Chemical warfare

by Amos A. Fries; Clarence J. West

Summing Up

In summing up then, it is noted that there are several important things in defense against gas. First, the mask which protects the eyes and the lungs. Second, the training that teaches the man how to utilize to best advantage the means of protection at his disposal, whether he be alone or among others. Third, protective clothing that protects hands and feet and the skin in general. Fourth, a knowledge of gases and their tactical use that will enable commanders, whenever possible, to move men out of gas infected areas. Fifth, training in the offensive use of gas, as well as in defensive methods, to teach the man that gas has no uncanny power and that it is simply one element of war that must be reckoned with, thus preventing stampedes when there is really no danger.

While these are the salient points in defense against gas, above them and beyond them lies the vigorous offensive use of gas. This involves not only the research, development and manufacture of necessary gases in peace time, but also the necessary training to enable our nation to hurl upon the enemy on the field of battle chemical warfare materials in quantities he cannot hope to attain.

CHAPTER XXV
PEACE TIME USES OF GAS

“Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.” Thus runs the old proverb. In ancient times war profited by peace far more than peace profited by war if indeed the latter ever actually occurred. The implements developed for the chase in peace became the weapons of war. This was true of David’s sling-shot, of the spear and of the bow. Even powder itself was probably intended and used for scores of years for celebrations and other peaceful events.

The World War reversed this story, especially in its later phases. The greater part of the war was fought with implements and machines prepared in peace either for war or for peaceful purposes. Such implements were the aeroplane, submarine, truck, automobile and gasoline motors in general. The first gas attack, which was simply an adaptation of the peacetime use of the chemical chlorine, inaugurated the change. Gas was so new and instantly recognized as so powerful that the best brains in research among all the first class powers were put to work to develop other gases and other means of projecting them upon the enemy. The result was that in the short space of three and one-half years a number of substances were discovered, or experimented with anew, that are aiding today and will continue to aid in the future in the peaceful life of every nation.

Chlorine is even more valuable than ever as a disinfectant and water purifier. It is the greatest bleaching material in the world, and has innumerable other uses in the laboratory. Chloropicrin, cyanogen chloride and cyanogen bromide are found to be very well adapted to the killing of weevil and other similar insect destroyers of grain. Hydrocyanic acid gas is the greatest destroyer today of insect pests that otherwise would ruin the beautiful orange and lemon groves of California and the South.

Fig. 120.

Phosgene, so extensively used in the war both in cloud gas and in shell, is finding an ever increasing use in the making of brilliant dyes—pinks, greens, blues and violets. On account of its cheapness and simplicity of manufacture, it has great possibilities in the destruction of rodents such as rats around wharves, warehouses and similar places that are inaccessible to any other means of reaching those pests. Since phosgene is highly corrosive of steel, iron, copper and brass, it cannot be used successfully in places where those metals are present.

Instead of phosgene for killing rodents and the like in storehouses and warehouses, cyanogen bromide has been developed. This is a solid and can be burned like an ordinary sulphur candle. It is much safer for the purpose of fumigating rooms and buildings than is hydrocyanic acid gas when so used. This is for the reason that cyanogen bromide is an excellent lachrymator in quantities too minute to cause any injury to the lungs. It will thus give warning to anyone attempting to enter a place where some of the gas may still linger.

Among tear gases, the new chloracetophenone, a solid, is perhaps the greatest of all. When driven off by heat it first appears as a light bluish colored cloud. This cloud is instantly so irritating to the eyes that within a second anyone in the path of the cloud is temporarily blinded. It causes considerable smarting and very profuse tears which even in the smallest amount continue for two to five minutes. In greater quantities it would continue longer. So far as can be ascertained, it is absolutely harmless so far as any permanent injuries are concerned.

Considering that it is instantly effective, that minute quantities are unbearable to the eyes, that it can be put in hand grenades or other small containers and driven off by a heating mixture which will not ignite even a pile of papers, and that it needs no explosion to burst the grenade (all that is used is a light cap, set off by the action of the spring, sufficient to ignite the burning charge), the future will see every police department in the land outfitted with chloracetophenone or other similar grenades. Every sheriff’s office, every jail and every penitentiary will have a supply of them. No jail breaking, no lynching, no rioting can succeed where these grenades are available. Huge crowds can be set to weeping instantly so that no man can see and no mob will continue once it is blinded with irritating tears. More than that, it is an extremely difficult gas to keep out of masks, ordinary masks of the World War being entirely useless against it.

The same is true of diphenylaminechlorarsine. This is not a tear gas but it is extraordinarily irritating to the lungs, throat and nose, where it causes pains and burning sensations, and in higher concentrations vomiting. It is hardly poisonous at all so that it is extremely difficult to get enough to cause danger to life. This is mentioned because of its possible use for the protection of bank vaults, safes, and strong rooms generally.

There are many other gases that can be used for this same purpose. It is presumed that gases that are not powerful enough to kill are the ones desired, and there are half a dozen at least that can be so used. If desired deadly gases can just as readily be used. Already a number of inventors are at work on the problem, with some plans practically completely worked out and models made.

It has been suggested that one of these gases could be used by trappers in trapping wild animals. Hydrocyanic acid gas may be so used. It acts quickly and is very rapidly dissipated. An animal exposed to the fumes would die quickly and the trap be safe to approach within two minutes after it was sprung. It is said that the loss from animals working their way out of traps by one means or another is nearly 20 per cent. More than this, it would meet the objections of the S. P. C. A. in that the animal would not suffer from having its limbs torn and lacerated by the trap.

Attempts are being made to attack the locust of the Philippines and the far west and the boll weevil of the cotton states of the South. So far these tests have not proven more successful than other methods, but inasmuch as the number of gases available for trial are so great and the value of success of so much importance, this research should be continued on a large scale to definitely determine whether poisonous gas can be used to eradicate these pests—especially the boll weevil.

As an interesting application of war materials to peaceful uses, we may consider the case of cellulose-acetate, known during the war as “aeroplane dope,” the material used to coat the linen covering aeroplane wings. With a little further manipulation, this cellulose-acetate, or aeroplane dope, becomes artificial silk—a silk that today is generally equal to the best natural silk—and which promises in the future to become a standard product better in every way than that from the silk worm.

Fig. 121.

These few examples of the peacetime value of gas are worthy of thought from another standpoint. Being so valuable, their use in peace will not be stopped. If they are thus manufactured and used in peace, they will always be available for use in war, and as the experience of the World War proved, they certainly will be so used even should anybody be foolish enough to try to abolish their use. As for this latter idea, the world might as well recognize at once that half-way measures in war simply invite disaster.

This chapter would not be complete without a brief statement of the necessity of a thoroughly developed chemical industry in the United States as a vital national necessity if the United States is to have real preparedness for a future struggle. As will be indicated a little later, no one branch of the chemical industry can be allowed to go out of existence without endangering some part of the scheme of preparedness.

Let us consider first the coal tar industry. Coal tar is a by-product of coke ovens or the manufacture of artificial gas from coal. The coal tar industry is of the utmost importance because in the coal tars are the bases of nearly all of the modern dyes, a large percentage of the modern medicines, most of the modern high explosives, a large proportion of poisonous gases, modern perfumes, and photographic materials.

A consideration of these titles alone shows how vital the coal tar industry is. The coal tar as it comes to us as a by-product is distilled, giving off at different temperatures a series of compounds called crudes. Ten of these are of very great importance. The first five are benzene, toluene, naphthalene, anthracene and phenol (carbolic acid). The second group comprises xylene, methylanthracene, cresol, carbazol and phenanthrene.

These, when treated with other chemicals, produce a series of compounds called intermediates, of which there are some 300 now known. From these intermediates by different steps are produced either dyes, high explosives, poisonous gases, pharmaceuticals, perfumes or photographic materials.

We have all heard that Germany controlled the dye industry of the world prior to the World War. A little study of the above brief statement of what is contained in the coal tar industry along with dyes will show in a measure one of the reasons why Germany felt that she could win a war against the world. That she came so desperately close to winning that war is proof of the soundness of her view.

In many of the processes are needed the heavy chemicals such as chlorine, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and the like. The alcohol industry is also of very great importance. Grain alcohol is used extensively in nearly all research problems and in very great quantities in many commercial processes such as the manufacture of artificial silk and for gasoline engines in addition to its use in compounding medicines. It is of very great importance to the Chemical Warfare Service in that from grain alcohol is obtained ethylene gas, one of the three essentials in the manufacture of mustard gas. While this ethylene may be obtained from many sources, the most available source, considering ease of transportation and keeping qualities, is in the form of grain alcohol.

Allied to the chemical industries just mentioned is the nitrate industry for making nitric acid from the nitrogen of the air. Nitrates are used in many processes of chemical manufacture and particularly in those for the production of smokeless powders. The fertilizer industry is of large importance because it deals with phosphorus, white phosphorus being not only one of the best smoke producing materials but a material that is, as stated elsewhere, of great use against men through its powerful burning qualities.

Another point not mentioned above in connection with these industries is the training of chemists, chemical engineers and the building up of plants for the manufacture of chemicals, all of which are necessary sources of supply for wartime needs. Chemists are needed in the field, in the laboratory and in manufacturing plants. The greater their number, the more efficiently can these materials be handled, and since chemicals as such will probably cause more than 50 per cent of all casualties in future wars, their value is almost unlimited.

Instead of trying to ameliorate the ravages of war, let us turn every endeavor towards abolishing all war, remembering that the most scientific nations should be the most highly civilized, and the ones most desirous of abolishing war. If those nations will push every scientific development to the point where by the aid of their scientific achievements they can overcome any lesser scientific peoples, the end of war should be in sight.

However, we can never be certain that war is abolished until we convince at least a majority of the world that war is disastrous to the conqueror as well as to the conquered, and that any dispute can be settled peacefully if both parties will meet on the common ground of justice and a square deal.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE FUTURE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE

The pioneer, no matter what the line of endeavor, encounters difficulties caused by his fellow-men just in proportion as the thing pioneered promises results. If the promise be small, the difficulties usually encountered are only those necessary to make the venture a success. If, however, the results promise to be great, and especially if the rewards to the inventor and those working with him promise to be considerable, the difficulties thrown in the way of the venture become greater and greater. Indeed whenever great results are promised, envy is engendered in those in other lines whose importance may be diminished, or who are so short-sighted as to be always opposed to progress.

Chemical warfare has had, and is still having, its full share of these difficulties. From the very day when chlorine, known to the world as a benign substance highly useful in sanitation, water purification, gold mining and bleaching was put into use as a poisonous gas, chemical warfare has loomed larger and larger as a factor to be considered in all future wars. Chlorine was first used in the cylinders designed for shipping it. These cylinders were poorly adapted for warfare, and made methods of preparing gas attacks extremely laborious, cumbersome and time-consuming.

It was not many months, however, until different gases began to appear in large quantities in shells and bombs, while the close of the war, 3½ years later, saw the development of gas in solid form whereby it could be carried with the utmost safety under all conditions—a solid which could become dangerous only when the heating mixture, that freed the gas, was properly ignited.

While some of the chemicals developed for use in war prior to the Armistice have been made known to the world, a number of others have not. More than this, every nation of first class importance has continued to pursue more or less energetically studies into chemical warfare. These studies will continue, and we must expect that new gases, new methods of turning them loose, and new tactical uses will be developed.

Already it is clearly foreseen that these gases will be used by every branch of the Army and the Navy. While chemicals were not used by the Air Service in the last war, it was even then realized that there was no material reason why they should not have been so used. That they will be used in the future by the Air Service, and probably on a large scale, is certain. The Navy, too, will use gases, and probably on a considerable scale. Thus chemical materials as such become the most universal of all weapons of war.

Some of the poisonous gases are so powerful in minute quantities and evaporate so slowly that their liberation does not produce sufficient condensation to cause a cloud. Consequently, we have gases that cannot be seen. Others form clouds by themselves, such, for instance, as the toxic smoke candle, where the solid is driven off by heating, while still others cause clouds of condensed vapor. This brings the discussion into the realm of ordinary smokes that have no irritating and no poisonous effects.

These smokes are extremely valuable where the purpose is to form a screen, whether it be to hide the advance of troops or to cut off the view of observers. These smokes are equally useful on land and on sea. So great is the decrease in efficiency of the rifle or machine gun, and of artillery even when firing at troops that cannot be seen, that smoke for screening purposes will be used on every future field of battle. When firing through a screen of smoke, a man has certainly less than one-quarter the chance to hit his target that he would have were the target in plain view. Since smoke clouds may or may not be poisonous and since smoke will be used in every battle, there is opened up an unlimited field for the exercise of ingenuity in making these smoke clouds poisonous or non-poisonous at will. It also opens up an unlimited field for the well-trained chemical warfare officer who can tell in any smoke cloud whether gas be present and whether, if present, it is in sufficient concentration to be dangerous.

At the risk of repetition, it is again stated that there is no gas that will kill or even permanently injure in any quantity that cannot be detected. For every gas, there is a certain minimum amount in each cubic foot of air that is necessary to cause any injury. In nearly all gases, this minimum amount is sufficient to be readily noticeable by a trained chemical warfare officer through the sense of smell.

It would be idle to attempt to enumerate the ways and means by which chemicals will be used in the future. In fact, one can hardly conceive of a situation where gas or smoke will not be employed, for these materials may be liquids or solids that either automatically, upon exposure to the air, turn into gas, or which are pulverized by high explosive, or driven off by heat. This varied character of the materials enables them to be used in every sort of artillery shell, bomb or other container carried to the field of battle.

Some of the gases are extremely powerful as irritants to the nose and throat in very minute quantities, while at the same time being highly poisonous in high concentrations. Diphenylchloroarsine, used extensively by the Germans in high explosive shell, is more poisonous than phosgene, the most deadly gas in general use in the past war. In addition, it has the quality of causing an intolerable burning sensation in the nose, throat, and lungs, in extremely minute quantities. This material can be kept out of masks only by filters, whereas true gases are taken out by charcoal and chemical granules.

There is still another quality which helps make chemical warfare the most powerful weapon of war. Gas is the only substance used in war which can be counted on to do its work as efficiently at night as in the daytime. Indeed, it is often more effective at night than in the daytime, because the man who goes to sleep without his mask on, who is careless, who loses his mask, or who becomes excited in the darkness of night, becomes a casualty, and the past war showed that these casualties were decidedly numerous even when the troops knew almost to the minute the time the gas would arrive.

Accordingly, chemical warfare is an agency that must not only be reckoned with by every civilized nation in the future, but is one which civilized nations should not hesitate to use. When properly safe-guarded with masks and other safety devices, it gives to the most scientific and most ingenious people a great advantage over the less scientific and less ingenious. Then why should the United States or any other highly civilized country consider giving up chemical warfare? To say that its use against savages is not a fair method of fighting, because the savages are not equipped with it, is arrant nonsense. No nation considers such things today. If they had, our American troops, when fighting the Moros in the Philippine Islands, would have had to wear the breechclout and use only swords and spears.

Notwithstanding the opposition of certain people who, through ignorance or for other reasons, have fought it, chemical warfare has come to stay, and just in proportion as the United States gives chemical warfare its proper place in its military establishment, just in that proportion will the United States be ready to meet any or all comers in the future, for the United States has incomparable resources in the shape of the crude materials—power, salt, sulfur and the like—that are necessary in the manufacture of gases.

If, then, there be developed industries for manufacturing these gases in time of war, and if the training of the army in chemical warfare be thorough and extensive, the United States will have more than an equal chance with any other nation or combination of nations in any future war.

It is just as sportsman-like to fight with chemical warfare materials as it is to fight with machine guns. The enemy will know more or less accurately our chemical warfare materials and our methods, and we will have the same information about the enemy. It is thus a matching of wits just as much as in the days when the Knights of the Round Table fought with swords or with spears on horseback. The American is a pure sportsman and asks odds of no man. He does ask, though, that he be given a square deal. He is unwilling to agree not to use a powerful weapon of war when he knows that an outlaw nation would use it against him if that outlaw nation could achieve success by so doing. How much better it is to say to the world that we are going to use chemical warfare to the greatest extent possible in any future struggle. In announcing that we would repeat as always that we are making these preparations only for defense, and who is there who dares question our right to do so?