Zelinskiy Kummant

The Zelinsky-Kummant gas mask is the world's first gas mask [1] , which has the ability to absorb a wide range of chemical warfare agents , developed in 1915 by the Russian chemist Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky and technologist of the Triangle plant M.I. Kummant .

Later, the design of the Zelinsky-Kummant gas mask was improved by I. D. Avalov and put into mass production (about 1 million copies were ordered for the army). After the beginning of the use of this model of gas mask by units of the Russian Imperial Army participating in the First World War (1914-1918) , human losses from enemy gases decreased sharply [3] .

History

Wet masks” (bandages soaked in a solution of hyposulfite , sodium phenolate , methenamine , etc.) were based on the chemical binding of toxic substances and were widely used on the fronts of the First World War.  However, in addition to the obvious difficulties with use in combat conditions, even when using “universal impregnation” they helped only against a narrow range of gases (of which several dozen were already used by 1915).  Therefore, chemists on the warring sides actively searched for nonspecific adsorbents with the greatest absorption capacity. The Germans used kieselguhr with pumice , and specialists from The Saint Petersburg Mining University  used a mixture of slaked lime and caustic soda. After numerous experiments, Nikolai Zelinsky proposed using activated birch or linden charcoal .

Already in the summer of 1916, several hundred thousand soldiers were fumigated , and in total the army received 5,030,660 gas masks, and since the spring of 1917 there have been no other gas masks in the combat units of the active army. But the troops continued to suffer significant losses from chemical weapons: units on the front line received gas masks without a supply, and then, when replacing the dead and wounded with reinforcements, new arrivals to the unit were not provided with RPE  .

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