NBCD started life in 1998 as 'Gas! Gas! Gas!', a website displaying a few pieces from my collection of NBC protection equipment. However, I was not really happy with either the quality of the images or text on that particular site. This caused me to re-evaluate what I was trying to do, and I decided that I was going about it the wrong way. I concluded that what I was originally doing was creating a website about my collection, whereas what I wanted to do was to create a website about NBC Defence. Gas! Gas! Gas! was successful when compared to the former, but not nearly so with the latter.
I then looked at why I had gone down the road of simply taking photographs of my collection and posting them online - it was because that my collection was the material that was available to me. But this was a limiting factor; I felt that I couldn't properly develop and write about other areas of NBCD unless I had an artefact about which to write. I did consider posting my university dissertation [1], but at 25,000 words and very few illustrations, I felt that it would not be a good idea as it was far too long, and web pages need a good balance of images to break up long text.
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Then there was the problem of what to write about too; the screenshot at right shows just how little actual hard fact was available - in many cases I was restricted to describing the respirator and making educated guesses as historical information was lacking.
The situation changed completely when I began research at the The National Archives. Suddenly I had too much information and so I began to organise it using databases. It seemed a logical step to make these databases available online so that a wider audience could make use of them, and so the direction and focus of the site has expanded to include these information resources.
Work is still in progress with these databases, and I hope to increase their functionality as and when I can find the time. I've been working on them flat-out for two years, and now I want to put my feet up and take a break for a bit!
- Peter
Footnote References
- Hibbs, Peter A. (1997) Analysis of preparations for the use of chemical weapons in Europe 1939-45, and their subsequent non-use (Private publication)