Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1918 — Chemists May Win War [ARTICLE]

Chemists May Win War

Seek Poison Gas That Will Destroy Whole Armies.

American chemists working on the poison gas problem may bring the war to a victorious close for the allies in their laboratories. They are working hard, together with British chemists, to find a colorless, odorless and invisible gas, which, sweeping oyer a sleeping army, would destroy it. The Germans are also working to find such a gas. Whichever side finds it first will win the war, declares a Washington writer. The “Gas shell” is not necessarily a shell. It may contain a liquid or even a solid, and it opens up the whole sphere of organic chemistry to be drawn upon for materials. In every German drive this year there has been a gas strategy. Full dress rehearsals in gas maneuvers to meet every possible situation were held by the Germans before an attack. In the March drive captured maps show the Germans had worked out a zoning system over allied territory. Some zones were drenched with gas and others left untouched. The German attacking troops w’ere supplied with maps to indicate the safety zones through which they might pass without harm. Some zones were subjected to ephemeral gases which. evaporated before the arrival of the oncoming Germans. Other areas were bombarded with several hundred thousand shells, the gas from which lingered for hours. On one seveh-mlle sector the Germans discharged 125,000 12-pound shells in one day.The “front” is not the solid line it looks to be on the maps. It is a series of strongly-held posts, often hills. The Germans use gas shells against these strongholds, attempt to drive the defenders from them and to pass through the safety zones between.