Gas-poison for Soldiers.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 28, Issue 36, 12 May 1916, Page 2

Gas-poison for Soldiers.

WHO INVENTED IT. ’ % It is interesting to note that there is no difficulty about producing chlorine gas—which is that mainly employed by the Germans—and discharging it at the enemy’s trenches when the wind is favourable. Any of our manufacturing chemists could produce enough chlorine in a day or two 'to suffocate the whole German, army from the Yser to the Vistula, for chlorine is familiar to English chemical manufacturers, who, until a few years ago, were the only makers of this chemical.

Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas with a peculiarly unpleasant and suffocating smell, and with those terrible effects on the lungs, throat, and membranes of its victims which have been described by Dr. Haldane and Sir John French.

The cost of suffocating our troops by the Germans is not heavy. Liquid chlorine costs about £25 a tone, containing 170 gallons, and this will produce a large volume of deadly gas.

It is interesting to note that the idea of “gassing” an enemy was suggested nearly half a century ago by four Frenchmen, but at that time it was thought that the invention was too horrible to be allowed in field operations, although it was agreed' that it might be used by small storming parties at close quarters, when the gases might be compressed in shells and flung by catapult. According to “Truth,” however, the invention came to nothing.