[Illustration: (C) International Film Service
GERMANS STARTING A GAS ATTACK ON THE RUSSIAN LINES
Behind the cylinders from which the gas streams are seen three lines of
German troops waiting to attack. The photograph was taken from above by
a Russian airman]
[Illustration: (C) Press Illustrating Service
FILLING THE CANNISTERS OF GAS MASKS WITH CHARCOAL MADE FROM FRUIT PITS
IN LONG ISLAND CITY]
Because free chlorine would not stay put and was dependent on the favor
of the wind for its effect, it was later employed, not as an elemental
gas, but in some volatile liquid that could be fired in a shell and so
released at any particular point far back of the front trenches.
The most commonly used of these compounds was phosgene, which, as the
reader can see by inspection of its formula, COCl_{2}, consists of
chlorine (Cl) combined with carbon monoxide (CO), the cause of deaths
from illuminating gas. These two poisonous gases, chlorine and carbon
monoxide, when mixed together, will not readily unite, but if a ray of
sunlight falls upon the mixture they combine at once.
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