Chlorine

Symbol: Cl
Atomic number: 17
Atomic weight: 35.4527
Density (at 0°C with 101,325 pascals): 3.214 g/L
Melting point: -101.5°C
Boiling point: -34.04°C
Valence: -1, +1, +3, +5, +7
Ground state electron configuration: [Ne]3s²3p⁵

Previous Sulfur---Argon Next
To the Periodic Table

How to Manufacture Chlorine Gas

A friend of mine was describing how he used to obtain Chlorine gas for use in manufacturing potassium chloride which he used to to all sorts of fun things, like making c4 and rocket engines.

All you have to do is go to your local convenience store and purchase chlorine bleach and drano. Now, find an empty glass or plastic vessel that can be stoppered with a hose, pour the bleach in until the vessel is about ¼ full, then add an equal amount of drano and quickly stopper the vessel.

The chemical reaction is quite simple, and without going into specifics the drano-fu knocks a chlorine ion off of the bleach molocule and the free chlorine ions combine to form Cl₂: chlorine gas.

You can take your hose and use the jet of chlorine gas with whatever you like. You could lead the hose into another stoppered vessel, although you may find the gas is difficult to store.

Be careful! This stuff can be dangerous!

How does Chlorine gas kill a person?
First the gas seeps to the bottom of the lungs and cannot be exhaled because it is heavier than oxygen. It then reacts with the water in the lungs. This produces Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) and Chlorine Hydroxide (ClHO).
Cl₂ + H₂O -> HCl + ClOH
These chemicals destroy the respiratory organs and condemn those effected to a slow, suffocating death over a span of four or five weeks.
Chlorine gas is denser than air, a result, soldiers protected themselves from the gas by getting to the highest ground possible (ie, not the trenches). Unfortunately, this exposed them to enemy fire.

How was the gas dispersed?
Initially, it was released from gas cylinders, however this could prove dangerous for forces using the gas, if the winds were to shift. This problem was overcome in 1916 when heavy artillery shells were modified to contain the deadly gas.

What was done to protect soldiers against the gas?
Following the use of the gas at Ypres, Allied forces were issued cloth soaked in urine. The ammonia in the urine neutralized the chlorine and allowed the men to flee to safety. Others used cloth covered in bicarbonate of soda, which also sucessfully neutralized the gas. By July of that year, soldiers had been issued gas masks and respirators.

How many men were effected by poison gas during World War I?
1,206,000 men suffered non-fatal gas poisoning (this includes mustard gas). 91,000 men suffered fatal poisoning. Although many more men were effected by chlorine gas (of 166,500 British soldiers effected, 2,000 fatalities occurred), mustard gas was far more deadly, with nearly 1/5th of those effected dying.

_{Thanks to Professor Pi for help on the chemistry.}

Chlo"rine (?), n. [Gr. pale green, greenish yellow. So named from its color. See Yellow.] Chem.

One of the elementary substances, commonly isolated as a greenish yellow gas, two and one half times as heavy as air, of an intensely disagreeable suffocating odor, and exceedingly poisonous. It is abundant in nature, the most important compound being common salt. It is powerful oxidizing, bleaching, and disinfecting agent. Symbol Cl. Atomic weight, 35.4.

Chlorine family, the elements fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine, called the halogens, and classed together from their common peculiariries.

© Webster 1913.