11/19/2023 0 Comments British mickey mouse gas mask![]() ![]() Waugh argues that this is because much historical evidence available is biased due to the fact the government didn’t want to affect the morale of the country. Additionally, negative firsthand accounts of the war are not extensively accessible to the modern historian, this further limits our perspective on social matters. Moreover, retrospective accounts make it harder to accurately measure how objects such as the gas mask influenced the psychological state of children. This is an obstacle that many historians often encounter when trying to gauge what childhood was like during the war. It could be argued that Dawes’ recollection of an event in 1939 told in 2003 may have inaccuracies. I remember the part of the mask you looked out of steamed up and you could not talk- I hated it” This would have undoubtedly been a daunting prospect for a young child, furthermore this example shows how children were not wrapped in cotton wool when it came to the unforgiving requirements of war. Here is his account from the BBC oral histories of what he remembers from school “I remember we had gas practice at school one day, we were thrown into a lorry that contained tear gas. However, for Derek Dawes, a young boy from Plymouth the memories of the gas mask were far from pleasant. Because of this, the new device could have brought a sense of bewilderment for children, sheer trepidation for others and for some the new device will have even brought excitement. Before trying to determine how this affected each child it is important to remember that young children are politically less informed than adults, as a result they do not understand or comprehend the ‘enemy’ concept the way their parents do (Venken, Roger, 2015, p.204). The significance of this point comes from the fact that almost every child in Britain would have been allocated a gas mask- and every single one of them would of had their own individual views towards it. Titmuss wrote in 1950 that during the 5 years preceding the war it was believed the Home Office was ahead of other European countries, in expectation of, and in preparation against gas warfare (Tittmuss, 1950, p. The British Home Office refused to take the risk regarding the potential for chemical warfare. Approximately forty million gas masks were produced for the British population John Welshman states that the provision of these gas masks in 1938 was also more than adequate (Welshman, 2010, p. Its function was analogous to the way a cigarette filter reduces the amount of toxins a person inhales when smoking- see more here. Disney’s aim was to make it more user-friendly for children, it was also his idea to go to the extent of having the ‘Mickey Mouse’ face printed on the American version. The mask was commonly known as the ‘Mickey Mouse’ gas mask, taken from the American version interestingly designed by Walt Disney. ![]() ![]() This specific respirator was produced to protect children from the age of eighteen months to four years. Here lays an exact model of the gas mask provided by the British Home Office in 1938. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |