Inventions of the Great War

by A. Russell Bond

THE SNEEZING-SHELL

The Blue Cross shell was comparatively harmless, although very annoying. It contained a solid which was atomized by the explosion of the shell, and which, after it got into the nostrils, caused a violent sneezing. The material, however, was not poisonous and did not produce any casualties to speak of, although it was most unpleasant. A storm of Blue Cross shell could be followed almost immediately by an attack, because the effect of the shell would have been dissipated before the attackers reached the enemy who were still suffering from the irritation of their nostrils.