campkearny

This is a Committee on Public Information photo, No. 8641. From the Committee's catalog: "8641 THE FLAPPER FAN IN USE. A gas wave coming over the trench, the men using the fan to clear the trench of gas. Training at Camp Kearney Cal " Catalogue of Photographs and Stereopticon Slides United States. Committee on Public Information. Division of pictures March 1 to June 1, 1918

A youtube video shows the fan in use. "In the trenches, mustard gas and other agents were counteracted in a variety of ways. Once an attack ceased, trenches were cleared of low lying gas. One method required the use of an Ayrton or trench fan. This device consisted of a two-foot-long handle attached to a rigid piece of canvas hinged to a fifteen-inch section that moved in one direction. In effect the fan was used like a shovel, with the moveable flap creating an upward air current, thus removing the gas. Americans adopted these fans as called for by British defensive gas doctrine. Unfortunately, the fans, according to the British were "worse than worthless." Not only did they not remove the vapor, but the exertion of masked users led to exhaustion and increased susceptibility to gassing. The fans were eventually discarded and burned to create an updraft, soon recognized as a better method of clearing trenches and dugouts of gas." www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_2Dt1-shPY The Imperial War Museum has one: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30028501

Camp Kearny was a U.S. military base (first Army, later Navy) in San Diego, California, on the site of the current Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It operated from 1917 to 1946. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Kearny