The American Red Cross led a campaign in 1917, and by 1918 print publications nationwide carried advertisements to collect peach pits. Factories in Connecticut converted production, and hundreds of women in the state were recruited to work.
During World War I, the Germans surprised the Allies with chemical warfare, killing approximately 90,000 soldiers. It was the first war to use chemicals, most commonly highly-toxic chlorine gas. Four breaths of the deadly chlorine gas was sufficient to kill.
Germans released the gas and, aided by the wind, it slowly crossed the battlefields, filtering into trenches and into soldiers lungs. Once in the body, the yellow-green gas caused asphyxiation, convulsions, panic, and a slow death. @MccrearyBecky