement and without public recognition, is due the gratitude of the nation.

The chief activities of the great arsenal on the Chesapeake consisted, as I believe I have already mentioned, of the manufacture of four types of toxic-gas—chlorine, chlorpicrin, phosgene, and mustard—and the filling of shell with these gases. Now I have not the slightest intention of entering upon a technical account of the complicated processes by which these gases were produced. Though no doubt interesting to chemists, it would make dry reading for others. It will suffice for the purposes of this book to sketch in briefest outline, and in simple words, the chief characteristics of the principal toxic-gases and the methods followed in their manufacture.

Chlorine, which is the first gas the Germans used and which is an important constituent of nearly all the other toxic-gases, is derived from ordinary table-salt. It is prepared by passing a current of electricity through a solution of salt, by which process chlorine is liberated and caustic soda formed. At ordinary temperatures chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas of strong, suffocating odor, but by means of cold and pressure it can be readily condensed to a liquid and is usually shipped in that form, stored in strong cylinders. The apparatus in which the salt is decomposed by the electric current is known as a cell. The salt, upon arrival at the arsenal, was taken to the brine building and dumped into large concrete tanks kept partially filled with water, the resulting brine being drawn off, purified, and pumped to the cell-house as needed. The interior of this building was filled with cells, nearly 4,000 in all, through which was passed a direct current of approximately 260 volts. The chlorine thus extracted from the brine was liquefied by compressing it through the agency of a falling column of sulphuric acid and then cooling the compressed gas by refrigeration. Though chlorine has long been manufactured in the United States for chemical purposes, a constant supply of it was so essential for the preparation of the other gases that Colonel Walker insisted that it should be produced at Edgewood, thus making the government independent of private manufacturers.

Chlorpicrin, while not so poisonous as some of the other gases, is, nevertheless, an active poison and has, in addition, pronounced lachrymal (tear-producing) and nauseating qualities. Though chlorpicrin is fatal when taken in large quantities, it is almost impossible to inhale much of it because of its terribly nauseating effect. The inhalation of four cubic inches of it causes violent vomiting. Chlorpicrin is produced by the action of picric acid upon chlorine in the form of bleaching-powder. The bleaching-powder, after being diluted with water to the consistency of thick cream, is mixed with a solution of calcium picrate in large stills holding 5,000 or more gallons. A jet of live steam is introduced at the bottom of the still and the reaction begins at once, the resulting chlorpicrin passing out of the still into condensers. This mixture of chlorpicrin and water is then run into tanks. As chlorpicrin does not dissolve in water, it gradually settles to the bottom and is drawn off and loaded directly into the shell.

Phosgene, the next member of the poison-gas family, is the deadliest of the lung-gases, killing almost as quickly as cyanogen. It is produced by the combination of two other gases, chlorine and carbon monoxide. The reaction is effected in iron boxes, lined with lead and filled with charcoal, into which a stream of chlorine and carbon monoxide, mixed in proper proportion, is introduced. The colorless gas which results is phosgene. It is condensed to a liquid by passing it through a condenser surrounded by brine kept cold by refrigeration and is then either stored in strong steel containers or run directly into the thirty-pound cylinders known as Livens’ drums. These drums are fired from a sort of mortar, called a projector, and are extremely effective for producing heavy concentrations of gas up to a range of 1,500 yards.

The compound commonly referred to in chemical warfare as “mustard-gas” is known to chemists as dichlorethylsulphide. Its nature is as formidable as its name. It has a distinctive smell, like garlic rather than mustard. It has no immediate effect on the eyes, beyond a slight irritation, but after several hours the eyes begin to swell and inflame and practically blister, causing the most intense pain; the nose discharges freely, and severe coughing and even vomiting ensue. Direct contact with the spray causes blistering of the skin so severe that it is virtually burned. Even when protected by masks and specially made clothing, it is impossible for troops to remain for more than eight hours in an area which has been bombarded with mustard-gas. Dichlorethylsulphide, to use its correct name, is produced by blowing ethylene-gas into liquid sulphur monochloride in large iron reaction vessels. Contrary to the popular impression, this gas contains no mustard. The details of devices and methods for introducing the ethylene and sulphur monochloride into the vessels, the removal of the product, the necessary agitation and cooling of the mass, and the like, were frequently changed during the development of the process and had not reached a final form even when the Armistice was signed. Nevertheless, when the war ended, Edgewood was producing 30 tons of mustard-gas a day and a rapid increase up to 100 tons daily was practically assured.

Though the Germans began their use of gas by releasing it from cylinders, depending upon the wind to carry it over the enemy’s lines, these “cloud attacks,” as they were called, did not prove satisfactory and were eventually discontinued, for great difficulty was experienced in getting the heavy cylinders up to the front and installing them in the trenches, and favorable winds could not be depended upon. It seems likely, indeed, that the Germans failed to recognize the significance of the meteorological records and charts of northern France, which show that 75 per cent of the prevailing winds are from a southerly or southeasterly direction, thus leaving the Germans only 25 per cent of the time in which they could use their gas without danger of its being blown back over their own lines. It was in order to overcome these meteorological conditions that the Germans evolved the idea of loading the gas into shell, usually in the form of liquid, which turned into gas when it came into contact with the air upon the explosion of the shell, and firing these shell from guns or mortars, thus enabling them to place the gas wherever they desired without reference to the weather. During the last two years of the war, barring a few isolated instances, gas was used in no other way.

The filling of shell was, therefore, one of the most important of Edgewood’s many activities. Let me explain to you, as simply and briefly as possible, how the shell were filled with phosgene.

The empty shell, after inspection, were loaded on trucks together with the required number of loaded boosters. (A booster, it should be explained, is the cap or stopper containing a charge of high explosive, usually TNT or dynamite, which is screwed on the nose of the shell after it has been filled with gas, much as a metal top is screwed onto a bottle. Just before firing, a fuse is inserted in the booster, igniting the explosive, which in turn shatters the shell, thus releasing the gas.) The trucks with the empty shell were then run by electric locomotives to the filling buildings. Here the shell were transferred to a conveyer, a sort of moving platform, which slowly moved through a room kept cold by refrigeration. About thirty minutes was required for this operation, during which time the shell were cooled to a temperature of about zero. This chilling of the shell was made necessary because phosgene has a low boiling-point. It was imperative, therefore, that the temperature of the shell be kept considerably below the boiling-point of phosgene in order that the latter should remain in liquid form while the filling was taking place. The chilled shell were then transferred to trucks and hauled by motor through the filling-tunnel to the filling-machines. Here the phosgene, kept in liquid state by refrigeration, was run into the shell by automatic machines. The truck then carried the filled shell forward a few feet, at which point the boosters were screwed into the noses of the shell by hand. The final closing of the shell was then effected by motors operated by compressed air. The filled shell were next conveyed to the shell-dump, where they were classified and stored for twenty-four hours, nose down on skids, in order to test them for leaks. The following day the shell were again placed on conveyers which carried them through a painting-machine, where air-brushes gave them a coat of elephant gray and striped them with the distinctive bands of color which denoted the type of gas they contained. The methods followed in filling shell with chlorpicrin were similar to those for phosgene except that refrigeration was unnecessary. The peculiar properties of mustard-gas, however, required an entirely different filling system. Edgewood Arsenal also had separate plants for filling the stannic-chloride hand-grenades used for “mopping up” trenches; for filling both shell and grenades with white phosphorus for use in forming smoke-screens to conceal the movements of advancing troops, and for loading the incendiary drop-bombs used by the Air Service.

The various plants which I have just described by no means comprised the whole of Edgewood’s activities, however, for, in order to obtain a sufficient supply of bromine, certain compounds of which are excellent tear-producing materials, a series of brine-wells was sunk at Midland, Michigan; a plant for the production of another lachrymator, brombenzyl cyanide, was erected at Kingsport, Tennessee; and an establishment for the manufacture of diphenychlorarsine—an arsenical material used in gas warfare because it produces violent sneezing, thus causing the troops to remove their gas-masks and thereby exposing them to the effects of the toxic-gases used in combination with the arsenicals—was started at Croyland, Pennsylvania.

As a matter of fact, the great mother-plant on Chesapeake Bay had branches and ramifications of which the public had scarcely an inkling, so carefully were the details of our gas production guarded. I have already pointed out that it was the original intention to secure the entire supply of toxic materials from existing chemical plants, and that it was only after this plan was found to be unfeasible that the decision to build government plants was reached. This decision did not signify, however, that no such material would be obtained from existing firms. On the contrary, it was decided to utilize such firms whenever it was possible to secure their co-operation. But as the products desired had never been prepared on a commercial scale in this country, it was impossible to forecast with accuracy the cost of their manufacture. As a result, the co-operation of the existing chemical concerns could be secured only on the condition that the government would finance the work. These plants, therefore, though they continued to be operated by their owners, became in fact government plants, being financed by the government, representatives of the War Department being stationed at each establishment to supervise their administration and look after the government’s interests. At first they were under the direction of the trench warfare section of the Ordnance Department, but, under a later order, they were made a part of Edgewood Arsenal and placed under the administration of its commanding officer. The list of these outside plants, with their official designation and the product manufactured in each, is as follows:

Edgewood Arsenal, Niagara Falls Plant: Manufacture of phosgene.

Edgewood Arsenal, Midland (Mich.) Plant: Sinking of brine-wells for the purpose of securing adequate supplies of bromine.

Edgewood Arsenal, Buffalo Plant: Manufacture of mustard-gas.

Edgewood Arsenal, Bound Brook (N. J.) Plant: Manufacture of phosgene.

In addition to the above, the following outside plants were not only built (or were in process of construction at the date of the Armistice) but were operated as well by the government. Their location at points other than Edgewood was decided upon partly because of the fact that it was thought wise to have at least two plants for the manufacture of each important material located at different places, since an accident at one would in no way interfere with production at the other. These government-owned establishments were:

Edgewood Arsenal, Stamford (Conn.) Plant: Manufacture of chlorpicrin.

Edgewood Arsenal, Hastings (N. Y.) Plant: Manufacture of mustard-gas.

Edgewood Arsenal, Kingsport (Tenn.) Plant: Manufacture of brombenzyl cyanide.

Edgewood Arsenal, Croyland (Pa.) Plant: Manufacture of diphenychlorarsine.

In addition to these nine great outlying plants, with their thousands of workmen, there was the splendidly equipped Research Department at American University, on the outskirts of Washington; the Experimental Field and Proving-Ground near Lakehurst, New Jersey; and the Army Gas Schools at Camp Kendrick, New Jersey, and Camp A. A. Humphreys, Virginia.

The tract of land near Lakehurst taken over for experimental purposes was 5 miles long and 4 wide and had an area of nearly 14,000 acres. As the nearest habitation was 2½ miles away no difficulty was experienced in conducting the highly important experiments with the necessary secrecy. The camp included quarters for 50 officers and barracks for 800 men, a completely equipped chemical laboratory, the staff of which included expert glass-blowers who could make every kind of apparatus required, a meteorological station, commanded by a former official of the Government Weather Bureau, equipped with the latest apparatus necessary for making and recording meteorological observations, a mechanical shop containing lathes, drills, and tools for making repairs of every description, an ice-making plant, a post hospital, a goat hospital, a dog hospital, a dog kitchen, and enclosures for animals which had to be kept under observation for long periods. In order to determine the effects of the various gases on living subjects a large stock of animals—goats, dogs, cats, rats, mice, guinea-pigs, and monkeys—had to be kept constantly on hand. These animals were not obtainable in the necessary numbers without considerable difficulty, it being necessary, on one occasion, to send an officer to Mexico to purchase 1,500 Angora goats, experiments having shown that the goat possesses powers of resistance to gas which more nearly approximate those of a human being than does any other common animal. Representatives of these various animal types were placed in trenches modelled after those on the Western Front and bombarded with different forms of gas-shell, those which remained alive being subjected to close observation, sometimes for many days, by the experts of the Pathological and Physiological Department. A human note enters into this grim business of preparing for war in the fact that those animals, particularly the dogs, which survived such an experiment were not subjected to it again. I imagine, however, that the officials of the S. P. C. A. would have entered a vigorous protest had they been permitted to lift the veil of secrecy which for many months enveloped the operations of the Chemical Warfare Service at Lakehurst.