To meet these local conditions metal shell cases were first hung up and the alarm sounded on them. Later steel triangles were used in the same way. At a still later date the large policeman’s rattle, well known in Europe, was adopted and following that the Klaxon horn. As the warfare of movement developed the portability of alarm apparatus became of prime importance. For those reasons the Klaxon horn and the police rattle were having a race for popularity when the Armistice was signed.
A recent gas alarm invention that gives promise is a small siren-like whistle fired into the air like a bomb. It is fitted with a parachute which keeps it from falling too rapidly when the bomb explodes and sets it free. Its tone is said to be very penetrating and to be quite effective over an ample area. Since future gas alarm signals must be efficient and must be portable, the lighter and more compact they can be made the better; hence the desirability of parachute whistles or similar small handy alarms.
Issuing New Masks
One of the problems that remained unsolved at the end of the war was how to determine when to issue new boxes, or canisters, for masks. One of the first questions asked by the soldier is how long his mask is good in gas, and how long when worn in drill where there is no gas. This information is of course decidedly important. Obviously, however, it is impossible to tell how long a canister will last in a gas attack, unless the concentration of gas is known—that is, the life of the box is longer or shorter as the concentration of gas is weak or heavy.
A realization of this need led mask designers to work very hard, long before the necessity for comfort in a mask was as fully realized as it was at the end of the war, to increase the length of life of the canister. To get longer life they increased the chemicals and this in turn increased the breathing resistance, thereby adding to the discomfort of the soldier when wearing the mask. Finally, however, it was found that in the concentration of gas encountered on an average in the field, the life of the comparatively small American boxes was sufficient to last from fifty to one hundred hours, which is longer than any gas attack or at least gives time to get out of the gassed area.
The British early appreciated the necessity of knowing when boxes should be replaced. They accordingly devised the scheme of furnishing with each mask a very small booklet tied to the carrying case in which the soldier could not only enter a complete statement of the time he had worn the mask but also the statement as to whether it was in gas or for drill purposes only. The soldier was then taught that if he had worn the mask, say for forty hours, he should get a new box. But the scheme didn’t work. In fact, it was one of those things which foresight might have shown wouldn’t work. Indeed, any man who in the hell of battle can keep such a record completely, should be at once awarded a Distinguished Service Medal.
As gas warfare developed not only were all kinds of gas shells sent over in a bunch but they were accompanied by high explosive, shrapnel and anything else in the way of trouble that the enemy possessed. A man near the front line, under those conditions, had all he could do and frequently more than he could do, to get his mask on and keep it on while doing his bit. Consequently he had no time, even if he had the inclination, to record how long he had the mask in the various gases.
In this connection, after the Armistice was signed we in the field were requested to obtain for experimental purposes 10,000 canisters that had been used in battle. Each was to be labeled with the length of time it had been worn in or out of gas, and if in gas, the name of each gas and the time the mask was worn in it. This request is just a sample of what is asked by those who do not realize field conditions. One trip to the front would have convinced the one making the request of the utter impossibility of complying with it, for really no man knows how long he wears a mask in gas. With gas as common and as difficult to detect (when intermingled with high explosive gases and other smells of the battle field) as it was at the end of the war, each man wore the mask just as long as he could, simply as a matter of precaution.
Before hostilities ceased we were trying out a method of calling in say fifty canisters per division once a week for test in the laboratory. If the tests showed the life of the canisters to be short new canisters would be issued. While we did not have opportunity to try out this plan, it gave promise of being the best that could be done. With gas becoming an every day affair, the only other alternative would seem to be to make issues of new boxes at stated intervals. On the other hand there are no definite records of casualties occurring from the exhaustion of the chemicals in the box. Undoubtedly some did occur, but they were very, very few. In nearly all cases the masks got injured, or the box became rusted through before the chemicals gave out.