World War I: Chemists’ War and the First Industrial War

choi

William Bynum, Molecular Catastrophe; On average, 60 pounds of mustard gas was expended to produce a single casualty. Wall Street Journal, Nov 23, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/news/artic ... 4578638420108967866
(book review on Michael Freemantle, Gas! Gas! Quick, Boys! How chemistry changed the First World War. Spellmount, 2013).

Quote:

“Gas warfare was never deemed a brilliant success, however. The gases were difficult to control, and often winds blew them back in the faces of those who had fired them. This did not prevent belligerents from firing around 65 million gas-filled shells during the war.

“The most dramatic aspect of the war was the scaling up of manufacturing capacity: On average, 60 pounds of mustard gas was expended to produce a single casualty; 500 pounds of high explosives to achieve the same effect; and 5,000 rounds of ammunition to kill or wound an enemy. These industrial processes were already in place before 1914; the war merely encouraged their accelerated application.

Note:
(a) “Between 60% and 70% of all combat casualties [in World War I] were caused by shells, * * * mostly shot from a large variety of quick-fire artillery guns or howitzers. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916, Mr Freemantle notes, a total of 30 million shells were fired in a little over four months—a rate of 150 per minute.”

Battle of the Somme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme
(“took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on either side of the River Somme [The name Somme comes from a Celtic word meaning ‘tranquility’] in France. The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of humanity's bloodiest battles;” Result  Anglo-French victory)

(b) “The explosives picric acid and TNT, staples in the artillery arsenals on both sides of the war, had been developed in the 19th century. Nitric acid was necessary for the manufacture of both TNT and picric acid [the latter also “an antiseptic and used in treating burns”]. The German chemist Fritz Haber (1868-1934) showed before the war that ammonium, needed for the synthesis of nitric acid, could be produced from nitrogen and hydrogen in the atmosphere. This relieved Germany from dependence on Chile for imports of nitrates after the British blockade set in. * * * Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1918 for his work.”
(i) Fritz Haber--Biographical. Nobelprize.org, undated
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_ ... 1918/haber-bio.html
(In 1905 he had published a book in which he recorded the production of small amount of ammonia from N2 and H2. Later he refined the process. “This resulted in the establishment * * * of the Oppau and Leuna Ammonia Works, which enabled Germany to prolong the First World War when, in 1914, her supplies of nitrates for making explosives had failed. Modifications of this Haber process also provided ammonium sulphate for use as a fertilizer for the soil”)
(ii) The German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname Haber was “for a grower of or dealer in oats, from Middle High German haber(e) ‘oats,’ modern German Hafer.”
(iii) trinitrotoluene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitrotoluene
(TNT; or more specifically, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene; section 1 History)
(iv) picric acid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picric_acid
(Its name comes from Greek pik' ros, meaning "bitter," reflecting its bitter taste)

(c) “Wilfred Owen died in combat just before the Armistice, but his famous poem "Dulce et Decorum Est," written from bitter experience, provides Mr Freemantle with the title of his book.”
(i) “Dulce et Decorum est is a poem written by poet Wilfred Owen [1893-1918] in 1917, during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920. Owen's poem is known for its horrific imagery and condemnation of war.”  Wikipedia
(ii) Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_et_decorum_est_pro_patria_mori

Latin English dictionary (in this case: Wiktionary.com):
est (verb; third-person singular present active indicative of sum): "he (she, it) is"
pro (preposition): “for, on behalf of”

patria (noun feminine; from patrius (“of or pertaining to a father”), from pater (“father”)): “country; fatherla
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patria
mori (verb; present active infinitive of morior [die])

(iii) Dulce et Decorum Est. The War Poetry Website, undated
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
(text, including the verse: "Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!")


(d) “One of the most feared, phosgene (carbonyl chloride), had been synthesized in the early 19th century and was used in the manufacture of dyes and other organic products. Since its toxicity was well known, it didn't require much ingenuity to adapt it for packing into gas shells.”
(i) phosgene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene
(COCl2; The chemical does not mean it contains any phosphorus; “Phosgene was synthesized by the British chemist John Davy (1790–1868) in 1812 by exposing a mixture of carbon monoxide and chlorine to sunlight. He named it ‘phosgene’ in reference of the use of light to promote the reaction; from Greek, phos (light) and gene (born). It gradually became important in the chemical industry as the 19th century progressed, particularly in dye manufacturing”)
(ii) Phosgene. Emergency Medical Services, Division of Public Health, Delaware Health and Social Services, undated
http://dhss.delaware.gov/dph/files/phosgeneems.pdf
(In the presence of water, phosgene slowly hydrolyzes to hydrochloric acid, irritating mucosa (of eyes, for example) and damaging lung (causing anoxia and thus death; phosgene not absorbed by intact skin))