Back roads through automotive history (5): The benefits of exhaust fumes
It's true: the most beautiful, interesting and sometimes weirdest discoveries are always made on the back roads. This also applies to the back roads of automobile history.
According to a French newspaper report from 1910:
It wasn't very long ago: if your car smoked a little in Paris, a policeman approached with a stern face, registered you, and you ended up in jail for two days. This could happen next to a metro construction site, for example, where a locomotive emits black, fat clouds, or on the Pont de l'Europe, where construction machinery sends swirls of black, sticky smoke into the air. All exhaust fumes are permitted, except those from cars.
Today we are no longer put in prison, we are just stopped. What progress! It would be good if Mr. Lépine, who is responsible for these directives, were to read one of the latest editions of the English Daily Mirror. He would then discover that in London, exhaust fumes are classified as antiseptic, hygienic and air-purifying. It states:
"Flies, insects and harmful micro-organisms are being destroyed by the millions thanks to increasing car exhaust fumes. At a meeting of the Salmon and Trout Association to discuss flies for fishing, Lord Desborough explained that the insects have completely disappeared from Parliament Square because of the heavy traffic."
One of London's most respected chemists explained that the exhaust fumes from buses and cars are an effective insecticide. Because they are carbon in nature, they clean the air of germs and other impurities. Londoners have always regarded exhaust fumes as a nuisance. In fact, they are very beneficial to health. One fruit seller, for example, noticed at the market this year that there were far fewer flies on his display. So long live the scent of petroleum!
Monsieur Lépine is wrong to outlaw exhaust fumes, hygienically speaking. Hygienists, come to the aid of motorists! From this point of view, the medical academy could easily award the gold medal to certain buses. From now on, it will be very chic to say of someone: "He kills 24 flies in one go." Or to put it another way: "He drives a 24-horse." You just have to get it right.
It's probably not just climate change campaigners and conservationists who are shaking their heads today ...
