The earliest gases were derived from the work Fritz Haber did, which was designed to synthesize ammonia from the nitrogen in the air. This work also led to the development of synthetic fertilizers which greatly helped the agricultural expansion of the twentieth century. Haber received the Nobel Prize for this work on ammonia in 1918. But by that time he had proceeded to the development of chemical weapons for use by the German Army against its opponents in the First World War.
Haber's first "war gas" was chlorine, which he installed in the German trenches in 1915 andreleased when the wind was blowing towards the enemy trenches, thus getting around the prohibition on "projectiles" or gases that were thrown at the enemy in containers. In April 1915 almost 6,000 cylinders of chlorine gas were simultaneously released, and 150 tons (136,200 kg) of the poison spread along 4.3 miles (7,000 m) of the front line within about 10 minutes. Soldiers from France and Algeria breathed the gas and began to choke. This first gas attack caused 15,000 Allied casualties, of whom 5,000 died. Haber returned to his family in Berlin but on the night of May 1, 1915, his wife shot herself because of her opposition to his work.
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