We have an old gas mask that was among some items of German military equipment at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, which were given to it in 1919 by the War Trophies Committee.
The gas mask dates from four years earlier when the German army used lethal gases as a weapon for the first time on a large scale. British gas attacks followed in retaliation a few months later.
A fairly effective countermeasure against the use of chlorine gas was a damp cloth to cover the nose and mouth, but as more toxic gases such as phosgene were employed, more sophisticated protection was needed.
The Germans issued gas masks made from rubberised cloth that covered the face, with goggles for the eyes.
It was fitted with a metal cartridge that contained a filter made from a layer of diatomite (a soft sedimentary rock) treated with a potash solution and powdered with active charcoal.
The design was constantly improved: the rubberised cloth was replaced with goat’s leather and a more active charcoal was added to the filter.
Our mask had suffered from bad storage conditions, causing a lot of the metal parts to corrode and leaving it deformed.
Hana Bristow, a conservation student from Durham University, cleaned and reshaped the mask. Most impressively, she used small, heated cotton bags filled with sand to plasticise the rubber on the cloth.
Bringing the mask back to its almost original shape revealed stamps and marks that helped us find out more about the manufacturing process. The cartridge, for example, was stamped with “AGFA 15.9.15”, indicating the date it was produced by the company better known for making photographic equipment.
The mask makes me shudder as it represents the deaths of millions of people but, as conservators, we look beyond these feelings to understand what an object is made from, how it deteriorated and what we can do to prevent further damage to it.
Sarah Klopf is a conservator at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter
The gas mask dates from four years earlier when the German army used lethal gases as a weapon for the first time on a large scale. British gas attacks followed in retaliation a few months later.
A fairly effective countermeasure against the use of chlorine gas was a damp cloth to cover the nose and mouth, but as more toxic gases such as phosgene were employed, more sophisticated protection was needed.
The Germans issued gas masks made from rubberised cloth that covered the face, with goggles for the eyes.
It was fitted with a metal cartridge that contained a filter made from a layer of diatomite (a soft sedimentary rock) treated with a potash solution and powdered with active charcoal.
The design was constantly improved: the rubberised cloth was replaced with goat’s leather and a more active charcoal was added to the filter.
Our mask had suffered from bad storage conditions, causing a lot of the metal parts to corrode and leaving it deformed.
Hana Bristow, a conservation student from Durham University, cleaned and reshaped the mask. Most impressively, she used small, heated cotton bags filled with sand to plasticise the rubber on the cloth.
Bringing the mask back to its almost original shape revealed stamps and marks that helped us find out more about the manufacturing process. The cartridge, for example, was stamped with “AGFA 15.9.15”, indicating the date it was produced by the company better known for making photographic equipment.
The mask makes me shudder as it represents the deaths of millions of people but, as conservators, we look beyond these feelings to understand what an object is made from, how it deteriorated and what we can do to prevent further damage to it.
Sarah Klopf is a conservator at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter
