Train and Tent Baths in Use by the Russian Army
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Train and Tent Baths in Use by the Russian Army
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Train and Tent Baths in Use by the Russian Army
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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Filth vermin and disease are
among the most deadly foes to
which an army is subjected. This is
proved by the wars of the last century
in all of which far more soldiers died
from epidemics than from wounds.
The combatants of the present day are
more fortunate in these respects than
those of the past, for owing to the
great advance in sanitary science much
better hygienic regulations are en-
forced. Many problems, though, are
not yet solved, one being that of the
personal cleanliness of the men,
Among the various methods brought
forward to meet this difficulty two of
the most ingenious have been devised
by the Russians, namely, train and 3
tent baths. The bath train consists of
a series of cars, one for dressing, one
for disinfecting the clothing with
formalin at a temperature of two hun-
dred and twelve degrees, another for
the baths, still another for putting on
clean underwear and the disinfected
uniforms, and a final one for rest and
refreshment. The equipment of such
a train costs about twenty-five thou-
sand dollars to thirty-five thousand
dollars and baths can be given to from
two thousand to three thousand men a
day at a monthly expense of about five
thousand dollars.
The tent has the advantage over the
train that it can be set up at the actual
front. It can be raised and struck
easily, the equipment can be separated
into parts not weighing over six hun-
dred pounds, which can be transported
on two-wheeled carts; the interior is
protected from cold, and one hundred
men per hour can bathe, have their
hair cut and their clothes disinfected.
There are two concentric tents sup-
ported by the same center-pole. The
inner tent forms the steam-chamber,
where fifty men at a time can have a
steam bath. The circular corridor be-
tween the two tents is divided into
five compartments, two dressing
rooms, a mechanical hair-cutting sec-
tion, a laundry for towels, etc., and a
disinfecting chamber with four disin-
fecting appliances. The men
enter the first dressing room,
Rat pass their tagged clothing into
the disinfecting chamber and enter the
hair-cutting section where one man's
hair is cut per minute, and then go into
the steam chamber. The temperature
here is one hundred and twenty to
one hundred and fifty degrees; there
are hot and cold water cocks, pails for
the men to use, and benches—not tubs.
After half an hour the men enter the
second dressing room and receive their
disinfected clothing at the window. Be-
sides the heat supplied by the various
appliances, four stoves warm the exte-
rior corridor.
While the expense of maintaining this
institution may seem high, it is more
than offset by the advantages derived in
the way of sanitation.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1916-03
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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370
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 88, n. 3, 1916
