Lewisite

At Elnora, Ind., nocturnal yeggs fiddled at the combination of the vault in the Citizens' Bank. From inside the vault came a faint tinkle of breaking glass. The yeggs gagged, struggled for breath, staggered out of doors, undetected but quite through with safecracking for that night. Next morning, the bank officials beamed with delight at the evidence of foiled foul play and the efficiency of a fragile flask of Lewisite* they had had installed in the vault by a Chicago firm. Other bankers hastened to ask questions, order flasks of Lewisite for their own protection. Other yeggs scowled at the thought of having to add to their equipment--jimmy, "soup" (nitroglycerin), oxyacetylene blowtorch -- a gas mask of exceedingly high impenetrability.

* Poison gas invented, by Prof. W. Le Lewis of Northwestern University while chief of the Defense Division of the A.E.F. Gas Service. Perfected late in the War, Lewisite never saw active service. Shells containing it are said to have been buried deep underground after the Armistice, tanksfull towed to sea and sunk. It is said to be so deadly that a relatively small amount would devastate a large area, making it worthless for crop cultivation for ten years.