AMERICAN PROTOTYPE GAS MASK., MAXWELL, GEORGE ST. MAUR, Dr. 1860-1933.

Prototype gas mask. [Washington: c.1922.]

MAXWELL, GEORGE ST. MAUR, Dr. 1860-1933. Prototype gas mask. [Washington: c.1922.] A prototype of a gas mask for the use of US troops. The mask made of leather and cloth with a exhalation valve, with double-glazed eye holes, strapped to the head, the cloth covered tube extending from the exhalation valve down to the gas filter canister and air intake, the canister carried at the waist on a khaki belt. Length 446 inches (1160 mm).
Provenance: George St. Maur Maxwell I; by descent.

Dr Maxwell was born in Louisville Kentucky, studied at MIT in Boston, and as a natural inventor started designing car parts, for which he had 30 patents. During the Great War he put his skills to work in the Ordnance Bureau of the War dept, and there he developed numerous military devices, including a range finder and shell loader, and the Maxwell chemical warfare mortar which became standard issue at the front. He had over 100 military patents to his name. This new version of the gas mask was not developed until after the Great War, and improved on the general military standard, with double glazed eye pieces and a slimmer less bulky chemical canister which filtered out the chlorine or other gases. It never went into production.