Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 57, 17 January 1918 — Page 9

Overall Costume and Gas Mask Worn by a Young Woman at Work, in Disinfectant Factory, P.1 afto"

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mrVl? ' E!- frl Mask While LJ - ESk i ta'f 44' fe"? ' 1;' q irwf - Ammonia Tank. f Vrr V , - H'4 1 Jcm SC

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l Device Made Familiar by War, But Now Widely Used in the Sciences of Peace with

ificient Results.

These Girls Are Workers in a Factory Where Powerful Disinfectants Are Made. vice it was foand that 'in 11.8 per erI" ventilated gaiages are often . . cent, of the shops examined in a overcome by gasoline f uuaea. and are study of the hygienic, condrtions ur-, asphyxiated before thay realize J&eir.

:. roundni? the cloak-and-suit and

(iress'-and-wafst

By Lawrence Randall Adamson

industries in New-

York city, ths .amount of carbon monoxide was excessive. . In 28 per cent, of-the establishments etudied the odor of . gas was perceptible. Fifty per cent, of the shops used ordinary gas irons only; 41. S per cent, used irons Heated by means of a mixture of gas and air under pressure. Only 2.4 per cent, used electric irons exclusively; and in 8.6 per cent, defective gas Irons were found. The study of the gas., tubes ' used showed that none were gas-tishjt and that most "of them were' in such a condition as to invite leakage. The

danger. It ia pointed out that the

danger of a "gasoline death" easily can be avoided by wearing a ga? masji.

WHEN you think ot saa masks visions of trenches filled with masked soldiers and rolling, low-hanging, heavler-tnan-air clouds of dense and dsedly greenishyellow chlorine gas or "poison gas" floating from the enemy's lines are instantly brought to mind. Far removed, however, from actual- war conditions and In the midst ot peaceful Industries, but Burrounded, nevertheless by dangers equally aa great as those confronted by soldiers who daily face agonizing death from being "gassed," men and wdmen today are enabled safely to pursue their dally duties In dangerous occupations as a result ot the successful application of the war gas mask to industrial life. Tha Gas Mask in Industry. ' Gas masks are now being successfully used to protect the lives of workers in many Industries particularly those where sparks and fumes of an laborious character are given off. Chief among these are the chemical laboratories in many of the large cities throughout the country where. Id addition to men, hundreds of young women are also employed. As a result of the recent entrance of women into these dangerous occupations in which the respiratory apparatus of the worker is in constant danger unless amply protected, a new type of woman worker has now come to the front. She is known as "The Girl in the Gas Mask." Of course, women wore masks before they entered the Industrial world to take up these dangerous occupations, but for a different purposeto preserve and intensify their beauty. In the chemical laboratory, however, they still wear masks gas masks, but for a different purposeactually to preserve life itself! Did you ever uncork a bottle of

ammonia and get a good whlfE of its contents? Took your breath away, didn't it? Well, what do you think of the women who work in am monia plants? How do you suppose they stand the powerful fumes that rise around them all day long? They , wear respirators gas masks of course, to keep the overpowering, irritating vapors from entering their lungs. The same conditions exist in other chemical laboratories, especially in those where powerful drugs and deadly disinfectants are manufactured. Deadly Fumes Are Neutralized. While many of these chemicals give oft fumes that are only irritating to the delicate membranes of the nose, throat and lungs of the women workers others produce vapors that are deadly, one breath of which sends the victim into convulsions. Take, for instance, hydro-cyanic acid gas, which is the most powerful and rapid poison known to chemists. One whiff of the vapor arising from the pure substance drawn into the lungs produces Instant death. The gas masks worn by women employed ir. many laboratories are practically the same as those worn by the soldiers in the trenches. The masks are made on the absorbent principle, with a receptacle for inclosing,a sponge or gauze soaked with a chemical prepared by a secret process and which has the power to neutralize the deadly vapors. Gas masks are also worn by those who .handle chloride of lime, the basic material of "war gas," and certain soda and potash products. In ice plants and in cold storage buildings masks are worn in working about the ammonia tanks. At the cotton disinfecting plants in New York city, Boston, Newark,

Galveston and San Francisco gas masks are worn by all employes whose duties take them near the hydrocyanic gas chambers in which all imported cotton is disinfected. Notwithstanding the fact, that the United Sates is a cotton-producing country, approximately 22,000,000 pounds of cotton are imported through the port of New York, and about five times as much through the port of Boston each year. Incidentally, cotton is not the only article imported with each bale of cotton, for hidden away iu the bolls there are numerous insect pesta known as the pink boll worm. Already the ravages of the domestic cotton boll weevils are only too well known; for these insects annually cause a loss of more than $30,000,000 to the cotton crcp of the United States, to which must be added the large sums expended in attempts to check its destructive work. Unmanufactured cotton and cotton waste from abroad, according to the federal rules and regulations," must be disinfected in a suitable fumigation chamber by fumigation . with hydrocyanic-acid gas, generated by combining cyanide with diluted sulphuric r.cid. How Gas Victims Are Treated. Frequently fires occur in chemical laboratories at which the responding fireman, overcome by the vapo: s of exploding chemicals, suffer all the agonies of actually being "gassed"' as in trench warfare. Recently such a fire occurred In New York city in which 40 firemen were overcome by chlorine gas. Had the victims used gas masks they would have escaped the danger of being asphyxiated. These unconscious firemen were given first aid treatment which consisted of a solution of eucalyptol in hot water, with which the throats were sprayed. After that cones were made of napkins and the men were

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Type of Gas Mask Used in Handling Chloride of Lime.

made to breathe deeply of benzoin in hot water. The principal danger.

of tincture chronic poisoning by carbon monoxide gas, a poisonous constituent of physicians illuminating gas, which may be dis-

say, lies in the fact that exposure charged into the air of workshops after even the mildest sort after in- by gas-heated appliances find in the halation of the gas will subject the gas masks a protection from these victim to pneumonia. deadly fumes.

pressers and ironer3. subject Xtmtpap' Feature Service. Inc., 1917.

Five-Day Fever PROF. KORBSCH reports experiences of the malady which is de&cribed as a new war disease, calling it febris wolhynica. Prof. Werner calls it "fire-day fever." Prof. Korbsch emphasizes its resemblance to relapsing fever, loth in it3 symptoms and its yielding to arsenic preparatious. "The ouset is stormy and sudden." he says, "and the pains in the bories become almost unbearable In a fenhours. They grow gradually less severe, and disappear completely with the terminal sweating. "Thfe disease occurs in attacks, each lasting one, two or three days; then follow two afebrile days, and the patient thinks he is well again, when another attack prostrates him. "Iu 90 per cent. Qf the cases the spleen became enlarged by the second attack. The fever chart show a single high peak, returning the fifth day, unless the second attack is ren dered abortive by arsenic treatment. "Diarrhoea during the first attack wa3 pronounced in 14 per cent, anl less marked In 22 per cent. Heart complications are common; In 8 per cent, the left heart became dilated, and the heart sounds in all the patients became faint and blurred. The pulse was unstable and with lowpressure, but no serious permanent damage seems to have resulted. . "A granulated spirochete was found In the blood of three of the patients, but only in these. Body lice were on., all these patients and there were no winged insects at this season. The disease affected exclusively the men ,of single troops; no isolated cases occurred among the other troops,; and no bouse infection developed after thorough 'unloading of the premises. "One, man developed the disease without direct contact with the sick, merely after cleaning the vehicle in which they had been transported.

For these and other reasons cited, the louse Is under suspicion. ; "In a few cases the disease oc-

constant breathing of carbon monoxide lowers the vital resistance of the ' body, thus paving the way for the infections of disease.

Gasoline gives off deadly fumes, a curred in such a mild form and the

fact frequently attested to by the in-. attack waso transient that the men creasing number of victims of "petro- did .not report themselves as sick. mortis." Owners of automobiles and. This may explain certain cases of

to the United States Public Health Ser- others working in closed or Improp- puzzling contagion." '

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