Gas masks were born with the killing of chemical weapons. In the early days of World War I, there was no good way to protect against poison gas, and the protective measures were very crude. When the Canadian army was fighting against the Germans, they urinated on their clothes when chlorine bombs hit, and then soaked them in urine. Cover your mouth and nose with clothing to prevent inhalation of chlorine gas. In 1912, an African American Garrett A. Morgan invented one and obtained a patent in 1914. However, its protective capabilities were still very limited and it was mainly used to block the irritation of smoke.
There is another story about the birth of gas masks: In World War I, the German army used chlorine gas at the Battle of Ypres in April 1915, poisoning more than 5,000 soldiers of the British and French coalition forces. die. A large number of wild animals around the battlefield also died due to poisoning, but the wild boar was unharmed. Experts conducted on-site inspections and research and found that when wild boars smell a strong and pungent smell, they instinctively dig their mouths into the ground and bury their long noses under the loose soil. The soil plays a role in filtering and adsorbing poisonous gases. People were inspired by this, using the shape of a pig's mouth and imitating loose soil to use porous materials to absorb and adsorb poisons