History & Heritage – Dr. Cluny Macpherson

On April 22, 1915, the course of WWI changed when the German forces released 168 tons of chlorine gas on the Western Front, marking the world’s first large-scale poison gas attack. It wouldn’t be the last. Through a series of chance meetings and coincidences, Dr. Cluny Macpherson of Newfoundland created a prototype gas mask that offered a means of protecting troops from this new weapon.