One year later, with tens of thousands of American troops facing the Germans, there was almost no censorship upon the details of fighting with chemicals. The mysterious gases of 1917 were then known to almost every reading individual in the civilized world. The once secret formulas were published in the technical journals. Non-censored photographs of defensive equipment were freely published, and masks and other paraphernalia were exhibited for the public interest. Except for secret plans for the future and the various surprises being prepared by one or more of the belligerents, the whole subject of chemical warfare had become an open book.
What occasioned this change in policy on the part of governing authorities? The reason was that the American troops brought with them to France the best and most protective gas masks the world had seen; and they brought these with them by the millions. Starting a mask-production effort in May, 1917, America turned out a total of 5,250,000 gas masks before the armistice was signed, and sent more than 4,000,000 of them overseas. As to the quality of these masks, it is only necessary to say that they gave twenty times the protection afforded by the best German gas masks. In other words, we protected our soldiers against the poisons which Germany had brought into warfare, and protected them completely. No American soldier was ever gassed due to the failure of an American gas mask, and such gas casualties as did occur were due to the fact that the masks were not quickly enough utilized when gas was thrown over, or because the soldier was unaware of the presence of gas. With such protection there was no longer reason to fear that the frightfulness of chemical warfare would reduce American morale.
The production of gas masks was one of the most picturesque and successful phases of our entire war preparation. It engaged the attention of some of the principal chemical engineers of the country, and millions of men, women, and children in the United States contributed something to the success of the undertaking, if only to obey the "Eat More Coconut" slogan or to save peach stones for the benefit of the production of the charcoal essential to efficient gas masks.
The problem of making masks in such quantity and under such supreme demands for perfection was one which might well stagger manufacturers accustomed to large-scale operations. We started in with practically no knowledge whatsoever of the fundamental principles of a perfect mask. Yet the apparatus was as difficult to build as a rifle. It must, perforce, be made of perishable materials, and this fact brought the question of durability to the fore at the very start. It was evident that no chemical substances known in our past commercial life would give protection against the new poisons which had been developed in Europe. With the exception of phosgene and chlorine, the various war gases which had been brought out prior to our entrance in the struggle were completely unknown in our trade or commerce and had existed only in our experimental laboratories. Then it was discovered that as these toxins increased in power they could penetrate the ordinary fabrics known in commerce, and this necessitated the creation of new types of materials to be used in the masks. Finally the increasing use of gases forced the soldiers to wear their masks for much longer periods than had been necessary at the beginning of gas warfare; so that the problem of comfort became one of great importance. All of these basic considerations indicate to some extent the difficulty of the undertaking.
The chlorine, which floated in a pale greenish-yellow cloud down upon the defenseless Canadian troops at Ypres, with such terrible effect upon the men, was, as has been said, the first gas used. Chlorine, though easy to obtain, the principal source of supply being common table salt, was, from the standpoint of strategy, far from being the ideal gas of warfare. Troops could be quickly and easily protected from it. But even as it was, only lack of faith in their new weapon prevented the Germans from winning the war with it then and there. Had they brought into the fighting a sufficient supply of this chlorine, they might have gassed their way to Paris in short order. In fact, they brought to the line an almost negligible supply and they themselves were insufficiently protected to go through their own gas and follow up the attack. By the time they were able to renew gas warfare the French and British had equipped themselves with masks which were sufficient to protect men against chlorine.
Thereafter the tendency was toward new and strange gases which were heavy in weight and highly toxic in their physiological action. This development led to new, slightly volatile liquids, the so-called mustard gas being the best example. Mustard gas (properly called dichlorethyl sulphide) is similar to lubricating oil in many of its physical characteristics but smells like ordinary mustard. Ground soaked with the mustard gas remains impregnated for days, the vapor rising continually.
A perfect mask is one which will remove completely every trace of gas or poisonous vapor before the air can reach the eyes, nose, or mouth of the soldier.
The first masks adopted by the allies were simply gauze pads saturated with neutralizing chemicals. These became unsuitable as soon as new varieties of powerful poisons were brought out. The mask development thereafter progressed to the box respirator type. This consisted of a mask or helmet connected to a box filled with absorbing and neutralizing chemicals which purified the air for the mask wearer. This was the type of respirator in use to the end of the fighting.
It is quite clear to us now that only such a mask could be efficient in chemical warfare, but in the early part of 1917 the matter was not clear either to us or to the allies. The first requisitions from the A. E. F. called for masks of two types, each soldier to be supplied with one of each. The reserve mask was to be of the gauze type and the regular mask of the box respirator type, affording protection from the more powerful poisons that were then just coming into use. We wasted considerable energy at the beginning in our attempt to produce both types. Eventually, however, when we were just ready to start manufacturing the gauze-type mask, orders came to abandon the effort, since it was even then apparent that our soldiers must be prepared at all times to withstand all gases.