SUPER-POISON GAS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10296, 3 June 1919, Page 8

SUPER-POISON GAS

TERRORS OF METHYL SECRETLY MADE BY THOUSANDS OF TONS. It had the fragrance of geranium blossoms. It was an oily amber liquid, highly explosive, and bursting into flame with water. It was the American super-poison gas, deadly by contact or by inhalation of the smallest detectable portion. A drop on the hand would cause intolerable agony and death alter a few hours. It was called methyl (partly because that name did not describe it), and it was the climax of this country’s achievement in the lethal arts (says a writer in the “Now York Times”). The signing of the Armistice spared the enemy any flrst-hand acquaintance with the terrors or methyl. MajorGeneral W. L. Elbert, in’ command of tire Chemical Warfare Service, had directed that 3bOO tons of it, in shell and drums, bo in readiness on the bat-tleiield on March Ist, 1919. Ten tons a day were being produced in an eleven-acre plant - near Cleveland, Uhio, and the plant was two months ahead of its schedule when Foch crossed No Man’s Land to otter terms to a beaten foe. It is estimated that ton tons of methyl is one ton more than enough to depopulate Manhattan Island; and so it is not difficult to guess what would have happened had Tundenburg and his cohorts persisted until spring. Two days after the Armistice was signed workmen began dismantling the big plant. They scrapped the complicated and expensive apparatus, every piece of which had been specially planned and manufactured for the production of the most terrible instrument ot .manslaughter ever conceived. On February Ist the work of demolition was complete. There remained no trace of that scattering array of barracks and laboratories which had: been, a cradle of death. But the formulas# processes, and personnel were- painstakingly set down for the records at. Washington against contingency of another war.

There did remain, however, tons and tons of. methyl. IVhat was to be done with it, now that there was no longer any active occasion for exterminating Germans? Cleveland did not want the deadly stuff dumped into Lake Erie, and there seemed no practicable method of neutralising its deadliness chemically. Almost enough was on hand to destroy the entire people of the United States, and some safe way must be found to dispose of it.

The ocean was selected ns its catchbasin. Difficulties were met in transporting the stuff from Cleveland to the ocean. Handling such quantities was nerilous. So it was put into big iron containers, for it does not react on iron, land these containers were loaded into freight cars. Then there was assembled the most extraordinary train probably that ever traversed American railroad tracks'. It moved nnder an armed guard and on a special schedule. No railroad employee rode on it except the engine-driver. The train moved slowly, so that two days were consumed in the journey from Cleveland to the Edgewood Arsenal, near Baltimore. And then the iron containers were stowed gently in a ship and taken fifty miles to sea, where they were lowered over the side into water three miles deep'. Rust will ©at pinholes into those containers, and there will be a minute and gradual intermixture of water with their fatal contents. In such circumstances there is no flame, but a slow chemical reaction which produces two nontoxic compounds. Experts_ do not believe even that fish will perish from the presence on the ocean hed of this vast quantity of poison. When the salt water of the Atlantic embraced the last of those iron tanks, finis was written to a chapter in American war effort which, until now, has been a secret scrupulously guarded. FAR MORE POTENT THAN , MUSTARD.

Compare this secret new compound with “mustard,” which the chemists dubbed “king of poison gases.” Mustard was first used by the Germans, with terrific effect, at Ypres, July 20th, 1917. Thereafter its use became general, and afforded such marked tactical advantage to the enemy that retaliation b- the Allies became imperative ns a matter of self-preservation. American chemists devised a formula onefourth more toxic than that used by the Germans. The gas, known to chemists as dichlorethyl sulphide, is now the_ common property of the combatant nations. The processes by which It Is made are generally known. It is a sweetish liquid, both, in taste .and smell, about as volatile ns turpentine. In contact with the skin its presence is at first not noted. Then there begins the burning and swel. ling which prompted its nickname among the Tommies. It spreads through the tissues, and on reaching the lungs breaks them down, setting up what is called “chemical” pneumonia, usually fatal. Methyl is somewhat more volatile, and is comparable in that regard with benzol. Instead of being inoffensive at first contact, it sets up an acute and almost unendurable pain. It does not spread through the tissues, but poisons the blood and attacks first the kidneys, then the heart and lungs. It hardens the cell Sssccs of t v c and causes simultaneously strangulation and a heart, affection which sneedilv produces violent death. If taken into the lungs by inhalation in any perceptible quantity, .it kills almost instantly. It is estimated to bo soventytwn times deadlier than mustard.

Tho processes of manufacturing the two poisons differ radically. It is not permissible oven now to toll what basis is used for methyl, but its manufacture from tbo raw material requires hu-t a short time. The equipment is elaborate. No fear is felt that experimenters will bo able to mate such a gas. That tho United States came to know of such a poison was duo, in tho first place, to an accident. Years ago a student of chemistry, then living in another country. happened upon a combination which almost cost him his life. It was a compound novor made before, or at least never recorded. Subsequently he came to this country, and when the OtioaHon of nelson gases camo to the fore ho recalled his narrow escape and imparted tho information to. tho Government. Tho production of methyl resulted. •THICT PRECAUTIONS.

Not on* worker died from poisoning. In large measure tip’s was due to the rr* —’it : ons enfoc-cd V- Contain George A. Pbimmcr. n fro"** 'be Mayo Institute, whoso work was the care of

lives in an institution dedicated to the destruction of life. But, in addition to those precautions, a mask and suit of clothing was devised which afforded protection against methyl. Defensive work went hand in hand with the offensive work. None of the gas masks invented to save lives from mustard gas and the other, poisons were effective against methyl. It is a certainty that oven now should it ever become necessary to use this poison in warfare, the enemy would be a long time in finding a way to protect himself. But the workers themselves were equipped with a uniform and face covering which afforded safety. . & The work went ahead with remarkable rapidity. An entire plant was supplied with an equipment such as had never been used before. To complete the plant required three months. The speed accomplished was due to the fact that the biggest industries in the United States fitted for that kind of work put themselves behind Uncle Sam in his war effort. , Colonel F. M. Dorsey,_ formerly chemical engineer of the National Lamp Works of the General Electric Company, a graduate of Ohio State University, in 1908, and a man who added courage and tremendous driving energy to his specialised technical ability, became chief of the' development division under General Sibert. The General Electric’Company permitted him to give all his time to the work. M'. W. Allen and Mr Batchelor, of the National Carbon Company, F. S. Terry and B. G. Tremaine, genera! manager of the National Lamp Works, and J. E. Randall, its consulting engineer, offered their facilities, and met all the expenses involved, under an agreement to be reimbursed later at the convenience of the War Department. This was to. save the time which would have been consumed in waiting for appropriations. Time was as precious as poison, gas in those days; and to the efforts of these men can ho- credited much of the success of the development division of the Captain W. H. McAdams a graduate of the University of Kentucky, 191.1became Colonel Dorsey’s executrve assistant and right-hand man. Chhc, executives and experts were recruited from the largest and most successful industrial establishments .in -the-. Bmted States. The companies put mU. the war work assigned to them, not only tm superb technical equipment of them employees, but also their own tremendous resources. NO DELAYS. In the production of mustard and other poison gases known ,to: the Pumlc some complaint was .made of delays. No such complaint could have been made about methyl, even if the public had known anything about it. This compound is known to the Chemical Warfare Service also as G-S4. The preliminary experimental work .with it was don© by the . Research. Division at the American University, Washington When General Sibert on July 12th last told Colonel-Dorsey to make ready to manufacture the poison, it had been produced by a laboratory process of five steps. Subsequently the _ fourth and fifth steps were revised. But the immediate problem was the design ana 1 lay-out of a full-scale equipment for ; quantity production. Some of the raw ! materials required were of an unusual ! nature ■ for such work, and were dim- ! cult to procure. It was. necessary to ; manufacture two of them in .tb© plant itself. And it was necessary ,to .assemble hew organisation of exceptional calibre! - Colonel Dorsey set to work with that energy and lack of ceremony which had won him a name .in the industrial world for getting things done. He took over on July 19th the abandoned plant of the Ben Hur Motor Company at Willoughby, Ohio, a sub urb of Cleveland. On July 20th ho installed Major James B. Conant, of the Research Division, there, with Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. Wilcox in charge as superintendent. On July 26th there was a guard on hand of twenty-five men, and work was under way. The plant was in such condition that it was necessary to grade the dirt floor, wire it. for electricity, provide for sewage and water, install desks and chairs. The first of the laboratory equipment arrived in trunks, as per-» sonal baggage. Colonel Dorsey was in a hurry.

Space will not permit a detailed narrative here of all' the # obsta<sles > overcome, of all the vexatious barriers to be hurdled in order to make this a re cord achievement in speed; The ut most secrecy surrounded the efforts. It was forbidden to officers and men to divulge the nature of the product or even the existence of the plant. Mail was censored. A Cleveland Post Office lock drawer was used, and letters were mailed and received there, for the very, name of Willoughby was verboten in correspondence. Telegrams were sent through the headquarters at Nela Park. The experimental plant, as it was called, was conducted as an army post, and the men were not permitted to visit Cleveland. The work was hard and there was no recreation. But patriotic men and women of tho neighbourhood, who knew something was being done for the country but not ■what was being done, supplied the men : with reading matter, a Victrola, fruit, and pies, and even a grand piano! Klaxon horns were installed and an alarm system agreed upon, and tho men in the plant worked always with their masks in the “alert" position. A, fire and gas , brigade was organised, and alarms were given at intervals, sometimes “for cause." But none of the men was lost ' from poisoning,. The only death at the experimental station was from influenza.

The methyl was packed partly in 155-millimetre, shells, each carrying about ten pounds of the liquid, and partly in drums carrying from 360 to 400 nounds to be dropped from airnlanes. It is estimated that fifty of these drums, judiciously dropped about Manhattan Island, would kill its population.

In this connection it is pertinent to reveal some , facts, until now not known to , the public, aoout the manufacture of mustard gn». The chlorhydrin pro cess for making this poison was unsuited to quantity production, and it was not until February, 1918, that an English professor’s discovery of a new method was cabled to America. The cablegram anticipated by just two davs ft discovery of. the same reaction at George Washington University in Washington, where experimental tests were under w a.y.% ■ In March a small experimental station was established at' Taft Avenue and East 131 st Street in Cleveland, with Colonel Dorsey (then Mr Dorsey, of tho. National Lamp Works) as technical director. The little two-story office building of tho Great Lakes Refining Company became, in August, the offense section of the Development Division, with Colonel Dorsey In charge. It' was connected with * large single-story stmetwe suitable for plant operations. A DEADLY NEIGHBOUR.

Tins plant, within six tnfkm of the Cleveland public square, was in a congested district, and groat precautions

were necessary to avoid gassing tho neighbours, who did nut' suspect the doa’dly material being prepared within. But few outsiders ever became aware of the nature of the work being done in East 131st street, and no serious trouble was caused by it. The secoucietorv room was converted into a control" and research laboratory, and was equipped with . ten well-ventPaleu hoods and all the other necessary equipment. The. rapid assembly ot the materials was made possible through the co-operation cl Cleveland manufacturing concerns, whose attitude throughout the war has been thus expressed: “If we have it, the Government can have it; if we haven t. we’ll get it.’’ , At this plant no barracks nor mess hall was provided, and the men ato and slept wherever they could in tm, neighbourhood. As each arrived, bo was told what was being done, and its importance was explained to him; and the officers in charge report that the workers performed eagerly and thoroughly the tasks assigned to them, although often they were tedious and hazardous. ■ ■ ■

The results at this plant were imediatoly transmitted to the Edgewood Arsenal (Hastings-on-Hudson) plant, to the National Aniline and Chemical Company plant at Buffalo, and to tho Dow Chemical Company at Midland, Michigan. At each of These places mustard gas was made in quantities. Nela Bark, so named from the initial letters of the National Electric Lamp Association, forerunner of the National Lamp Works, was the hub from which these spokes radiated. At Nela Park investigations were made of Two other poison gases, -before The . methyl work was undertaken, but the War Department stopped the other inquiries before they were completed. The main ■result of .The 131st Street plant was tho development of mustard; the main result at Willoughby was the production, of tho death-dealing methyl.

' It. may be seen’ with what caution and energy' the United States set about meeting German ingenuity in cruelty and destruction, and how successfully American chemists surpassed the enemy chemists. The visible death-deal-ing evidence of their technical skill has been destroyed. France and England ; and Italy are continuing their chemical warfare, .services unimpaired. The United States has disbanded her personnel and dismantled her plants. / To the Chemical Warfare Service was assigned the Bureau of Miners. Dr W. K. Lewis, representing the bureau, went to Cleveland on April 28th, 1917, to enlist the aid of the National Carbon Company and the National Lamp Works of the General Electric Company. , v At that time niusard gas was the main goal, and electric power was required to make chlorine and graphite for the electrodes.. Moreover, expert knowledge about charcoal was required on tho defensive side of the work, in devising gas masks and other protective apparatus. For example, tests at Nela Park proved that coooanut hulls were the best raw material for making absorbent, charcoal, arid so that material became tho standard. The plant of the Great Lakes Refining Company in Cleveland was taken over for mustard gas research, and its personnel of 35 was increased to 175 officers and enlisted men. That was a microscopic but typical example of the methods adopted to meet the greatest emergency in America’s military history.