American University’s campus once produced the world’s deadliest chemical weapon

Evidence

In its heyday, the American University Experiment Station was the world’s second-largest chemical weapons production facility. Some call it World War I’s Manhattan Project. Almost two thousand chemists, engineers, and technicians tested hundreds of chemical substances there, including arsenic trichloride, ricin, and 498 variations of mustard gas. The station created the war’s deadliest chemical weapon—seven times deadlier than mustard gas. Its name was Lewisite, the “dew of death.” A single drop could kill. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 400

Categorization

• CANDY: A startling, tweetable fact: the site of a university in D.C. produced Lewisite, the ‘dew of death.’