Hand, a naval-type detector examined shortly thereafter, although also without a test for nitrogen mustard, comparedįavorably with the M9 in design, simplicity, and effectiveness of operation, and had several good points that wereĬonsidered for possible inclusion in later American models. Uneven results, and allowed misleading interpretations of tests owing to the faintness of some reactions. One of these, tested at theĬWS-MIT laboratory late in 1943, was larger and heavier than the CWS model M9, had no reagent for nitrogen mustard, gave The Japanese also had detector kits, a number of which were captured during the war. A German detector kit, comparable to CWS model M9,Ĭontained tubes of reagents and a small hand pump to force air through the tubes. Manually, which forced air through six tubes of reagents. From left, American, French, early British, and German. Germans had an apparatus with six pumps, operated electrically or For testing the air outside fortifications, the More sensitive to some reagents, and gave a more sharply defined color. German vesicant detector cards worked in the same manner as American vesicant detector paper, but were Despite the accomplishments of the United States in developing sensitive methods of detection, theĭefinite evidence in 1945 that the Germans had nerve gases reopened the whole problem of detection.Īs for enemy methods of detection, the Germans had a powder containing a dye which, when sprinkled on liquid mustard,Ĭhanged color. Had these gases been used it is likely that only the onset of clinical symptoms would have revealed In liquidįorm these agents reacted with the detector paint in the American kit, but no substance in it could detect the agents in detector devices, were sufficiently rapid or reliable to warn in time of the presence of nerve gases. None of the reagents in detector kits, nor any other Learned of the existence of these agents after the war was over. Unknown to the American Army, the Germans had discovered nerve gases, a new class of toxic compounds. Identification kit, was made a component of the M3 mobile laboratory unit. This was standardized in Augustġ945 as the M12 agent sampling kit and, along with a newly developed M10 chemical agent analyzer kit and the Mil smoke Them without loss or decomposition until they could be delivered to a field laboratory. The MIT-E12, which enabled the user to get samples of airborne agents as well as agents in contaminated soil and to keep 6 Tests devised later for lewisite,Ĭarbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide were at once incorporated in the kit.Īfter a requirement was established in March 1943, the laboratory at MIT also got up an agent sample collection kit, Specific detector for any war gas reacting to alkali (such as the mustards) was of signal importance in the development Brown at the University of Chicago of a sensitive and Hand pump and nearly two hundred small tubes of reagent dyes in silica gel, capable of detecting even slightĬoncentrations of such war gases as the mustards, phosgene, and cyanogen chloride. Superior to the M4 vapor detector kit in every respect, the M9 was an adsorption type of detector, consisting of a This compact, efficient, and widely used kit one of the significant developments of the CWS defensive research program.Īny soldier could learn to operate it after brief training, and it proved itself during the war in the inspection ofĬhemical munitions at U.S. 3Īn excellent detector kit proved to be the M9, developed with NDRC help in the CWS laboratories at Edgewood and MITĪnd standardized in July 1943. Ohio State improved its composition and developed new detector materials. Than that developed by the British, NDRC chemists at the University of Chicago, at the University of Virginia, and at 2 Although the CWS had not discovered a better dye base Liquid vesicant detector paper and M7 vesicant detector crayon, sensitive to mustard and lewisite. They included the M4 vapor detector kit,Ĭapable of registering even faint concentrations of nitrogen and sulphur mustards M5 liquid vesicant detector paint M6 Origins in British and American developments in 1918, had been standardized. Which were masked by the enemy or by field conditions, and the CWS had long sought rapid, foolproof chemical andīy March 1942 a number of blister gas detectors, all of which were based on color changes in a dye base and had their 1 But sensory tests were hazardous and uncertain, particularly for chemicals with little odor or “Unfortunately, except for blister gases, there is no practical method of detecting gases other than the sense Chapter 4: Protection Against Toxic Agents Home Table of Contents Previous: Chapter 3 Next: Chapter 5
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