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Title (Dublin Core)
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The Canary Birds of War
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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The Canary Birds of War
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Caption 1: Some battle gasses, deadly as they are, cannot be even smelled. But the canary drops over just the same
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Caption 2: Long before a miner feels the effect of gas in a mine a canary bird suffocates. That's why canaries are used as gas-alarm
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Caption 3: Canaries were drafted for service in the British army soon after the first gas cloud was launched
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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THOUSANDS of canary heroines
were called to do their bits in this
war as gas scouts in mine, and sap,
and grim replacement.
As these feathered auxiliaries, although
native to the Madeiras, have been bred
by myriads in the Hartz Mountains, the
Germans can draft all they need. The
Allies, however, who have used them
most, have drawn upon the scantier
supply at Norwich, England, and the
surrounding towns. General Pershing
issued a call for three thousand, and part
of the levy was met in this country.
Miss Mary Garden, the opera singer,
commissioned Royal Dixon, the natu-
ralist, to rear several hundred for service
“Over There.” And other Americans sent
consignments.
Only the female canary is fitted for
military purposes, for she, not being a
songstress, is not likely to betray her
presence. It is only by accident that the
male of the species gets to the firing line.
“Billy, of the Trenches” is a rare bird.
One of the pathet-
ic incidents of the
war is centred about
such a feathered
minstrel who in
some way escaped
from his cage in
the depths of a mili-
tary mine. He
alighted on a bush
in No Man’s Land
and forthwith
swelled his throat
in a burst of melody.
His roundelay re-
vealed an important
operation to the ene-
my and orders were
given to fire upon
his refuge. He con-
tinued to sing, all
unconscious of his
death warrant, and
it was not until the
bush was blown up by a shell, that his
blithe minstrelsy was stilled.
The chief war use of the canaries is for
the detection of the dangerous gases
which form in all kinds of confined spaces
after heavy explosions. The small cages
containing them will be found therefore
in saps, in the galleries of military mines
which are being driven under the enemy,
in concealed, well-camouflaged machine-
gun emplacements, and in deep pits
where mortars and heavy artillery are
hidden.
In this respect, the canary serves the
same purpose as she has in the American
mines for years, where small birds and
animals had long been utilized for the de-
tection of the deadly fire damps and the
after damps, the carbon monoxide and
carbon dioxide which have cost so many
hundreds of lives in the collieries of the
United States. In fact, the term “gassed”
was used here long before it became a
common expression of the European
War. The effect of carbon monoxide is
about the sameupon
the human heart as
are the bromine and
chlorine and other
diabolical mixtures
introduced by the
Germans. Some of
these compounds
can scarcely be de-
tected by smell, or
sight, but the carboa
vapors which follow
explosions in closed
spaces are always the
invisible and insidious
foes of man. To the
presence of these the
canary is peculiarly
susceptible. Hun-
dreds of the birds
in the stores of fan-
ciers have succumb-
ed to coal gas from
a stove.
George A. Burrell, of the
United States Bureau of
Mines, locked himself up
several years ago with various
winged creatures, in an air-
tight chamber having a capac-
ity of eighty cubic feet. He
then had enough carbon
monoxide turned into the
compartment to make one
quarter of one per cent. of
the atmosphere enclosed.
Within a minute the canary
birds were in spasms and in
three they dropped in a faint
from their perches. Pigeons
withstood the stifling atmos-
phere for eleven minutes.
Chickens took no notice of it.
The scientist was forced to
get out after twenty minutes.
He suffered for three days
from a severe headache.
Miners when on rescues bent carry with
them small cages containing canary birds.
They also have masks and on their backs
are tanks filled with compressed oxygen.
They have ample warning of the presence
of damp and can soon protect themselves
when they see their winged monitors
show signs of asphyxiation. The soldier
must act more quickly with his gas
mask. The earlier forms of this protector,
such as the Germans used, could be ad-
justed in about twenty seconds. The
new British type can be donned in three.
Just as in some galleries of a colliery
there may be explosions which bring on
the rush of the unseen afterdamps, so
in the branches of military mines driven
for the purpose of hoisting the foe sky-
ward, the firing of heavy charges is like-
ly to send the carbon gases back into the
network of tunnels. |
In the earlier stages of the art of choking
one’s foes todeath by means of
poison gases, stories frequently
came to this country of the
use of canaries for the de- ,
tection of the approach of
the banks of vapor, launched
on the favoring breeze. As
the gases were usually visi-
ble and traveled so quickly
that they were overwhelm-
ing to those not masked
against them, the use of
canaries for work in the
open was hardly practicable.
‘Where heavy gases traveled
slowly and gradually sank
in ditches or open cuts or
communication trenches, it
would be possible for the
canary, so sensitive that it
succumbs to a mere trace of
injurious fumes, to betray
the presence of a diffused gas.
Soldiers often are apprised of the
launching of a gas attack by the antics
of small birds over the enemy lines. The
lungs of a bird occupy a relatively larger
space in the body than do the respiratory
organs of most creatures, and although
the canary is regarded as the most sensi-
tive of the avine race to atmospheric
pollution, other winged detectors have
their value.
The military art develops over night,
and the launching of gas attacks depen-
dent upon the direction of the wind is
giving way to the shell method. The
gas shells are cylinders filled with com-
pressed gas and provided with detonators
which cause them to explode on impact.
Such experts as Captain Noel Heaton,
of the British War Mission, now in this
country, testify to the extraordinary
progress being made in the hurling of
destructive vapors in containers from
mortars. Soldiers these days have to
keep their gas masks on most of the time
during an engagement.
Fortunately the same science which in-
vented the gas bombs also invented a
a method of protecting the human organ-
ism against the injurious, often lethal
effect of breathing these poisonous gases.
The modern gas masks are efficient in
nearly all cases.
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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John Walker Harrington (writer)
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British War Mission (photo)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1918-08
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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258-260
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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. 93, n. 2, 1918
