The locksmiths here know what I'm talking about while the rest of you may be clueless, so, I'll fill you in.
From the 20's to the 50's, some safes were equipped with a charge of teargas. This was a deterrent against safecrackers of the day. If the safecracker made a mistake and broke the glass container, around 4 ounces of teargas would be released. POTENT stuff too.
My own experience goes back several years. There was a locksmith shop down in the basement of the place I used to work. He had an old safe that sat outside the door waiting to be removed to the alley for disposal. It had been peeled in a bungled attempt to open it, so it was worthless at this point.
I was a young buck in those days and helped the old man get it up the freight elevator and out in the back alley. He had already opened the door to remove the contents for the rightful owner.
I stayed out there for a while playing with the thing. Safes still fascinate me. Anyway, as I was crawling around examining it when I spied this little metal box mounted up under the door. It only required a screwdriver so I
ran inside and got one.
Oh boy! Maybe the locksmith missed something!
After removing the screw, I saw this glass capsule with a liquid in it. I had never heard this kind of thing before , but I sensed this was a deterrent of some kind.
I took it out, marveled over it's pretty shape, and then leaned it up against the alley wall. Started tossing pebbles at it from about 20 feet back. Finally got it to break. I could see something like a heat haze leaving the capsule.
I waited about 10 seconds and then approached it. I got about 5 feet away before the gas hit me. All of a sudden, I couldn't see, couldn't breath, couldn't think.
Jeezus!!!
I started running down the alley blind as a bat to get away from this stuff.
After I recovered myself, I went inside to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I was quite a sight.
Eyes streaming with tears (still) Snot running down my nose, and something like foam in the corners of my mouth.
I've never told anybody about this until now.
Hope you enjoyed it.

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