The Sometimes Deadly Chlorine Chlorine is a yellowish-green poisonous gas with a very unpleasant and strong odor. (Appelman 516) It ranges from being used to kill in World War 1, to being used combined with sodium to make table salt. It can be a very dangerous element, but yet used for so many good things. Chlorine has a ton of history, multiple uses, and an interesting atomic structure. Chlorine combines with almost every single element, so it cannot be found in nature alone. It was first made by a Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1774. This happened when Scheele treated muriatic acid, or hydrochloric acid, with manganese dioxide. (Stwertka 69-70) Scheele mistakenly thought that it contained oxygen. The discovery was made in Uppsala, Sweden. Later in 1810, Sir Humphry Davy made the decision that Chlorine was in fact a chemical element. He gave it the name “Chlorine” from the Greek word “chloro” meaning greenish-yellow. (Appelman 516) Chlorine that can be found in nature is only found in compounds. It’s mainly found in chloride minerals, which is also known as sodium chloride or commonly known as salt. …show more content…
During the First World War in 1914 a chemist by the name of Fritz Haber worked for the German Army. He began his work by experimenting with Chlorine gas to be used in Trench Warfare. He first created chlorine gas cylinders to be used against the French Army at Ypres. The French soldiers right away noticed a distinctive smell of a mix of pineapples and pepper, as they saw yellow-green clouds creeping towards their trenches. The French Soldiers made the mistake of thinking that it was a smoke screen, but found out otherwise when everyone in the trench began to complain about terrible chest pains. As soon as they realised that they have been attacked with gas, most fled the area as fast as possible. The soldiers would cough, limiting the amount of gas they consumed but would still kill the