He had headlined it: ‘Some Medical Observations on the Conditions Inside the Landships’ and ‘Most Confidential’. He wasn’t sure he would get a decent hearing, but it had to be said. Not because of his own behaviour and collapse, but because of the atrocious atmosphere within the ‘bus’ or ‘car’, as they called them, that the brave young men who manned them would have to fight under. It had been known for a long time that carbon monoxide could cause confusion and death; he himself had been called to many deaths, from infants to adults, caused by faulty heaters or fires in closed rooms. There must be a better method to eliminate the CO and CO2 that the engine belched into the interior.Added to that, the heat generated by the Daimler caused petrol to evaporate from the internal tanks – there was no external way for pouring petrol into them – so it vented from the screw filler caps straight into the already foul air, stinging the eyes and attacking the throat. And then there was the heat; he estimated it might reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
