James Esposito, Ohio State University
"Canaries, Camouflets, and Carbon Monoxide: 'Proto Man' and Oxygen Breathing Apparatus in Britain’s Tunneling War 1915-1918"
An age-old technique of siege warfare, undermining saw wide use on the Western Front during World War I. Playing out as an intense “cat and mouse” game of detection, British and German tunnelers attempted to surreptitiously bomb each other in perfectly timed underground blasts known as camouflets. The omnipresent threat of being buried alive and poisoned by carbon monoxide redefined survival beneath the trenches, calling upon the services of the “Proto Man.” Donning oxygen artificial breathing apparatus and carrying a canary, the “Proto Man” was essential to survival in this extreme environment, a savior to many trapped underground. Britain’s success in the tunneling war came in large part due to the highly militarized mine rescuer “Proto Man” represented. British physiologist JS Haldane and mining expert Henry Briggs sought to improve the performance of these indispensable personnel, seeking to enhance both the technical qualities of the Proto breathing apparatus and the respiratory performance of individuals doing the heavy work of war. Although rescuers owed their lives to the canary, the birds died in droves. These fragile animals formed an invaluable facet of the “Proto Man” assemblage and were deemed incapable of replacement by any inanimate methods of gas detection. This article argues attempts at augmenting “Proto Man” were specifically focused on the fields of equipment engineering and laboratory study of respiratory performance, the only aspects of this posthuman assemblage deemed capable of improvement. What resulted was a strange hybrid of human, machine, and avian life exhibiting the limits of Edwardian science and the deep reliance of humans on animal sensing.
Date
-