Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
with gas masks.”
53
The program then focused on what had been adver-
tised as a live interview of Winford Lee Lewis, inventor of lewisite.
Lewis had developed a powerful respiratory irritant, chloro-vinyl-
dichloro-arsine ('lewisite'), while working for the U.S. Chemical War-
fare Service during World War I. Formerly chairman of the Northwest-
ern University chemistry department, he was now director of scientific
research for a Chicago firm. Davis had interviewed Lewis years before,
in a September 1933 program on 'Friendly Germs', and so the chemist
agreed to appear again but explained that he had been having trouble
with his voice: “I will be glad to undertake the broadcast providing Mrs.
Lewis [his wife, Myrtiela Mae Lewis] might give my talk in the event I
am out of voice.”
54
He assured Davis that she had a “most unusual speak-
ing voice […] with exceptional enunciation” and that she had been “one
of my chemistry students” so would be conversant with the topic. Mrs.
Lewis did appear, in fact, reading her part from a prepared script that
celebrated the “usefulness” of chemical weapons:
Interviewer: The development of a country's chemical industry has a
very real bearing on its disposition to use or not use chemical weapons.
Mrs. Lewis: Yes, it has been frequently pointed out that a country with a
strong chemical industry has a tremendous advantage in a conflict in-
volving chemical weapons. Chemists, chemical knowledge, chemicals
and chemical plants are needed to produce chemical weapons. These re-
sources cannot be developed overnight.
55
At the end of the broadcast, the announcer asked, “Would you like to
have more information on war gases?” Listeners received a free bulletin
('War Gases') that described the chemical characteristics and physio-
53
Script for 'Adventures in Science', November 13, 1939; SIA RU7091, Box 386,
Folder 2.
54
See W. Davis to W. Lee Lewis, September 26, 1939; W. Davis telegram to W. Lee
Lewis, October 16, 1939; W. Lee Lewis to W. Davis, October 16, 1939; and W. Lee
Lewis to W. Davis, October 25, 1939; SIA RU7091, Box 386, Folder 2. The inter-
view section of the broadcast actually took place in the studios of station WBBM in
Chicago, where a local announcer read questions to Mrs. Lewis from the prepared
script. See annotated scripts for November 13, 1939, in SIA RU7091, Box 386,
Folder 2.
55
Script for November 13, 1939, broadcast; SIA RU7091, Box 386, Folder 2.
