Discussion
The Protection of Capital Ships against Poison Gas
(SEE PAGE 1113, JULY, 1923, PROCEEDINGS)
Lieutenant Commander A. M. Charlton, U. S. Navy. - In considering the protection of machinery compartments against poison gas, Lieutenant Hains makes the rather fanciful suggestion that a system of inner compartments be provided in the engine rooms, motor rooms, etc. The gastight compartment in each space is to be provided with glass windows and have led to it all pipes, valves, switches and levers for the operation all the machinery is a manifest impossibility.
If Lieutenant Hains had had access to a machinery layout of an engine room on the airplane carriers, for instance, before making this suggestion, he would have seen that any idea of a central operating compartment for all the machinery is a manifest impossibility.
In a room one hundred sixteen feet long and thirty-seven feet wide are situated, among other things, two 45,000 H. P. turbo-alternators, each with two main condensers, main circulating pumps, air ejectors and condensate pumps, forced lubrication pumps and oil coolers; three 750 K. W. turbo-generators for excitation and ship's light and power, each with its own condenser circulating pump and vacuum apparatus, boiler feed pumps, fuel oil service pumps, fuel oil recirculating pumps and fuel oil heaters, cut-out valves for boiler, feed water, fuel oil and steam, hundreds of gauges and a switchboard with a multitude of switches. Even to contemplate the bringing together in one station the cut-out and change-over valves and switches for such a machinery plant is absurd on the face of it.
On an electric drive vessel, main turbo-alternators and main motors machinery must have air for cooling; and the boilers must be supplied with air for combustion purposes. All other air furnished to machinery compartments is supplied for the cooling of these spaces on account of heat radiation and to give a fresh supply of oxygen to the personnel.
If the necessity for the vast amounts of air required for cooling the main alternators and motors can be eliminated, all compartments except the boiler rooms may be sealed compartments, with devices installed for purifying and cooling the air and using it over and over. Oxygen may be released from tanks as the air becomes vitiated.
On the airplane carriers, the generators and motors will be fitted with a self-contained ventilating system. This apparatus will force air through the windings of the generators and motors where it will sustain a rise in temperature, due to the heat given off by the windings. The air will then pass through a cooler-a bank of tubes with sea water circulating through it- and thence be turned to the motors and generators again to become heated. This system of air cooling eliminates the necessity for several large holes through the deck for ventilation purposes and materially improves the military efficiency of the vessels. This same type of cooling apparatus· may be used for cooling the air in the remainder of the compartment. The boilers must have a continued supply of oxygen and so cannot be made air- and gas-tight. In these rooms the personnel must wear gas masks. This can be done without materially affecting their efficiency, for with oil-fired boilers the work of the fire room crew is not at all arduous. In this connection it may be of interest to note that Bureau of Engineering is now experimenting with devices which will enable the boilers to be operated without personnel in the firerooms. These devices include feed water regulators, high and low water alarms, fuel oil temperature regulators for the fireroom fuel oil heaters and distant control apparatus for turning on and off the boiler oil burners and the steam valves to the forced draft blowers. The successful development of this apparatus will permit the removal of all personnel from the firerooms or at least of all except one man to act in a supervisory capacity. This man can wear a gas mask without inconvenience or impairment of efficiency.
We thus make all machinery compartments, with the exception of the boiler rooms, of the fully closed type which is comparatively easy to protect.
Another phase of poison gas protection which has given the Department some concern is that against the effect of poison gas upon machinery, especially electrical apparatus. As mustard gas, phosgene, chlorine and other gases have a corrosive effect on metals and will disintegrate ordinary textiles, it has been brought up that these gases might destroy the insulating material on cables, motors and generators with a consequent derangement of their functions. Experiments seem to prove that we have nothing to fear from any concentration of gas which an enemy may be able to lay aboard one of our vessels.
The Protection of Capital Ships Against Poison Gas
(SEE PAGE 1113, JULY, 1923, PROCEEDINGS)
Mr. Godfrey L. Cabot. - I have read with much interest the article by Lieutenant Paul W. Hains, "Protection Against Poison Gas."
I have given much thought to this question, both as a chemist and as an aviator in the United States· Navy at the time of the World War, and I would like to make a few suggestions that I feel sure will receive the support of other chemists, both in the Navy and out of it.
The poison gases are practically all of them heavier than air and, therefore, particularly dangerous in case they should be dropped in the shape of large bombs upon a warship, for they would float downward and it would be a tedious, difficult and dangerous business to get rid of a large amount of poison gas that once got into a warship.
I recommend the carrying of a considerable amount of strong aqua ammonia. The crude aqua ammonia as delivered in carboys is entirely suitable for this purpose and this should be placed in such quarters in the warship as are most likely to be contaminated with poi son gas dropped from above.
Water should, also, be at hand to dilute this aqua ammonia, because otherwise it might itself become a dangerous nuisance. Towels or other cloths drenched in aqua ammonia and hung up in places where the poison gas was found would speedily clear the atmosphere of the poison gas, as chlorine, phosgene or any other acrid gas is readily taken up by ammonia. It would be needful, of course, to have the cloths repeatedly drenched as fast as the ammonia in them was neutralized by the acrid gas and it would be prudent for the personnel to avoid the lower part of the room. If a man fell to the floor under such circumstances, his chance of survival would be pretty small. The top of the room would have more ammonia, which rises. The bottom would have more poison gas, which falls, but, of course, the process of diffusion would ultimately cause a uniform mixture throughout the room.
It seems probable that chlorine gas, due to its cheapness, its availability in practically unlimited quantity and its terrible corrosive properties, will be the gas most used in attacking vessels at anchor in navy yards, canals, rivers and all kinds of waterways connected with shipping, and it seems wise to consider the condition that would then arise and the means of fighting such an attack.
Of course, first and foremost, the most important matter is superiority in the air, for bombing planes can be easily driven away by a superior force of pursuit planes or prevented from flying low enough to deliver their bombs with probability of hitting the mark, but suppose by reason of a fog or other circumstances, bombing planes carrying great quantities of chlorine gas bombs, were able to come down close to vessels or waterways containing a large number of vessels and drop large bombs containing each one or two tons of chlorine gas, with a small explosive charge to cause them to open up on impact ; the liquefied chlorine gas thus set free would immediately part of it evaporate and if the quantity were very large, there would be a considerable residuum that by the evaporation of a portion would be chilled below the boiling point of chlorine gas, which is 33.6 Centigrade below the freezing point at atmospheric pressure.
This liquefied chlorine gas might flow clown below and get into the lower parts of a warship, killing everybody that was exposed to its effect for any considerable time and speedily driving all the personnel that were not killed out of the ship. If the gas were allowed to remain long within the battleship, it would corrode all metal surfaces and organic tissues, paper, cloth and to a certain extent even wood. It would have to be fought with lime, with ammonia and with water and it would certainly be a very terrible thing if one or two tons of liquefied chlorine gas were dropped upon the deck of a battleship in such a way that a considerable portion of it flowed downward into the bowels of the ship.
It might not be amiss to have small portable engines containing aqua ammonia that could be thrown by hose into any place where chlorine gas was present. There are many other substances which will take up poison gas, such as· caustic soda and caustic potash, but the great advantage of lime and ammonia over other alkalies for this purpose is that a surplus of the alkali is much less dangerous and annoying and, of course, in all such operations there would be a surplus of alkali in one place and a surplus of the acrid fumes in another.
Suppose, now, a number of large bombs containing chlorine gas were to strike into the River Thames or the Kiel Canal or some crowded navy yard or dock where there were a great number of vessels in a small space, here again you would have an immediate eruption of a great quantity of the gas and also a great quantity of the liquefied gas would immediately go to the bottom of the water where it would very speedily evaporate, bubble to the surface and increase the quantity of liquefied chloride gas lying near the surface of the water and corrode everything that was corrodible.
Here, again, it would seem to me that a machine for spraying ammonia or a thin paste of hydrate of lime and water such as obtained by slacking lime with a great surplus of water, would be the most effective way of fighting this evil and it would be essential that such spraying machines should emit a fine spray, particularly in the case of the emulsion of lime, for otherwise a good deal of the lime water would fall into the sea without slackening the equivalent amount of gas.
You will note that my though is to supplement the admirable paper of Lieutenant Hains, which gives a very well thought out description of the means of protecting the personnel, by means for treating the problem as a whole, and, in particular, removing the excessively corrosive gases before they have done irreparable damage to ship and war materials.
Let us, lastly, consider the situation in the open sea. Here, of course, the vessel would immediately get in motion if attacked by poison gas and a means of dispersing the gas with an air blast from any point to which it had fallen as rapidly as it fell, might be very helpful, for the rapid motion over the water would disperse the gas if once it could be got away from the vessel and here, again, where the gas very likely would only be in the form of a screen, which means, of course, greatly diluted, cloths wet with some alkali such as ammonia or carbonate of soda, would be very effective in the confined spaces within the vessel. As far as the outside of the vessel was concerned, the chief remedy would be to run away from the gas as quickly as possible, while applying the personal protection so carefully described by Lieutenant Hains.
With regard to the suggestion of carrying tanks of oxygen, this is a reasonable proposition for submarines, but would be needlessly expensive for other vessels where an adequate supply of air is always within reach and can be blown in where needed with proper blowers.
The normal amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is four parts per 10,000. The limit beyond which carbon dioxide should not be allowed to accumulate in theaters' or lecture-rooms, is 16 parts per 10,000 and if this is exceeded there is an appreciable tendency to drowsiness on the part of those exposed. One .half of one per cent may be permissible in a submarine, but is a far greater portion of carbonic acid gas than should be permitted in the living quarters of a warship.
Common Sense Training With the Service Pistol
(See Page 1309, August, 1923, PROCEEDINGS)
Lieutenant Commander E. E. Wilson, U. S. Navy. - The interesting and instructive article by Comdr. Baum is a direct challenge to standard methods of training that no old timer in the shooting game can allow to pass unanswered. As a member of the board which compiled "Small Arms Firing Regulations 1923" I feel it my responsibility to clear up some of the impress ions which may be obtained from this paper.
The cry for "service conditions" shooting is one that a rises periodically, and periodically dies. Plausible at first blush, it is ultimately proven to be unsound. One must learn the fundamentals before he undertakes the advanced practices and "service firing" is certainly advanced firing. In great guns we don't go to Division Practice until we have qualified at Short Range Battle Practice. No more should we go to "Pootung" until we have been to Guantanamo. The trouble now is we lack even the time for the fundamentals.
A sharp line must be drawn between target shooting and firing under service conditions. One of the troubles in the shooting game is the desire to combine the two. The incentive of target shooting is the competitive feature. The moment the element of chance is injected, as it always is when we attempt to simulate service conditions, then the competitive feature is lost and interest lags. The history of the National Rifle Matches is replete with the failures of novel matches because they were dependent more upon luck than skill. The fundamentals must be taught by straight out and out "artificial" target firing. Once this is done further training should be had, and the novel ideas described in the paper under discussion are an excellent example of the methods to be used. The board for revising the Small Arms Firing Regulations recognized this when it made the requirements for marksman and sharpshooter straight target firing and those for expert riflemen, an adaptation of target firing to service conditions. In the expert's course, the "slow fire" work is intended to simulate sniping; the "skirmish," the normal attack, and "surprise fire," the situation of a sentry whose beat is suddenly crossed by an enemy.
The "squeeze" which is the very basic principle of all shooting, comes in for ridicule in this paper. Important as the squeeze is in rifle fire, it is even more so in pistol fire. The "let-off" is everything. The paper gives the impression that the squeeze is' a slow process. Nothing could be further from the truth. One can fire five well aimed shots in eight seconds with the old service revolver, single-action and squeeze every shot. There are three kinds of squeeze, slow, quick and quicker. The Small Arms Firing Regulations recognized this and required three speed for qualification: slow fire, timed fire and rapid fire. They distinctly state that rapid fire involves the same principles as slow fire except that all functions are performed more quickly. When an expert takes a long time to get off a shot he does so in order to insure exact aiming, not exact squeezing. In the International Match last year at Milan, Italy, Walter Stokes, World's Champion, took fifty minutes to the last two shots and won the championship with them. He probably wouldn't waste so much time in a gun fight but I would back him any time against a "Pootung" shooter who had not first learned to squeeze. Anyone can point a pistol just as he can point his finger, but he can't shoot the pistol until he overcomes the tendency to yank. This requires much training in fundamentals on the target range where the effect of the yank can he readily seen on a target.
The comparison of a service pistol with a sawed-off shot gun is certainly not a fair one. With pistol against pistol, however, things are different. The relative importance of accuracy and rapidity is laid down in great gun firing. The score varies inversely a the time and directly as the square of the number of hits. This is a rational rule and applies just as well to pistols. Accuracy is a result of fundamental training and so is rapidity. Let us by all means have more training along the lines indicated in this paper but let us first qualify at least, in the fundamentals.