Puzzling detail in a comic novel published in 1977. (Won’t say which, as I didn’t get where I am today by unnecessarily spoiling plot points.) Jimmy’s head has just been pulled out of an oven in Cornwall:
‘Too soon,’ said Jimmy. ‘Wanted to die. Damned slow, this high speed gas.’
Reggie laughed. . . . ‘North Sea Gas isn’t poisonous.’
Er, what? What sort of gas do they pump from the jolly old North Sea? H2?
Methane – an asphyxiant but not a poison – superseded coal gas which contained carbon monoxide.