Chemical Warfare Service

Born in Chicago, William Weaver Hartman was educated at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, completing his courses in 1918. From June to December 1918 he worked at the Bureau of Mines in the Chemical Warfare Service, World War I, Washington, D.C., and as a chemist for Morris and Co., Union Stock Yards, Chicago, from July to October 1919. 

Chemical Warfare Service, Special Projects Division, Ibid., 107, 475 (1946). 

Brophy, Leo P, Wyndham D. Miles, and Rexmond C. Cohrane. The Chemical Warfare Service From Laboratory to Field. Washington, DC Government Printing Office, 1968, pp. 55-61. 

The report discusses the importance of chemistry in medicine, the need for cooperative research in this area, the lack of adequate facilities in the United States, the superior situation in other countries, and so on. No specific solution is proposed, however, just a plea for cooperative research (73). The efforts of the Chemical Warfare Service, with which several members of the Committee had been associated, were pointed to as an example of productive cooperative research between physical and biological scientists (as discussed by Daniel Jones in his paper in this volume). What happened to the proposed research institute At... 

Project-research, a method of organizing research by stipulation of projects and allocation of these to individuals or teams of scientists in separate laboratories, was developed in the United States during World War I in research on chemical warfare. This research was initially conducted largely by academic chemists as volunteers and later by them in the Research Division of the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army. Many of the leading American chemists in the 1920s shared the common experience of research on chemical warfare. The model of project-research was tried by the leaders of the division of chemistry and chemical technology of the National Research Council in order to allocate specific research problems and foster cooperative research after the war. 

The experience of participation in project-research was shared by nearly 2000 members of the Research Division of the Chemical Warfare Service. Some of the most influential chemists of the country, in addition to pharmacologists and physiologists, were among this group, and after the war they rapidly returned to their former positions in government, industry, and higher education. They had learned the value of project-research in promoting... 

The American Chemical Society took pride in the role it had played in the recruitment of chemists for research on chemical warfare and it was largely responsible for the publication of the results of their work. A series of articles appeared in the widely read Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry designated as "Contributions from the Chemical Warfare Service," summarizing the techniques and findings useful to the wider study of chemistry (39). When the War Department attempted to abolish the Chemical Warfare Service in 1919, the ACS cooperated in a campaign of publicity about the work of the Chemical Warfare Service and contributed in a major way to its survival (40). Many chemists who formerly had worked in the Research Division delivered public addresses and wrote letters in support of the continuance of the Chemical Warfare Service to newspapers and to members of Congress. 

Reid, E. Emmet. "History of Offense Research, John Hopkins University Station", Historical Report No. H-149, Chemical Warfare Service, Edgewood Arsenal Technical Library. 

Conant, James B. "Progress Report, Organic Section, Feb. 18, 1918" enclosed in a letter from G. Burrell to W. McPherson, Feb. 26, 1918, Records of the Chemical Warfare Service, Record Group 175, National Archives. 

The Chemical Corps originally established the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) in 1918, motivated by the horrors of gas warfare that they witnessed during WW I. In 1922, it created a Medical Research Division. Its mission was to defend against chemical agents. 

By April 1915, Germany introduced gas warfare. In 1917, the Secretary of the Interior charged the Bureau of Mines with working on gas problems, and the Bureau engaged the Chemistry Committee of the National Research Council (NRC) to help initiate the work. The NRC Committee along with others in academe and the chemical industry constituted what ultimately became the Chemical Warfare Service of the U.S. Army. The gases and protective equipment were produced at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland and New York City, respectively (Skolnik Reese, 1976). 

This led to cooperation between the Army Chemical Warfare Service and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute to concentrate on the organization of industrial techniques... 

Chloropicrin. Median lethal concentration for mice 10-min exposure. U.S. War Department, Chemical Warfare Service, Edge-wood Arsenal, Md. 1942. 8 p. 

Human experimentation appears to have been an integral part of the history of the U.S. Army chemical warfare (CW) research efforts until its suspension in 1975. On June 28, 1918, the President directed the establishment of the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS). 

Tire US Chemical Warfare Service produced four types of incendiary bombs during WWII. 

M. Cutler et al, Preliminary Survey on Incendiary Pellet Warheads for Guided Missiles, Guided Missile Rept No 7 (Dec 1948), Tech Command, Army Chem Center, Md 14a) L. Finkelstein A.E. Gaul, Incendiaries, Vol 18, History of Research Development of Chemical Warfare Service in World War 11, The Chemical Corps Association, Washington, DC, Reinhold,... 

Chemical Warfare Service, 38, 1295 (1944). Brief history and description of modern incendiaries... 

W. C. Kabrich, 39, 2649 (1945). Research in the Technical Division of Chemical Warfare Service in incendiaries, etc... 

Explosives , US Chemical Warfare Service Field Lab Memo 4-6-2 (1944), US Office of Technical Services PB Report 11544 5a) Lt Col... 

Fog. Any heterogeneous suspension of droplets of water or other liquid substances in a gas which disturbs its transparency may be called a fog. If the particles in suspension are solid, the fog is usually called smoke or "smog . In Chemical Warfare Service, the term "Smoke is used for both liquid and solid suspensions... 

Chemical Warfare Service, (1944) Thermite, Plain, Incendiary, C.W.S. Formula No. D-l-1, Aug 19, 1944 (C.W.S. Formerly Technical Command, Edgewood Arsenal, Sept. 01, 1945) Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, USA. 

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