Talk:Canary Girls

Military history: Technology / Weaponry / British / European / World War I B‑class

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Women's History

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Removed erroneous information.

The claim that the yellow colour was caused by filling the shells which contained phospherous[sic], which not only turned their skin yellow but also ate away at their jaws. was added on 15 August 2009 by 86.16.54.243. I removed it because it is complete bunkum. TNT is notorious for turning the skin yellow, phosphorus has no such effect. In any case, phosphorus shells were not used in World War One.

I also removed the claim about suffragettes, because it is absurd. Possibly the poster who wrote it was confusing the association between World War Two female munitions workers and later Women's Lib. However around the time of World War One, suffragettes were regarded as radical socialist extremists, and a few actively engaged in anti-government arson and even bombing campaigns. The idea that they would be allowed to work in a munitions factory is absurd. --202.63.39.58 (talk) 08:31, 20 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dangerous or not

Under Causes of Yellow Skin Colour the second sentence says it was unpleasant but not dangerous. The paragraph goes on to state that it was toxic to the liver and 100 women died from it. So is it dangerous or not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.91.44.57 (talk) 15:34, 30 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The yellow pigmentation was not dangerous. The liver toxicity was. Two separate things. Rodney Baggins (talk) 09:51, 22 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Background

TNT is made by the nitration of toluene. No Cordite (which is a mixture of nitroglycerine, nitrocellulose and petroleum jelly) is involved. What is the actual background? Cheers ✦ _hugarheimur 01:41, 5 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your comment. You are correct, it would appear that cordite was used as the propellant in the shells, and nothing to do with the TNT itself. I think this error must have come from Ref.3 which states "...they were tinged with TNT powder, made with cordite and sulfur." Which just goes to show that even reliable sources can sometimes introduce errors! I can find no evidence that cordite was in any way hazardous to health. It was purely the sulphur content in the TNT that caused the yellow skin colour and other health effects. Will remedy. Rodney Baggins (talk) 09:15, 5 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I've corrected the error re. TNT containing cordite. I've also emailed War History Online to alert them to the error on their website. You never know, they might be bothered to correct it there too. It turns out that cordite is indeed hazardous to health (as sourced in Ref.7) so I've also added a new sentence about the irritative symptoms of cordite. Rodney Baggins (talk) 10:12, 5 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]