To the reader
It seems that the introduction to my publications is becoming a kind of trademark. And if earlier it was a small annotation of the article, then in this case it will be in the nature of a warning. The fact is that this article, obviously, will be absolutely uninteresting to those who are hostile and even belligerent towards chemistry (unfortunately, I had to meet with such forum visitors). It is unlikely to report anything fundamentally new on the topic of chemical weapons (almost everything has already been said) and does not pretend to be a comprehensive and exhaustive study (then it would be a dissertation or monograph). This is a chemist's view of how the achievements of his beloved science bring people not only benefits, but also inexhaustible misfortunes.
If, after reading up to this point, the reader does not have a desire to leave the page, I propose to follow with me the path of the emergence, use and improvement of one of the most terrible means of mass destruction - chemical weapons.
To begin with, I propose to make a small excursion into history.
Who and when first thought of sending heavy clouds of suffocating smoke to the enemy, now, probably, it will not be possible to find out. But the annals contain fragmentary information about how such weapons were used from time to time and, alas, sometimes not without success.
So, the Spartans (famous entertainers) during the siege of Plataea in 429 BC. NS. burned sulfur in order to obtain sulphurous anhydride, which affects the respiratory tract. With a fair wind, such a cloud, of course, could cause a real sensation in the ranks of the enemy.
In favorable situations, for example, when the enemy took refuge in a cave or was sent to a besieged fortress by a freshly opened underground manhole, the Greeks and Romans burned wet straw interspersed with other materials of increased smelly. With the help of furs or due to the natural flow of air currents, the suffocating cloud fell into the cave / tunnel, and then some people could be very unlucky.
Later, with the advent of gunpowder, they tried to use bombs filled with a mixture of poisons, gunpowder and resin on the battlefield. Fired from catapults, they exploded from a burning fuse (the prototype of a modern remote fuse). Exploding, the bombs emitted clouds of poisonous smoke over the enemy troops - poisonous gases caused bleeding from the nasopharynx when using arsenic, irritation on the skin, blisters.
In medieval China, a cardboard bomb filled with sulfur and lime was created. During a naval battle in 1161, these bombs, falling into the water, exploded with a deafening roar, spreading poisonous smoke in the air. The smoke generated from water contact with lime and sulfur caused the same effects as modern tear gas.
As components in the creation of mixtures for equipping bombs, we used: hooked knotweed, croton oil, soap tree pods (for the formation of smoke), sulphide and arsenic oxide, aconite, tung oil, Spanish flies.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the inhabitants of Brazil tried to fight the conquistadors, using poisonous smoke against them, obtained from burning red pepper. This method was subsequently used several times during the uprisings in Latin America.
However, the increased "context" of such weapons, the absence of gas masks and synthetic chemistry for many centuries predetermined the extremely low frequency of the use of chemical weapons [1]. The poisons, which had promised so much on the battlefield, retreated deep into the palace corridors, becoming a reliable means of resolving dynastic disputes and questions of the struggle for influence. As it turned out, for a long time, but not forever …
Here, it seems to me, it is necessary to make a small digression in order to get acquainted with BB classification.
Even a brief reference to the companion of a modern schoolchild - Wikipedia - shows that there are several classifications of OS, the most common of which are tactical and physiological.
The tactical classification considers such characteristics as volatility (unstable, persistent and poisonous-smoky), impact on enemy manpower (lethal, temporarily incapacitating, annoying ("police") and training) and exposure time (fast and slow).
But their physiological classification is better known to the general reader. It includes the following classes:
1. Nervous systemic agents.
2. Commonly poisonous agents.
3. Skin blister agents.
4. OM that irritate the upper respiratory tract (sternitis).
5. Suffocating agents.
6. Irritating to the shell of the eyes OV (lacrimators).
7. Psychochemical OS.
There is another classification that is most popular among chemists. It is based on the current beginning of OM and divides them, depending on their belonging to certain classes of chemical compounds, into the following groups (given according to the classification of VA Aleksandrov (1969) and Z. Franke (1973) [4]):
1. Organophosphorus (herd, sarin, soman, Vx-gases).
2. Arsenic (lewisite, adamsite, diphenylchloroarsine).
3. Halogenated alkanes and their derivatives.
4. Halogenated sulfides (mustard gas, its analogs and homologues).
5. Halogenated amines (trichlorotriethylamine - nitrogen mustard, its analogs and homologues).
6. Halogenated acids and their derivatives (chloroacetophenone, etc.).
7. Derivatives of carbonic acid (phosgene, diphosgene).
8. Nitriles (hydrocyanic acid, cyanogen chloride).
9. Derivatives of benzyl acid (BZ).
Dear readers can find other classifications in the relevant literature, but in this study the author will mainly adhere to the third classification, which, in general, is understandable.
Even without citing the formulas of these substances (and the author gives the word that he will try, as before, to use specific knowledge to a minimum), it becomes clear that chemical weapons are a luxury that countries with a developed chemical industry can afford. Such at the beginning of the twentieth century were Germany, England and France. Almost all used (and also not used) OM were developed in these countries back in the 18th and 19th centuries: chlorine (1774), hydrocyanic acid (1782), phosgene (1811), mustard gas (1822, 1859), diphosgene (1847), chloropicrin (1848) and their other deadly brethren. Already in the second half of the 19th century, the first shells with OV appeared [2].
John Daugt's projectile was supposed to consist of two sections: located in the head of the projectile section A, which includes an explosive; and the following section B, filled with liquid chlorine. In 1862, during the American Civil War, J. Daugt sent a letter to Secretary of War E. Stanton, in which he proposed to use shells filled with liquid chlorine against the southerners. The design of the projectile proposed by him differs little from those used during the First World War.
During the Crimean War in May 1854, British and French ships fired at Odessa with "stinking bombs" containing some kind of poisonous substance. When trying to open one of these bombs, Admiral V. A. Kornilov and the gunner. In August 1855, the British government approved the project of the engineer D'Endonald, which consisted in the use of sulfur dioxide against the garrison of Sevastopol. Sir Lyon Playfair proposed to the British War Office to use shells filled with hydrocyanic acid to shell the fortifications of Sevastopol. Both projects were never implemented, but, most likely, not for humanitarian reasons, but for technical reasons.
Such "civilized" methods of warfare used by "enlightened Europe" against the "Asian barbarians", naturally, did not pass by the attention of Russian military engineers. In the late 50s. XIX century, the Main Artillery Committee (GAU) proposed to introduce bombs filled with OV into the ammunition load of the "unicorns". For one-pound (196-mm) serf unicorns, an experimental series of bombs filled with cyanide cacodyl was made. During tests, the detonation of such bombs was carried out in an open wooden frame. A dozen cats were placed in the blockhouse, protecting them from shell fragments. A day after the explosion, members of the special commission of the GAU approached the log house. All the cats lay motionless on the floor, their eyes were very watery, but not a single cat died. On this occasion, Adjutant General A. A. Barantsov sent a report to the tsar, in which he stated that the use of artillery shells with OV in the present and future is completely out of the question.
Such a meager influence of the OV on military operations again pushed them from the battlefield into the shadows, but this time to the pages of science fiction novels. Leading science fiction writers of the time, such as Verne and Wells, no, no, but mentioned them in the descriptions of the creepy inventions of villains or aliens invented by them.
It is not known what the further fate of chemical weapons would have been if during the world massacre that began in 1914, sooner or later, a situation did not arise, which Erich Maria Remarque much later described with the famous phrase: "All Quiet on the Western Front."
If you go outside and ask twenty people offhand who, when and where was the first to use chemical weapons, then, I think, nineteen of them will say that they were Germans. About fifteen people will say that it was during the First World War, and, probably, no more than two or three experts (or historians, or simply interested in military topics) will say that it was on the Ypres River in Belgium. I confess, until recently, and I thought so. But, as it turned out, this is not entirely true. Germany did not belong to the initiative, but to the leadership in the application of OV.
The idea of chemical warfare "lay on the surface" of the military strategies of the time. Even during the battles of the Russo-Japanese War, it was noticed that as a result of shelling by Japanese shells, in which "shimosa" was used as an explosive, a large number of soldiers were losing their combat effectiveness due to severe poisoning. There have been cases of gunners being poisoned by the products of the combustion of a powder charge in the tightly closed gun towers of battleships. After the end of the war in the Far East in Great Britain, France and Germany, they began to conduct experiments to search for weapons that disable the enemy's manpower. By the beginning of the First World War, in the arsenals of all the warring parties (except for Russia) there was something of military chemistry.
The first-borns of the use of "chemistry" on the battlefield in the twentieth century were the allies of the Entente, namely the French. True, drugs were used not with tear, but with a lethal effect. In August 1914, French units used grenades loaded with ethyl bromoacetate.
French rifle chemical grenade
However, its reserves at the allies quickly ran out, and the synthesis of new portions took time and was a rather expensive task. Therefore, it was replaced by another analogue, similar and simpler in terms of synthesis, - chloroacetone.
The Germans did not remain in debt, especially since they had at their fingertips an experimental batch of shells "No. 2", which were shrapnel shells, in addition to a propelling powder charge, containing a certain amount of dianisidine double salt, into which spherical bullets were pressed.
Already on October 27 of the same year, the French already tried the products of German chemists on themselves, but the achieved concentration was so low that it was barely noticeable. But the deed was done: the genie of chemical warfare was released from the bottle, into which they could not push him until the very end of the war.
Until January 1915, both warring parties continued to use lacrimators. In winter, the French used chemical fragmentation shells filled with a mixture of carbon tetrachloride with carbon disulfide, albeit without much success. On January 31, 1915, the Germans tested on the Russian front near Bolimov a 155-mm howitzer projectile "T" ("T-Stoff") with a strong blasting action, containing about 3 kg of a powerful lacrimator xylyl bromide. Due to the low volatility of the OM at low temperatures, the use of such shells against the Russian troops turned out to be ineffective.
The British, too, did not stand aside from the creation of new means of extermination of their own kind. By the end of 1914, British chemists from Imperial College had studied about 50 toxic substances and came to the conclusion about the possibility of the combat use of ethyl iodoacetate, a lacrimator that also has a suffocating effect. In March 1915, several samples of chemical munitions were tested at British proving grounds. Among them is a pomegranate filled with ethyl iodacetone (the British called it "tin jam"); and a 4.5-inch howitzer projectile capable of converting ethyl iodacetone into fog. The tests were found to be successful. The British used this grenade and projectile until the end of the war.
Disinfection in German. At the end of January 1915, Germany used the first truly POISONOUS substance. On the eve of the new year, the director of the Physico-Chemical Institute. Kaiser Wilhelm Fritz Haber offered the German command an original solution to the problem of the shortage of shells for artillery shells to equip OV: to launch chlorine directly from gas cylinders. The reasoning behind this decision was Jesuitically simple and logical in German: since the French are already using rifle grenades with an irritating substance, then the use of the disinfectant chlorine by the Germans cannot be considered a violation of the Hague Agreement. Thus, preparations began for the operation, code-named "Disinfection", especially since chlorine was a by-product of the industrial production of dyes and there was plenty of it in the warehouses of BASF, Hoechst and Bayer.
Ypres, April 22, 1915 Painting by Canadian artist Arthur Nantel. The process has begun … (Most likely, the artist depicts the positions of the Canadian division of General Alderson, located along the road to S. Julien)
… On the evening of April 21, the long-awaited mail arrived, and the trenches of the Anglo-French allies revived: exclamations of surprise, relief, joy were heard; sighs of annoyance. Red-haired Patrick reread the letter from Jane for a long time. It got dark, and Patrick fell asleep with a letter in his hand not far from the trench line. The morning of April 22, 1915 came …
… Under cover of darkness, 5730 gray-green steel cylinders were secretly delivered from deep German rear to the front line. In silence they were carried along the front for almost eight kilometers. After making sure that the wind was blowing towards the English trenches, the valves were opened. There was a faint hiss, and a pale green gas slowly poured from the cylinders. Creeping low on the ground, a heavy cloud crept to the enemy's trenches …
And Patrick dreamed of his beloved Jane flying towards him directly through the air, through the trenches, on a large yellow-green cloud. Suddenly he noticed that she had some strange yellow-green nails, long and sharp as needles. So they are getting longer, digging into Patrick's throat, chest …
Patrick woke up, jumped to his feet, but for some reason sleep did not want to let him go. There was nothing to breathe. His chest and throat burned like fire. There was a strange haze around. From the direction of the German trenches, clouds of heavy yellow-green fog crept. They accumulated in the lowlands, flowed into the trenches, from where groans and wheezing could be heard.
… The word "chlorine" was first heard by Patrick already in the infirmary. Then he found out that after the chlorine attack, only two survived - he and the company pet cat Blackie, who was then lured from the tree for a long time (or rather, what was left of him - a blackened trunk without a single leaf) with a piece of liver. The orderly who pulled Patrick out told him how the choking gas filled the trenches, crawled into dugouts and dugouts, killed sleeping, unsuspecting soldiers. No protection helped. People gasped, writhed in convulsions and fell dead to the ground. Fifteen thousand people were out of action in a few minutes, of which five thousand died immediately …
… A few weeks later, a stooped gray-haired man descended on the rain-drenched platform of Victoria Station. A woman in a light raincoat and holding an umbrella rushed to him. He coughed.
- Patrick! You caught a cold?..
- No, Jane. It's chlorine.
The use of chlorine did not go unnoticed, and Britain erupted in "righteous indignation" - in the words of Lieutenant General Ferguson, who called Germany's behavior cowardice: use his method. " A fine example of British justice!
Typically, British words are used solely to create a dense diplomatic fog, traditionally hiding Albion's desire to rake in the heat with someone else's hands. However, in this case it was about their own interests, and they did not disagree: on September 25, 1915, in the battle of Loos, the British themselves used chlorine.
But this attempt turned against the British themselves. The success of chlorine at that time depended entirely on the direction and strength of the wind. But who knew that on that day the wind would be more changeable than the behavior of the coquette at the royal ball. At first, he blew in the direction of the German trenches, but soon, having moved the poisonous cloud a short distance, it almost completely subsided. The soldiers of both armies with bated breath watched the brown-green death ominously swaying in a small lowland, the immobility of which only held them back from a panic flight. But, as you know, not every balance is stable: a sudden strong and prolonged gust of wind rapidly carried the chlorine released from 5100 cylinders to their native land, driving the soldiers out of the trenches under the fire of German machine guns and mortars.
Obviously, this catastrophe was the reason for the search for an alternative to chlorine, especially since the combat effectiveness of its use was much higher than the psychological one: the percentage of the dead was about 4% of the total number of those affected (although most of the rest remained forever disabled with burned lungs).
The disadvantages of chlorine were overcome with the introduction of phosgene, the industrial synthesis of which was developed by a group of French chemists under the leadership of Victor Grignard and was first used by France in 1915. The colorless gas that smelled like moldy hay was harder to detect than chlorine, making it a more effective weapon. Phosgene was used in its pure form, but more often in a mixture with chlorine - to increase the mobility of the denser phosgene. The Allies called this mixture "White Star", as shells with the above mixture were marked with a white star.
For the first time it was used by the French on February 21, 1916 in the battles of Verdun using 75-mm shells. Due to its low boiling point, phosgene quickly evaporates and, after a shell burst, within a few seconds creates a cloud with a lethal concentration of gas, which lingers on the surface of the earth. In terms of its poisonous effect, it surpasses hydrocyanic acid. At high concentrations of gas, the death of phosgene poisoned (there was then such a term) occurs in a few hours. With the use of phosgene by the French, chemical warfare underwent a qualitative change: now it was waged not for the temporary incapacitation of enemy soldiers, but for their destruction directly on the battlefield. Phosgene mixed with chlorine proved to be very convenient for gas attacks.
Gas cylinders with special "gas fittings" (A. Gas cylinder: 1 - poisonous substance cylinder; 2 - compressed air; 3 - siphon tube; 4 - valve; 5 - fitting; 6 - cap; 7 - rubber hose; 8 - sprayer; 9 - union nut. B. English gas cylinder, designed for equipping with a mixture of chlorine and phosgene)
France began mass production of artillery shells filled with phosgene. It was much easier to use them than to compete with cylinders, and in just one day of artillery preparation near Verdun, the German artillery fired 120,000 chemical shells! However, the chemical charge of a standard projectile was small, so throughout 1916 the gas-cylinder method still prevailed on the fronts of chemical warfare.
Impressed by the action of the French phosgene shells, the Germans went further. They began to load their chemical projectiles with diphosgene. Its toxic effect is similar to that of phosgene. However, its vapors are 7 times heavier than air, so it was not suitable for gas-cylinder launches. But after being delivered to the target with chemical projectiles, it retained its damaging and chilling effect on the ground longer than phosgene. Diphosgene is odorless and has almost no irritating effect, so enemy soldiers always wore gas masks late. The losses from such ammunition, marked with a green cross, were significant.
Already three months later (May 19, 1916), in the battles of Shitankur, the Germans more than successfully responded to the French phosgene shells, shells with diphosgene mixed with chloropicrin, which is a double-acting agent: suffocating and tearing.
In general, the desire to squeeze out as much lethal force as possible led to the emergence of what can be called mixed agents: a non-existent, but widely used class of toxic substances, representing a mixture of various poisons. The logic behind this use of the OM was quite clear: under previously unknown natural conditions (and the efficiency of the use of the first OM strongly depended on them), something should work exactly.
The land of Belarus is beautiful and majestic. Calm shady oak forests, quiet transparent rivers, small lakes and bogs, friendly, hardworking people … It seems that nature itself has lowered one of the pieces of paradise to the sinful earth, called for the rest of the soul.
Probably, this idyll was that Eldorado, which attracted crowds and hordes of conquerors who dreamed of putting their hand in an iron glove on this corner of paradise. But not everything is so simple in this world. At one moment, the thickets of the forest can resound with the sounds of destroying volleys, the clear water of the lake could suddenly turn into a bottomless quagmire, and a friendly peasant could leave his plow and become an adamant defender of the Fatherland. The centuries that brought wars to the western Russian lands have created a special atmosphere of heroism and love for the Motherland, about which armored hordes of both the distant and recent past have repeatedly crashed. So it was in the now so distant and unimaginably close 1915, when on August 6 at 4 a.m. (and who will say after that that history does not repeat itself, even in these ominous coincidences!), Under cover of artillery shelling, the defenders of the Osovets fortress crawled suffocating clouds of a mixture of chlorine and bromine …
I will not describe what happened that August morning. Not only because the throat is compressed by a lump, and tears are welling up in my eyes (not empty tears of a muslin young lady, but burning and bitter tears of empathy for the heroes of that war too), but also because it was done much better than me by Vladimir Voronov alone (“The Russians do not surrender , https://topwar.ru/569-ataka-mertvecov.html)), as well as Varya Strizhak, who filmed the video Attack of the Dead (https://warfiles.ru/show-65067-varya- strizhak-ataka-mertvecov-ili-russkie-ne-sdayutsya.html).
But what happened next deserves special attention: it's time to talk about how Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky saved the soldier.
The eternal confrontation between the shield and the sword has been present in military affairs for many millennia, and the appearance of a new weapon, which was considered by its creators to be irresistible, absolute, causes the imminent birth of protection against it. At first, many ideas are born, sometimes absurd, but quite often of them subsequently go through a period of searching and become a solution to the problem. So it happened with poisonous gases. And the man who saved the lives of millions of soldiers was the Russian organic chemist Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky. But the road to salvation was not easy and not obvious.
The beginnings fought with chlorine, using it, although not very large, but a noticeable ability to dissolve in water. A piece of ordinary cloth, moistened with water, although not much, but still made it possible to protect the lungs until the soldier got out of the lesion. It soon turned out that the urea contained in the urine binds free chlorine even more actively, which was more than convenient (in terms of readiness for use, and not in terms of other parameters of this method of protection, which I will not mention).
H2N-CO-NH2 + Cl2 = ClHN-CO-NH2 + HCl
H2N-CO-NH2 + 2 Cl2 = ClHN-CO-NHCl + 2 HCl
The resulting hydrogen chloride was bound by the same urea:
H2N-CO-NH2 + 2 HCl = Cl [H3N-CO-NH3] Cl
In addition to some obvious disadvantages of this method, it should be noted its low efficiency: the urea content in urine is not so high.
The first chemical protection against chlorine was sodium hyposulfite Na2S2O3, which binds chlorine quite effectively:
Na2S2O3 + 3 Cl2 + 6 NaOH = 6 NaCl + SO2 + Na2SO4 + 3 H2O
But at the same time, sulfur dioxide SO2 is released, which acts on the lungs little more than chlorine itself (how can you not remember antiquity here). Then additional alkali began to be introduced into the dressings, later - urotropin (being one of the close relatives of ammonia and urea, it also bound chlorine) and glycerin (so that the composition did not dry out).
Wet gauze "stigma masks" of dozens of different types flooded the army, but there was little sense from them: the protective effect of such masks was negligible, the number of poisoned during gas attacks did not decrease.
Attempts have been made to invent and dry mixtures. One of these gas masks, filled with soda lime - a mixture of dry CaO and NaOH - was even touted as the latest in technology. But here is an extract from the test report of this gas mask: “Judging by the experience of the commission, the gas mask is sufficient to clean the inhaled air from the impurity of 0, 15% of poisonous gases … and therefore, he and others prepared in this way are completely unsuitable for mass and long-term use.
And more than 3.5 million of these useless devices entered the Russian army. This stupidity was explained very simply: the supply of gas masks to the army was handled by one of the king's relatives - the Duke of Eulengburg, who, apart from a loud title, had absolutely nothing behind him …
The solution to the problem came from the other side. In the early summer of 1915, an outstanding Russian chemist Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky was working in the laboratory of the Ministry of Finance in Petrograd. Among other things, he also had to deal with the purification of alcohol with activated birch charcoal using the technology of T. Lovitz. Here is what Nikolai Dmitrievich himself wrote in his diary: “At the beginning of the summer of 1915, the sanitary-technical department several times considered the issue of enemy gas attacks and measures to combat them. The number of victims and the methods by which the soldiers tried to escape from the poisons made a terrible impression on me. It became clear that the methods of chemical absorption of chlorine and its compounds are absolutely useless …"
And the case helped. Conducting another test for the purity of a new batch of alcohol, Nikolai Dmitrievich thought: if coal absorbs a variety of impurities from water and aqueous solutions, then chlorine and its compounds should absorb even more so! A born experimenter, Zelinsky decided to test this assumption immediately. He took a handkerchief, put a layer of charcoal on it, and made a simple bandage. Then he poured magnesia into a large vessel, filled it with hydrochloric acid, closed his nose and mouth with his bandage and bent over the neck of the vessel … Chlorine did not work!
Well, the principle has been found. Now it's up to the design. Nikolai Dmitrievich pondered for a long time about a design that could not only provide reliable protection, but would be practical and unpretentious in the field. And suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, the news of the gas attack near Osovets. Zelinsky simply lost sleep and appetite, but the matter did not move from the dead center.
Here the time has come to acquaint readers with a new participant in that race with death: the talented designer, process engineer of the Triangle plant MI. Kummant, who designed the original gas mask. This is how a new model appeared - the Zelinsky-Kummant gas mask. The first samples of the gas mask were tested in an empty room, where sulfur was burned. Zelinsky wrote with satisfaction in his diary: "… in such a completely unbearable atmosphere, breathing through a mask, one could stay for over half an hour without experiencing any unpleasant sensations."
N. D. Zelinsky with his colleagues. From left to right: second - V. S. Sadikov, the third - N. D. Zelinsky, the fourth - M. I. Kummant
The new development was immediately reported to both the Minister of War and representatives of the allies. A special commission was appointed for comparative tests.
Several special carriages were brought to the landfill near Petrograd, filled with chlorine. They included volunteer soldiers wearing gas masks of various designs. According to the condition, they had to ensure the safety of the soldiers for at least one hour. But ten minutes later the first experimenter jumped out of the carriage: his gas mask could not stand it. A few more minutes - and another jumped out, then a third, after him a few more.
Nikolai Dmitrievich was very worried, every time he ran up to check whose gas mask had failed, and each time he sighed with relief - not his. In less than forty minutes, all the testers stood in the fresh air and breathed deeply, ventilating their lungs. But a soldier with a gas mask from Zelinsky also came out. He took off his mask, his eyes were red, watering … The allies, somewhat depressed, were delighted - and everything is not so simple and smooth with the Russians. But it turned out that the gas mask had nothing to do with it - the glass on the mask bounced off. And then Nikolai Dmitrievich, without hesitation, unscrews the box, attaches another mask to it - and into the carriage! And there - his assistant Sergei Stepanov, unnoticed with the soldiers, entered the car with chlorine. Sits, smiles and shouts through the mask:
- Nikolai Dmitrievich, you can sit for another hour!
So the two of them sat in the chlorine car for almost three hours. And they went out not because they passed the gas mask, but just tired of sitting around.
Another test was carried out the next day. This time, the soldiers had not only to sit, but to carry out combat exercises with weapons. Here, in general, only Zelinsky's gas mask survived.
The success of the first test was so overwhelming that this time the emperor himself came to the test site. Nicholas II spent the whole day at the test site, carefully observing the progress of the checks. And after that he himself thanked Zelinsky and shook his hand. True, this was all the highest gratitude. However, Nikolai Dmitrievich did not ask for anything for himself, because he worked not for the sake of awards, but to save the lives of thousands of soldiers. The Zelinsky-Kummant gas mask was adopted by the Russian army and successfully passed the test in the summer of 1916 during the gas attack near Smorgon. It was used not only in Russia, but also in the armies of the Entente countries, and in total in 1916-1917 Russia produced more than 11 million pieces of these gas masks.
(It is not possible to describe in more detail the history of the development of PPE within the framework of this publication, especially since one of the members of the forum, respected Aleksey "AlNikolaich", expressed a desire to highlight this issue, which we will look forward to with great impatience.)
Nikolay Dmitrievich Zelinsky (a) and his brainchild - a gas mask (b) with a box filled with activated carbon
In fairness, it must be said that Nikolai Dmitrievich received the award, but at a different time from another government: in 1945, Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for outstanding services in the development of chemistry. During his eighty years of scientific life, he was awarded four State Prizes and three Orders of Lenin. But that's a completely different story …
