Poem ~ How to Make a Gas Mask - Thursday, 29 April 1915

Source: File: Two types of gas makes to make at home. jpg. The Daily Telegraph, [online] P.3. Col.3-4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11561784/Daily-Telegraph-April-29-1915.html [Accessed: 29 April 2015].

An odd thing occurs in war,  

When an appeal is made,

For households to produce

Vital soldier's equipment.

The War Office had issued

Requests for protections,

To be made against new

German weapons of war.

Two types of respirators,

Might easily be produced -

An oblong pad may make

A mouth and nostril cover.

3 in by ¾ in. by 5 ½ in. 

Absorbent cotton Wool –

Bleached, covered by 3

Layers of cotton gauze.

Then a band will hold this

About the head, to keep

In place - made of ½ in.
Cotton elastic 16 in. long.

Alternatively, comes the

Makeshift idea, of double

Stockinette, 9 ½ in. long and

3 ½ in. wide narrow to 2 ½ in.

  

Attached at each end will be

Thick plaited worsted 5 in.,

Attached at each end, to loop

Over the ears to stop all gas.

Illustrations were provided

Of a soldier, wearing each

Alternatives for the home

Industrial gas mask makers.

All seems a little amateurish -

For almost a privately funded

War - furthermore an address

Is given to send in batches.

Requests for 100 of homemade

Respirators, to ordnance officer.

All having little, or no chance,

Of saving lives of their soldiers.

So what about eye protection?
Illustration A is a mock up made

By Ms. Boroughs And Wellcome.
Picture B gives stockinette look.

All being the unofficial image

With B possibly being marginally

Better fashion, until experiments

Decide on lack of effectiveness.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. An Appeal for Respirators. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 29 Apr. P.3. Col.3-4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11561784/Daily-Telegraph-April-29-1915.html [Accessed: 29 April 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 29 April 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11561784/Daily-Telegraph-April-29-1915.html

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