Science: Bunny Masks

Possibly the first large section of U.S. citizenry to achieve a gas mask for every adult is Hawaii. This week the Territory is fast achieving an even more exciting goal—a “bunny mask” for each of its 50,000 infants.

A grizzled, hard-bitten veteran of World War I, Colonel George F. Unmacht, Hawaiian Coordinator for Civilian Gas Defense, is the creator of the bunny mask. With a Jap gas attack always a dread possibility, Colonel Unmacht decided that he “wanted something that would temporarily protect very young children from the effects of poison gas until they could be removed from the gas area.” His emergency solution was to set the women stitching together sacks which, when impregnated with gas-resistant chemicals, could be drawn over infants’ heads and tied tightly at the bottom. But how would a child like to have his head thrust into a sack?

One day as he watched his Hawaiian volunteer workers, Colonel Unmacht had his big idea. He told the women to fold back the corners of the sacks and stitch them up to resemble rabbit ears. Then he asked Hawaiian hospitals for old X-ray negatives washed clean with acid. The negatives made transparent plastic windows for the front of Colonel Unmacht’s bunny masks. At latest reports Hawaiian moppets are so eager to play rabbit in the new masks that parents are being asked to keep all bunny masks laid safely away for a real emergency.