War Gas Smelling Kit

[Syrinx]

Hello i am a new member and very new to collecting.I have just recently gone through some of my grandfathers items from when he was in the war and i came across a wood box with 4 vials in it.It is labeled War Gas Smelling kit on the front and a label on the bottom saying prepared by department of munitions and supply dominion government ottawa canada by gelatin products limited. I was just curious as to the use and function of this item .......i will post pictures later today once i get my hands on a camera

[GasMasksUK]

Hi, I used to have one of these kits in my collection however in the past while I've been selling things off and that went a long time ago The idea behind these kits was to teach civilians, anyone involved in the military and civil defence how to recognise a potential gas attack by smell. A lot was done in the ways of gas protection during the Second World War as the horrors that gas caused during the First World War was a very well known fact. I'm not too sure what the contents of the vials actually are, whether they are a small sample of the gas in liquid form or just something that smells like it.

Hopefully this helps

Thanks

Danny

[big ned]

Hi there,

Sounds like a gas 'Sniff Kit'. These were 4 or 5 bottles of liquid that gave off a smell of different gases that had previously been used in WW1 which were primarily designed for the teaching of civil defence/ ARP wardens.

The small bottles, or vials, contained a harmless liquid that smelt like the gas in question and bore a label that described the symptons and treatment and neutralization of each gas relevant to their respective containers.

The commonest poison gases replicated were, i think, mustard gas, phosgene gas, chloropicric gas, lewisite and tear gas.

Regards, Ned.

[Syrinx]

here are the pics of the kit

[jimpy]

Hi there,

Sounds like a gas 'Sniff Kit'. These were 4 or 5 bottles of liquid that gave off a smell of different gases that had previously been used in WW1 which were primarily designed for the teaching of civil defence/ ARP wardens.

The small bottles, or vials, contained a harmless liquid that smelt like the gas in question and bore a label that described the symptons and treatment and neutralization of each gas relevant to their respective containers.

The commonest poison gases replicated were, i think, mustard gas, phosgene gas, chloropicric gas, lewisite and tear gas.

Regards, Ned.

Like the man said!

Spot on again Ned

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[Syrinx]

thx for all the info guys it is very much appreciated.