Two Lecture Demonstrations LIEUTENANT COUlNEL THOMAS G . THOMPSON War Department Cidlian Proteetion School, Seattle, Washington
FUNCTIONING OR GAS MASK FILTERS HE GAS mask consists primarily of a face piece and a canister. . The face piece serves as a protection for the eyes, nose, and mo&h against air contaminated F with toxic substances, while the canister functions in the removal of poisonous gases, fogs, or smokes from the e e air being inhaled. Exhaled air escapes through a flutter valve attached to the lower part of the face piece. The canister contains two filters, one designated as the chemical filter for the removal of gases, and the other as the mechanical filter for the elimination of aerosols in the form of fogs or smokes. The chemical filter is essentially specially prepared charcoal which has the property of adsorbmg most substances in the gaseous state. As the toxic substances of chemical warfare may be gases, liquids, or solids, protection by FIGURE 1.-A I S THE ASPIRATOR BULB,B A 250-ML. BOTTLE the charcoal is accorded only when the substances are FITTED WITH A 2.HOLE RUBBER AND actually present as true gases. To remove toxic fogs SEVERAL ML. OF CONCENTRATED NHIOH. c IS A RUBBER or smokes, a mechanical filter in the form of felt or paper TUBEUSED POR CONNECTING B WITH THE BOTTLE,D. D IS SrMrLan TO B BUT CONTAINSSEVERAL ML. 08 CONCENTRATED is necessary. HYDROCHLORIC ACID. F IS A CALCIUM CHLORIDETUBE CONIn order to illustrate the functioning of the two types TAINING A WADOP GLASSWOOLAT G. THEBULKOP TAB TUBE Is FILLED WITH ACTIVATED CHARCOAL, H, AND THE TOPOR THE of filters, the following lecture experiments were devised: I.
T
TUBE WITH ABSORBENT COTTON. I.
Chcmicelr required: . Concentrated ammonium hydroxide Concentrated hydrochloric acid Charcoal, No. 20 mesh (activated)
connected to the bottle, B, a t C. On aspirating air through the apparatus, a cloud of ammonium chloride issues a t E. The charcoal tube is then connected to E by means of a piece of rubber tubing and the ammoninm chloride smoke again aspirated. The smoke is not retained by the charcoal. Absorbent cotton is then inserted in the upper part of the tube a t E. On aspirating, no smoke will issue from the end of the tube, the cotton having served as a mechanical filter.
Ap@rolus and equipment: Two 250-ml. bottles fitted with two-hale rubber stoppers Four feet g@ss tubing. '/,in. Rubber aspirator bulb Calcium chloride tube. 6 to 8 in. Litmus paper lass wool Absorbent cotton
The apparatus, illustrated in Figure 1,is disconnected a t C. A; is aspirated through the bottle, B, containing the ammonium hydroxide. A marked odor of ammania is noted a t the outlet, C, on compressing the aspirator bulb. In demonstrating before a class, a piece of moistened red litmus paper may be held a t the butlet. When the presence of &monia has been shown, the charcoal tube, from which the absorbent cotton has been removed, is connected a t E. Air is again aspirated through the apparatus. A piece of moistened red litmus paper is beld a t the outlet of the charcoal tube. No color reaction is manifested showing that all the ammouia has been absorbed by the charcoal, and illustratiug the behavior of the chemical filter.' Bottle D containing the hydrochloric acid is then
11.
TWO CHARACTERISTIC^ OF CHEMICAL WARFARE GASES ---
The following experiment was devised to illustrate the density of a war gas, demonstrating its downward movement in air, and to show the effects of wind movement upon such a substance,
-
'
Note: I n practice the ordinary gas mask canister of the Chemical Warfare Service should not be used when working in an atmosphere containing ammonia, because of the unusually high concentrations of the gas. Special industrial masks are used for this purpose.
377
Chemicals rewired: Potassium permanganate ~ , " ~ , " ~ ~ ~ , " O ~ ~ ~ h ~ ~ d ~ c i d
and mterkLs: iron stand Two condenser clamps cm, strip of plyhoard, painted white, 150 -, Glass tubing, 150 cm. long and 5 cm. in diameter Roll of gauze tape, 2.5 m. wide White cloth, 150 cm. X 150 cm. Quart glass milk bottle, or liter cylinder Watch glass. 6 cm. Beaker, 600 ml. (Conlinued on Page 398)
technical publications, it becomes increasingly desirable for the researcher to cover the original Russian literature rather than to depend upon secondary sources. The need for courses in Russian in the college curriculum is far greater today than ever before. A suggestion for alleviation of the problem of literature surveys for the graduate scientist would be the preparation of an undergraduate thesis on bibliographic research, and if the research was too extensive and involved a master's degree could be granted for its successful conclusion. Perhaps even a Ph.D. thesis could be submitted correlating the findings of a bibliographic study. Even the well-trained scientist may bungle his Grst efforts in literature research. He will eventually develop his own methods, but if in the examination of the literature he finds publication of the accumulated experiences of his predecessors in the field of surveying, the development will be much more rapid. At the close of this war there will be an even greater necessity for such training, since there will undoubtedly be released for publication a tremendous volume of research which is now und& secrecy orders because of its relation to the war efforts. When this occurs there must be research scientists who are trained and ready to handle it. The work we have described here covered more than 25,000 original references and its completion required an aggregate of sixteen people for
over five years. But this is a mere "drop in the bucket" compared to what will he necessary in the days to come for the compilation and summary of material in other lines of research. If the efforts of specially trained scientists in industrial libraries are required to give fundamental training in this type of research, much time will be wasted that could well have been put to other uses, had the incoming group been trained in the mechanics'of scientific literature surveys during their undergraduate training. LITERATURE CITED
(1) Chemical Abstracts, The American Chemical Society. Ohio State College, Columbus, Ohio. (2) C@misches Zentralblatt, Verlag Chemie G. m. b. H., Berlm.
(3) British Chemical Abstracts, London Chem. Society, Central House. London. (4) BeilsteinsHandbuch der Organischm Chemie, Julius Springer, Berlin. (5) Richter-AnschuB, Chemie der Kohlenstoff Ve'erbindungerode? Organische Chemie, Akademische Verlag Genellschaft m. b. H.. Leipzig. ( 6 ) Landolt-Bdrnstein, Physikalkch-Chemische .Tabellcn, Julius Springer, Berlin. (7) "International Critical Tables," McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York. (8) EASTERPIELD AND MCCLELLAND, 1. SOC.Chem. Ind., 42, 936-8 (1923). AND KABLE, 1.Am. Chem. Soc., 57, 917-8 (1935). (9) KOHLER (10) BERGMANN, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 58,1678-81 (1932). AND COOK, J. Chem. Sot., 1933,224. (11) BARNETT
