THIS WEEK IN 1976: Birthday '˜party' a real gas

Having their cake and eating it in unusual surroundings, three Royal Navy trainees cut their coming-of-age cake while nearly isolated in a research unit at the navy's medical school, at Alverstoke.

By The Newsroom

Published 24th Feb 2018, 06:00 BST

Celebrating their birthdays in the Environmental Medical Unit, Gosport, where they were part of a gas effect experiment, are, front left to right, MEM Graham Patterson, REM Patrick Hanson and REM Stephen own. Looking on are Tom McAuslin, Robert Smith and Graham Sexton

Birthday messages travelled by hotline into the environmentally-controlled, self-contained living quarters where the

sailors were taking part in a four-week experiment to monitor the effects of carbon monoxide on the human body.

‘Our birthday cards are waiting for us when we come out tomorrow,’ Stephen Owen said over atelephone connection between the laboratory and experimental chamber, ‘and I’ll have my presents when I go home.’

The trio, with three other young non-smoking volunteers, had every sleeping and waking minute monitored and their work efficiency measured after exposure to small amounts of the gas

Royal Navy