DEADLY GASES

Evening Star, Issue 22572, 13 February 1937, Page 17

DEADLY GASES

MASKS OF LITTLE USE PRESENT REMEDY FOR INCENDIARY BOMBS INEFFECTIVE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at 10.20 a.m.) Simultaneously with the sudden overnight blackout test at Bedford, which was c-lioscn as an important strategic industrial town, and while R.A.F. bombers carried out a realistic raid which seems to have awakened everybody, Victor Gollancz has published a book describing the Cambridge gas tests. Ho discloses that the gas penetrated bricks and plaster. Cracks were covered with brown paper and doors and fireplaces sealed in one room. The gas, which outside would be fatal in- two and a-half minutes, would kill indoors in 10 minutes. Scientists tested incendiary bombs and discovered that the official remedy of spreading sand was useless. Even welding thermit, which is a comparatively mild incendiary, burned under water through metal and sand. Completely gas-tight rooms could only be constructed by experts at great expense. The test of the 17s 6d civilian gas mask showed that it would protect against chlorine for four hours, but did not solve the 1 problem of protection against mustard gas, which attacks the whole body. PRECAUTIONS IN AUSTRALIA SYDNEY, February 13. (Received February 13, at 11.30 a.m.) The New South Wales Railways Department is co-operating with the Defence Department in teaching the procedure to be adopted in gas attacks. By the end of 1937 it is expected that nearly 6,000 railway employees will be capable of giving Skilled assistance to the military in the event of a gas attack. The Defence Department is erecting chambers for gas experiments for the military at Randwick and for the navy at Garden Island. There will be specially sealed rooms in which men wearing masks will be placed while gas is released about them. Instructors, through sealed windows, will observe the-progress of the experiments. [A previous message stated; The ‘ Daily Herald ’ and the * Daily Mirror ’ give detailed accounts of secret tests carried out for two years by a dozen scientists in a room in the biochemical laboratory at Cambridge, where sealed windows and chimneys revealed that deadly gases cannot be kept out. Even the wearers of gas masks in the room were susceptible to their influence. The ‘ Mirror ’ quotes Professor Marrack, who said: “I am surprised that the secret tests leaked out. Apparently gases cannot be excluded. Gas masks are useless when worn for a long time.” 3 '