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Towards the end of 1915 the standard protection was the P. and P.H. helmet, but the use of lachrymators compelled us to use the P.H.G. Even this helmet was not satisfactory against the high concentrations of phosgene or lachrymators, and after much research the opinion gained ground that further development must be on other lines.
The Germans' disappointment with the use of arsenic compounds confirms this need for battle evidence. Lachrymators. There is hardly need to dwell on the next class, the lachrymator. These compounds were employed on a large scale to produce temporary blindness by lachrymation, or weeping. We give later some interesting examples of their use on the front.
There are those "persistent" substances which remain for a long time on the soil or on the object on which they are sprayed by shell, while retaining their dangerous effect. Mustard gas was the chief example, but some of the lachrymators were just as persistent. By their use it is possible to render ground uninhabitable or ineffective for military movement.
The British first used shell gas as lachrymators, in trench mortar bombs, in small quantities, during the battle of the Somme, but for the first time, during the battle of Arras, 1917, our supplies of gas for shell were sufficient for extensive and effective use.
This was one of the early lachrymators, and was produced at Leverkusen in a plant with a maximum monthly output of sixty tons. Production began, according to a statement on the works, in March, 1915. Its case can be judged from the fact that this compound was used almost as soon as the first chlorine cloud attack at Ypres.
The introduction of mustard gas confirmed, what the use of lachrymators had suggested, that the most fruitful line would be found by attacking human functions hitherto immune. First the lungs, then the eyes, then the skin of the human being came under fire, so to speak. What further developments appear possible on these lines?
Lachrymators at Loos, 1915. Germany commenced the manufacture of lachrymators, crude brominated xylene or brominated ketones, early in, or perhaps before 1915. These substances caused great inconvenience through temporary blindness by lachrymation, but were not highly toxic. In June, 1915, however, they began to produce lethal gas for shell.
Cases were not absent, at the Battle of Loos, for example, in which the German use of lachrymators found British soldiers so mentally unprepared, or rather let us say "prepared" by propaganda, as to spread ridiculous rumours on the battlefield as to the all-powerful nature of the new German gas shell.
The success of these efforts certainly placed us in a difficult situation during the war, both with regard to production of drugs and lachrymators. German bromine was associated with potash in the Stassfurt mineral deposits, whereas the American product was produced from numerous salt springs and rock salt mines.
Preparations, for production can easily be imagined. The Germans first used chlorine for cloud gas, and certain lachrymators for shell. The chlorine was readily available. At about this time British liquid chlorine capacity had a maximum daily output of about one ton, while along the Rhine alone the production was more than forty times greater.
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