53 bicycles: A lateral thinking puzzle

[Mahaloth]

1. Is how the gas was introduced into the room important to solving this?

2. Do the professions of the lover or the victim play a part in this?

3. Was there anything special about the room that allowed this to happen?

4. Was the poison gas released from a plant?

5. I think this has been asked, but: Would this gas kill anyone in the room?

6. Did this event take place in the last 5 years?

7. Is the date of the event significant to the solution?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Knowed_Out

Was the gas produced by elements that combined when the victim was in the room?
Did the victim bring anything in the room with him that he didn’t have before the NYE party?
Did the victim bring anything in the room with him that he didn’t have before entering the friend’s house?
Were there containers in the room such as jars, vases, bottles, etc?
Was there anything attached to the door before the victim entered the death room?

1. No
2. Party? What party?
3. Unknown
4. Unknown
5. Unknown

@Biotop

Did the victim unknowingly cause the gas to enter the room?

No

@Mahaloth

1. Is how the gas was introduced into the room important to solving this?

2. Do the professions of the lover or the victim play a part in this?

3. Was there anything special about the room that allowed this to happen?

4. Was the poison gas released from a plant?

5. I think this has been asked, but: Would this gas kill anyone in the room?

6. Did this event take place in the last 5 years?

7. Is the date of the event significant to the solution?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. No
5. Yes
6. Probably not
7. No

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

I want to clear up some deadwood to prevent rabbiting off down ways that aren’t needed. If you want to maintain some red herrings, don’t read this.

[spoiler]Once someone figured out that there was a fire in the fireplace, you’ve exhausted all significance of New Year’s Day.

I’ve vacillated on which gas. Natural gas is one possibility; there’s another possibility, depending on the time period. The exact nature of death will depend on which gas, but the murder technique would be the same.[/spoiler]

[Inner_Stickler]

Did the room feature some sort of gas lighting fixture which was tampered with?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Inner_Stickler

Did the room feature some sort of gas lighting fixture which was tampered with?

No

[Chronos]

OK, there was a fire in the fireplace, but he was poisoned by natural gas? That’s going to be tricky to set up, without the gas combusting.
Unless…
Was the fireplace a gas-burning fireplace?
Was the fire extinguished at some point during the night?
Did the gas contain an oderant, to alert a person to its buildup?

If someone interrupted the flow of gas but then resumed it, or otherwise extinguished the fire, then that could result in the room filling with gas. But I’m still not sure what the significance of New Year’s is. Though I have one guess…
Was the date significant beyond the fact of it being in the winter?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Chronos

Was the fireplace a gas-burning fireplace?
Was the fire extinguished at some point during the night?
Did the gas contain an oderant, to alert a person to its buildup?
Was the date significant beyond the fact of it being in the winter?

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No

[Folly]

The fireplace was deliberately blocked by the murderer. Combined with the heavy, secure door this prevented enough oxygen from getting to the fire to maintain the fire, but didn’t quite remove enough oxygen to kill the victim. However, with the fire extinguished, the natural gas (or equivalent) filled the room and killed the victim.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Folly

The fireplace was deliberately blocked by the murderer.

No

[Folly]

Is the rest accurate? In other words, did the fire get extinguished from lack of oxygen?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Folly

Is the rest accurate? In other words, did the fire get extinguished from lack of oxygen?

Nope!

[Chronos]

There was one other question in my post you missed:

Was the date significant for any reason other than it being in the winter?

And to potentially wrap this up:

Did the murderer kill the man by turning off the gas long enough for the fire to go out, and then turning it back on?

I suspect, by the way, that in order for this to work, the gas had to be carbon monoxide, not methane. Methane, so far as I know, kills only by displacing oxygen. If the room had enough ventilation to keep the fire burning, then it’d also have enough ventilation to prevent asphyxiation of the man. Carbon monoxide, however, is poisonous in its own right, and so a much lower concentration could be lethal.

[Knowed_Out]

Does one need to understand advanced chemistry to arrive at the solution?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Chronos

There was one other question in my post you missed:

Was the date significant for any reason other than it being in the winter?

I think I got that in post 547; in any case, the answer is “nope.”

And to potentially wrap this up:

Did the murderer kill the man by turning off the gas long enough for the fire to go out, and then turning it back on?

You got it! Turned off the gas main outside the house for about a minute, knowing that only the “nicest room in the house” had its own fireplace. The house belonged to “mutual friend,” so the killer knew about this fireplace (and that the victim liked to have it burning during cold nights such as New Year’s Eve).

I suspect, by the way, that in order for this to work, the gas had to be carbon monoxide, not methane. Methane, so far as I know, kills only by displacing oxygen. If the room had enough ventilation to keep the fire burning, then it’d also have enough ventilation to prevent asphyxiation of the man. Carbon monoxide, however, is poisonous in its own right, and so a much lower concentration could be lethal.

This is the technical detail that I was worried about :), and why I vacillated on which gas it was. I couldn’t quite figure out if the scenario worked with natural gas. (The other detail I worried about was whether the feature my gas fireplace has–where it automatically turns off the gas flow when the pilot light is out–was absent on older models; the riddle only works if it’s a newer feature).

Glad it didn’t throw people off track.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Knowed_Out

Does one need to understand advanced chemistry to arrive at the solution?

If anything, as Chronos’s note demonstrates, knowledge of chemistry is an impediment.

[Folly]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

You got it! Turned off the gas main outside the house for about a minute, knowing that only the “nicest room in the house” had its own fireplace. The house belonged to “mutual friend,” so the killer knew about this fireplace (and that the victim liked to have it burning during cold nights such as New Year’s Eve).

:smack:, but wait… so the fireplace just happened to be blocked but they were using it anyway?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Folly

:smack:, but wait… so the fireplace just happened to be blocked but they were using it anyway?

Huh? The fireplace isn’t blocked.

Edit: Oh! The chimney is blocked, as it’s a gas fireplace.

Now I’m wondering whether older coal-gas fireplaces required chimneys: natural gas ones can be ventless.

[Folly]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

1. No.

2. No.

3. No.

4. Can you rephrase this question?

5. Yes.

6. Yes.

7. Yes–but it’s blocked.

One more note, which may work as a hint: I got this puzzle from a Games Magazine a few decades ago. I’ve spent a bit of time Googling to make sure this murder method could work, and I’ve not come up with anything certain one way or another.

…maybe I was misinterpreting the above.

[Mahaloth]

That was good, Left Hand. I like these kinds of lateral puzzles.

Now, mine again, which I so rudely interrupted before.

**A man was traveling from Switzerland to his home in France by train. If he had been in a non-smoking car he would have died. Why? **

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Folly

…maybe I was misinterpreting the above.

Sort of. I know you can put modern gas fireplaces in a fireplace with a blocked chimney, since some of them require no venting. But I’m now suspecting that’s not true for older, especially coal-gas-burning, models. My apologies for that mis-clue!