Changes

Within three days Allied doctors had developed a simple but adequate mask and shipped 200,000 to the front; air that was breathed through ordinary washing soda was safe. By 1916 the British soldiers carried an excellent rubber face mask with glass eyepieces and a tube connecting it to a separate respirators. The new masks gave practically 100% protection--but only when they were worn. The Russians never obtained an adequate supply, and suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties. Death came in a matter of days, due to asphyxia or lack of oxygen--the lungs filled up with fluids and the victims drowned in their own secretions. One effective treatment was venesection: surgeons cut a vein and pumped out 20- 25 ounces of blood.  

Within three days Allied doctors had developed a simple but adequate mask and shipped 200,000 to the front; air that was breathed through ordinary washing soda was safe. By 1916 the British soldiers carried an excellent rubber face mask with glass eyepieces and a tube connecting it to a separate respirators. The new masks gave practically 100% protection--but only when they were worn. The Russians never obtained an adequate supply, and suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties. Death came in a matter of days, due to asphyxia or lack of oxygen--the lungs filled up with fluids and the victims drowned in their own secretions. One effective treatment was venesection: surgeons cut a vein and pumped out 20- 25 ounces of blood.  

==Allied usage==

==Allied usage==

Although the Allies vigorously denounced poison gas as a heinous crime--a cruel trick on hapless soldiers already living in hell--they rushed to make their own gas. The Americans, at peace, ignored the new weapon. Release by cylinders proved unwieldy and dangerous, for it depended on just the right atmospheric conditions; sudden wind changes could backfire for the attackers. By 1916 the belligerents turned to artillery shells, each of which could land 23 a few pounds of liquefied poisons on precise targets far behind the trenches, especially enemy artillery parks and communication posts that had been spotted by airplane. On the front lines gas was a harassment but not a tactical factor. A huge amount of gas had to be released in a short period in order to be effective, yet the same amount of high explosive would do much more damage.  

Although the Allies vigorously denounced poison gas as a heinous crime--a cruel trick on hapless soldiers already living in hell--they rushed to make their own gas. The Americans, at peace, ignored the new weapon. Release by cylinders proved unwieldy and dangerous, for it depended on just the right atmospheric conditions; sudden wind changes could backfire for the attackers. By 1916 the belligerents turned to artillery shells, each of which could land a few pounds of liquefied poisons on precise targets far behind the trenches, especially enemy artillery parks and communication posts that had been spotted by airplane.  Usually gas shells and high explosive shells were mixed together in an attack. On the front lines gas was a harassment but not a tactical factor. A huge amount of gas had to be released in a small area in a short period in order to be effective, yet the same amount of high explosive would do much more damage.

 

==Phosgene and mustard gas==

==Phosgene and mustard gas==

Chemists invented 18 new gases that were more deadly effective than chlorine, and also masks to neutralize them. [[Phosgene]] ("Green Cross", the Germans called it) like chlorine, attacked the lungs, only more quickly--without a mask a victim had one minute to live--but it evaporated in 30 minutes.  

Chemists invented 18 new gases that were more deadly effective than chlorine, and also masks to neutralize them. [[Phosgene]] ("Green Cross", the Germans called it) like chlorine, attacked the lungs, only more quickly--without a mask a victim had one minute to live--but it evaporated in 30 minutes.