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Overview
This World War II gas mask was made for civilian use in New Zealand.
Better safe than sorry
In 1941, the New Zealand government felt that a gas attack was improbable and therefore the general public did not need providing with gas masks. However, it decided that those who had to fight fires and rescue the injured should be equipped with masks. It ordered 6,500 masks for the main cities Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.
Fear of gas attack
By May 1942, however, there were increasing fears of gas use by Britain, Japan, and Germany, so the government ordered 250,000 more masks for civilians. A Christchurch rubber firm began filling the order.
Gas mask manufacture
The masks had a fitted rubber face piece and celluloid windows. The wearer inhaled through a canister containing a filter. This consisted of raw cotton, cotton wool, and activated charcoal made from treated coconut shell that would absorb poisonous gas. Avalve prevented the wearer exhaling back into the canister.
But rubber was in short supply because the Japanese occupied a number of rubber-producing countries, so the order couldn’t be completed. The issue of masks was reduced so that only front-line Emergency Precautions Scheme workers stationed in vulnerable centres were supplied.