The Chemistry
Chlorine- Cl2
is a
diatomic molecule, the atomic number for Cl is 17.
At 10 Celsius one liter of water
will dissolve 3.10 liters of Chlorine
and at 30 Celsius only 1.77 liters. This shows how absorbing that
chlorine really is with water, which would drown its victims lungs with
water. Chlorine was discovered in 1774 by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm
Scheele who
mistakenly named it dephlogisticated marine acid (thought it contained
Oxygen)
1810 Sir Humphry Davy gave its
present name insisting it was an element
and didn't contain oxygen. Chlorine became the first killing agent
employed in WW1, german chemical
conglomerate IG Farben (wikipedia)
produced chlorine as a by product of
its dye industry. With Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for
chemistry in Berlin, they developed methods of deploying it against
enemy troops.
Chloropicrin-
Is a slightly oily and
colorless or light yellow color. At boiling it will decompose into
phosgene and
other chemicals, it is denser then water so it stays low to the ground
and it
just a little more toxic than chlorine gas but less than that of
phosgene. It
is an irritant that induces vomiting and can actually get past gas mask
filters
and force the men to take the masks off to vomit thus allowing other
chemical
agents inside. Chloropicrin is therefore commonly mixed with other
chemical
weapons by itself it can be deadly from lung injuries.
Phosgene- Phosgene
has no color while
by itself but when mixed with air it is a white or yellow haze, its
odor
resembles cut corn. It was primarily used in combination with other
gases,
today it is used in the process of making polymers. It was first
synthesized in
1812 by chemist John Davy, combining chlorine and carbon monoxide. It
is
primarily in the gas phase while diphosgene is in the liquid phase.
Diphosgene- Diphosgene
as above stated
is a liquid in the normal state and is thus more stable then compared
to
phosgene. Diphosgene was able to destroy the filters in the gas masks
which were
a major contribution to chemical warfare.
Mustard Gas- One
of the worst of the
chemical weapons used during World War 1 and the one that had caused
the most casualties.
Mustard Gas was first synthesized in 1860 by Fredrick Guthrie, it again
is an
odorless and colorless gas. In use in chemical weapons and in normal
air the
gas becomes yellow or dark brownish yellow with an odor of garlic. It
was
successfully used against the Canadians in 1917 by the Germans near
Ypres. It was very difficult for defenses to be created
for Mustard Gas because a soldier with a gas mask was not protected
with just a
gas mask, they required skin protection. Mustard Gas is a blistering
agent
against the skin and would burn the persons skin. It would only kill
about 1%
of all of its victims but would injure and hinder movement of troops.
One major
advantage and disadvantage of mustard gas was that it would linger in
the
trenches and cause even more casualties because it would last for days.
Mustard
Gas was one of the worst chemical weapons used in World War 1 and is
one that
most people are familiar with the name if not the actual consequences.
The most
recent deployment of Mustard Gas was in the late 1980's when Saddam
Hussein
used Mustard Gas on his own Kurdish population.
