German munitions

Hellraann studied German munitions workers and reported 20 deaths from cancer among 157 former workmen. It is not clear whether these were included in the 245 of Weiss and Weiss. 

Other German Incendiary Shells. German munitions also included incendiary core fragmentation shells. These incorporated a central flash tube which ignited the incendiary filling of each fragment prior to detonation. The shell... 

Pulmonary fibrosis is the most commonly reported respiratory effect observed in workers exposed to fine aluminum dust (pyropowder), alumina (aluminum hydroxide), or bauxite. However, conflicting reports are available on the fibrogenic potential of aluminum. In some of the cases, the fibrosis was attributed to concomitant exposure to other chemicals. For example, pulmonary fibrosis has been observed in a number of bauxite workers (Devuyst et al. 1986 Gaffuri et al. 1985 Jephcott 1948 Musk et al. 1980 Riddell 1948 Shaver 1948) in these workers, it is very likely that there was simultaneous exposure to silica and that the latter was the causative agent rather than the aluminum. Some of the earliest cases of pulmonary fibrosis were reported in German munition workers exposed to pyropowder. 

The points of departure whence chemical munitions were transported for underwater disposal were numerous land storage sites Chapaevsk [8], Leonidovka [1], Gomiy [12], Obozerskiy (Arkhangelsk Oblast) and so on. The nomenclature mainly consisted of Soviet munitions however, a considerable share of it comprised Soviet-German munitions (i.e. those captured in Germany and included in the stocks of the Red Army). Transhipment to ships was carried out at the respective ports ... 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries private firms dominated the German munitions industry. State-owned powder plants, on the contrary, played only a minor role within the industry. Indeed, if measured by their output, such plants produced between a third or a quarter of the guncotton powder produced by private powder plants during the war, and only about five per cent of the nitroglycerine produced towards the end of the war. ... 

When the Second Reich was founded in 1871, the munitions industry was extremely prosperous in Germany for two reasons. First, the wars against Austria, Denmark and France, by increasing the demand for munitions, had led to an enormous expansion of the industry. Second, the foundation of the Reich was followed by a rapid process of industrialization that required more explosives for coalmines, quarries and tunnel construction. German munitions and explosives corporations therefore shifted their production from the needs of the military to the demands of other industries. 

During the First World War, Germany s powder plants were barely able to produce the amount of munitions required. A major problem arose from the lack of raw materials and components. Germany had no natural deposits of some of the materials, and was cut off from suppliers. Therefore, it had to find substitutes and synthetic processes, of which the Haber-Bosch process is perhaps the most famous. For example, Germany used coal for the production of toluol and phenol, and potatoes for the production of alcohol. Saltpetre — an essential raw material for the production of explosives — was not naturally available in Germany, and had to be imported. During the war the lack of saltpetre became a major constraint on German munitions production. 

After the end of the war, munitions machinery was appropriated by the Allies, plants were dismantled, and a large part of the German munitions industry was handed over to the newly-founded Polish state. At Kirchmoser, all machines were sent to France, Belgium, and Serbia, and all buildings were to be destroyed, except the power station. However, in April 1919, all the state-owned powder plants were transferred to the responsibility of the Treasury, and in November, the National Assembly of the Weimar republic decided that they should be adapted to civil production. Accordingly, in 1920, the Kirchmoser plant was given to the Ministry of Transport, and to the newly-founded Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Rail). 

With a slightly smaller average of twenty-two reports per quarter, Nicolardot s laboratory work on German munitions was less regular, but had nearly the opposite evolution - a long plateau from the second quarter of 1917 to the first quarter of 1918, then a fall. So, from one-quarter of all reports at the end of 1916, it rose to half in the first six months of 1917, and three-fifths (62 per cent) in the last six months of 1917, but declined to twenty-three per cent in 1918, when studies... 

Even at the peak of the LSTA s work on German munitions, these did not represent more than one-third of its activity - only eleven of the laboratory s thirty-two reports in June 1917. The LSTA issued daily assessments that included analyses of German metals and alloys. Every quarter, at the end of the third month, it gave a synthesis of its work in each field. ... 

Analytical work is much aggravated by the different states of preservation of the chemical agents inside and outside of the container walls and by the fact that the assortment includes chemical munitions captured from the Allies as well as German munitions. Nevertheless, because of other priorities, little basic research has been done. Analytical work has been mainly confined to determination of total arsenic, water soluble arsenic, and residual mustard (i.e., that does not pour out). 

Holdermann (8), pp. 136-137. When Bosch remarked, When the supplies of Chilean nitrate are gone, we are finished, the ministry s officers replied, But we have the large potassium deposits at Stassfurt That the men responsible for German munitions supply were unaware of the difference between KNO3 and KCl is incredible. 

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