what was used to defend soldiers against the use of mustard gas

James Patton, BS
Military machine Historian, U.S. Ground forces Veteran, and WW-I Feature Writer

Every war brings to the fore a new way of maiming and killing soldiers. Gun powder in the 16th and 17th centuries meant that - finally, sadly - one could eliminate many of his enemies with one agent of offensive effort, an arms round. Ultimately, in WWII it was demonstrated that a unmarried atomic weapon could impale more than 1 hundred chiliad of the enemy with a unmarried use of a single weapon. While the efficiency of maiming and killing steadily advanced from the 17th to the 20th centuries it accelerated past an social club of magnitude in WWI with the utilise of inhaled toxicant gasses.

One of the enduring hallmarks of WWI was the large-scale use of chemic weapons, commonly called, only, 'gas'. Although chemical warfare acquired less than 1% of the full deaths in this war, the 'psy-war' or fear factor was formidable. Thus, chemical warfare with gases was later absolutely prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. It has occasionally been used since and so but never in WWI quantities. Product of some of these dangerous chemicals continues to this day as they accept peaceful uses – for example, phosgene (carbonyl dichloride) is an industrial reagent, a precursor of pharmaceuticals and other important organic compounds.

Masked soldiers charge through a cloud of gas.

Several chemicals were weaponized in WWI and France actually was the showtime to use gas - they deployed tear gas in August 1914. The amanuensis used was either xylyl bromide, which is described as smelling 'pleasant and effluvious', or ethyl bromoacetate, described equally 'fruity and pungent.' Both are colorless liquids and have to be atomized to exist dispersed as weapons. As lachrymatory agents, they irritate the eyes and cause uncontrolled tearing. Large doses tin cause temporary blindness. If inhaled they besides brand breathing difficult. Symptoms usually resolve past 30 minutes subsequently contact. Thus, tear gas was never very effective as a weapon against groups of enemy soldiers.

The German gas warfare program was headed by Fritz Haber (1868 – 1934) whose kickoff try for a weapon was chlorine, which he debuted at Ypres in Apr 1915. Chlorine is a diatomic gas, about two and a half times denser than air, pale green in color and with an odour which was described as a 'mix of pineapple and pepper'. It tin react with h2o in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid, which is destructive of tissue and can quickly lead to death, or, at to the lowest degree, permanent lung tissue damage and inability. At lower concentrations, if it does not reach the lungs, per se, information technology can cause cough, vomiting, and centre irritation. Chlorine was deadly against unprotected soldiers. It is estimated over 1,100 were killed in its first use at Ypres. Ironically, the Germans weren't prepared for how constructive it would be and were unable to exploit their reward, gaining trivial basis.

Chlorine's usefulness was brusque-lived. Its colour and olfactory property made information technology like shooting fish in a barrel to spot, and since chlorine is water-soluble even soldiers without gas masks could minimize its outcome by placing water-soaked - even urine-soaked - rags over their mouths and noses. Additionally, releasing the gas in a cloud posed bug, as the British learnt to their detriment when they attempted to use chlorine at Loos. The air current shifted, conveying the gas back onto their own men.

Phosgene (carbonyl dichloride) was Haber's side by side choice, probably used first at Ypres by the Germans in December 1915. Phosgene is a colorless gas, with an scent likened to that of 'musty hay', but for the odor to be detectable, the concentration had to exist at 0.4 parts per million, or several times the level at which harmful effects occur. Phosgene is highly toxic, due to its ability to react with proteins in the alveoli of the lungs, disrupting the claret-air bulwark, leading to suffocation.

Allied soldiers pose for a picture while wearing their gas masks.

Phosgene was much more constructive and more than deadly than chlorine, though one drawback was that the symptoms could sometimes take up to 48 hours to exist manifest. The minimal immediate furnishings are lachrymatory. Yet, subsequently, information technology causes build-up of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), leading to decease. It is estimated that as many as 85% of the 91,000 gas deaths in WWI were a result of phosgene or the related agent, diphosgene (trichloromethane chloroformate).

The near commonly used gas in WWI was 'mustard gas' [bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide]. In pure liquid form this is colorless, but in WWI impure forms were used, which had a mustard color with an aroma reminiscent of garlic or horseradish. An irritant and a strong vesicant (blister-forming agent), it causes chemical burns on contact, with blisters oozing yellowish fluid. Initial exposure is symptomless, and past the time pare irritation begins, information technology is also late to accept preventative measures. The mortality rate from mustard gas was just ii-iii%, but those who suffered chemic burns and respiratory problems had long hospitalizations and if they recovered were thought to exist at college risk of developing cancers during later life.

Windswept gas spreads across a battlefield in Europe.

Chloropicrin, diphenylchlorarsine, American-developed Adamsite (diphenylaminechlorarsine), and others were irritants that could featherbed gas masks and make soldiers remove their masks, thus, exposing them to phosgene or chlorine.

Gases often were used in combinations. Well-nigh gas was delivered past arms shells. The agent(southward) were in liquid course in glass bottles inside the warhead, which would break on contact and the liquid would evaporate. Shells were color coded in a arrangement started by the Germans. Green Cross shells contained the pulmonary agents: chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene. White Cross had the tear gases. Blue Cross had the 'mask breakers' like chloropicrin. Gilt (or Yellow) Cross had mustard gas.

John Vocaliser Sargent's 'Gassed' depicts the aftermath of a mustard gas assault on British troops.

In retrospect it is sorry to know that warfare by poisoning soldiers - then brutal, highly personal, and used with such trivial restraint past both sides in WWI - had been previously outlawed by the Hague Convention in 1899. The ironies of gas warfare are vividly focused in the life of Fritz Haber, the German chemist who invented phosgene and as well the 'Haber Process' which allowed fixation of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia-based fertilizer. A German Jew who converted to Christianity, he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1919 for the Haber Process. Though long dead before The Holocaust, he was one of the chemists who perfected the hydrocyanide-based insecticides Zyklon A and Zyklon B, the latter gas used to impale millions of Jews and others, including some of his relatives.

The Purple War Museum in London is the source of some of the images, particularly the John Singer Sargent painting, 'Gassed.' Equally very useful link to the popular media most gas warfare in WWI is: 'How mortiferous was the poison gas of WW1?' (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31042472).

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Source: https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/gas-in-the-great-war.html

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