T.N.T. poisoning and the fate of T.N.T. in the animal body.

Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: T.N.T. poisoning and the fate of T.N.T. in the animal body. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/94 (page 9)
    seven cardinal points were set out and may be said to have served as a basis for the elaboration of later regulations : 1. Cleanliness of premises and person. 2. Alternation of employment, by means of which workers would be alternately on and off handling T.N.T. 8. Adoption of proper costumes, particularly for women. 4. The necessity for adequate washing accommodation. 5. Adequate canteen arrangements. 6. Efficient ventilation. 7. Adequate medical supervision. At the end of September 1916 the position of T.N.T. illness had become much more acute, the reported cases of toxic jaundice rising to 57 with 16 deaths during the months of August and Septem¬ ber; moreover a tendency to decline work in factories where T.N.T. was being handled began to manifest itself among the workers. To cope with this latter menace, which from its effects would be so dangerous to the country, the Minister of Munitions, Mr. Montagu, appointed at the end of October 1916 an Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of Sir (then Dr.) W. M. Fletcher with Mr. Gray Barnett as secretary. This committee met almost daily for a short time. Recommendations were issued to secure clean working and good ventilation and the provision of suitable costumes. A memor¬ andum was also issued setting out in detail the functions of factory medical officers. (Appendix p. 28.) The existing powers of the Ministry of Munitions to enforce regulations were gone into carefully, and on December 22, 1916, Section 85 A.A. was added to the Defence of the Realm Regulations by an Order in Council which gave the Admiralty, the Army Council, and the Ministry of Munitions powers to enforce in any factory any regulation considered necessary in the interests of health. On January 6, 1917, draft regulations prepared by a sub-com¬ mittee were finally approved by the T.N.T. Advisory Committee and submitted to the Minister, Dr. Addison, on their behalf by the chairman with an explanatory letter of January 10, 1917. These rules in an amended form were finally issued on March 30, 1917, with a covering memorandum originally drawn up by the T.N.T. Committee. Feeling that the main work of the T.N.T. Committee had ceased • with the issue of these regulations, the Minister of Munitions, now Mr. Churchill, decided that the functions of the T.N.T. Committee lay now in the field of scientific advice, and a T.N.T. Advisory Committee, consisting of Sir Walter Fletcher, Dr. Collis, Dr. Dale, Dr. Legge, Dr. Moore, Dr. O’Donovan, and Dr. Panton, was con¬ stituted for the initiation or direction of further research work and its application to the practical problems of the Ministry. (2) Technical. An explosive is a substance which on detonation liberates a large volume of gas with great rapidity. The two factors of power and violence are both essential. It is well recognized that petrol in burning gives off more power than is liberated by the detonation of a high