M-M Lifeliner mystery cabinet compartments.

[Jeremy D. Ledford]

If this has been discussed before I couldn't find it. If it needs to be deleted do so.

What are these two compartments in the cabinet on a M-M Lifeliner and what where they used for? The first picture shows the top of the cabinet with the aluminum ring with about a 5 inch opening. Beneath that opening is a compartment about two foot in length, 6 inches wide and about 8 inches deep. The second photo shows down into this compartment. Photo three is of the compartment just below that that has an opening assessable from behind the passenger seat in the front cab/compartment area. Any ideas of knowledge of these?

 

[Mike Burkhart - Deceased 1948 - 2016]

Photo #1: Oxegen bottle fits in to this hole with top exposed to attach regulator and tubing .......

 

[Jeremy D. Ledford]

Photo #1: Oxegen bottle fits in to this hole with top exposed to attach regulator and tubing .......

Would it have had a place for three bottles in the cabinet? It has a place mid way with 2 already? This place pictured is located next to the #2 passenger side door behind rear attendants seat. Also, it's to narrow a fit for the standard O2 bottle (I think).

 

[Paul Steinberg]

The number of bottle openings is dependent on what the buyer specified on the order. There was no "standard" number of openings, unless you consider that almost every ambulance had at least one.
The rectangular hole is located behind the passenger side of the front seat. I have no "official" reason for it, other than I have seen them many times in the past. Our squad used that "cubby" hole for the folded rectangular maps that used to be given out by the gasoline stations. I guess that you could put anything in there that you wanted, as long as it fit.

 

[Mike Burkhart - Deceased 1948 - 2016]

Maybe not for 02 bottle. Possibly trash receptacle. Need some of these later year ambulance guys to chime in and give an expert answer......

 

[Brady D Smith]

Big tank behind seat

Compartment you are talking about is where the control valve and regulator were placed for the piped in oxygen on my old hightop. The big tank laid down flat across the car.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

the ring is the garbage bin. on the 69 it's accessed off the side of the O2 bottles. a container would go just under it and you would toss the garbage in there. remember this was way before the days or any though of personal protection or worry about cross contamination.

the other remains a Mystery. nicely made with rounded edges and all. nothing is accessed threw it you would have to stop the car fold the passengers side seat back and lift the big vinyl curtain to get into it. it might be a nice hiding hole for drugs but you couldn't get to it moving. strange thing is it's in the same place on my 68 combo. but the spair tire is in front of it. bet it was for handling the cabinet during construction.

 

[Scott A. Anderson]

My 1968 and 1971 M-M also had the cubby hole in the back of the med cabinet/partition. I also worked in many M-M ambulances over the years that had this. Never knew what it was for, never saw anything mounted in this space.

The round opening into the space on top of the med cabinet is not large enough for a "D" or "E" oxygen cylinder, and the space below the round opening is not deep enough for any cylinder. I'll go along with the theory that this was for trash.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

If this has been discussed before I couldn't find it. If it needs to be deleted do so.

What are these two compartments in the cabinet on a M-M Lifeliner and what where they used for? The first picture shows the top of the cabinet with the aluminum ring with about a 5 inch opening. Beneath that opening is a compartment about two foot in length, 6 inches wide and about 8 inches deep. The second photo shows down into this compartment. Photo three is of the compartment just below that that has an opening assessable from behind the passenger seat in the front cab/compartment area. Any ideas of knowledge of these?

The oxygen cylinders that I have are just slightly larger than a 4" diameter, and 25 inches tall. It sure looks like a oxygen bottle opening to me. I did give Jeremy a call, and he said that there is no provision for installing the larger "M" bottle in this car.

 

[James Fischer]

the ring is the garbage bin. on the 69 it's accessed off the side of the O2 bottles. a container would go just under it and you would toss the garbage in there. remember this was way before the days or any though of personal protection or worry about cross contamination.

the other remains a Mystery. nicely made with rounded edges and all. nothing is accessed threw it you would have to stop the car fold the passengers side seat back and lift the big vinyl curtain to get into it. it might be a nice hiding hole for drugs but you couldn't get to it moving. strange thing is it's in the same place on my 68 combo. but the spair tire is in front of it. bet it was for handling the cabinet during construction.

Agree with Ed.....
This is for TRASH......we used to use it for our fast food trash when we got a call while "dining".......
Always wondered what a patient thought while on the cot...."Hmmmm sure smells like a pepperoni pizza in here" or this head injury sure makes me dizzy but I SWEAR I smell a Big Mac and fries".......
And then there was always the time we "forgot" to empty trash and then it would REALLY smell.......pretty soon we were not allowed to put ANY trash in there except medical related.....
Ahhhhhhhhhh those were the days !!!!

 

[John ED Renstrom]

look again at the picture I posted. it's bigger then a d bottle and only about a foot deep. it also right beside the rack for the two d bottles. here is the same cabnet in Scotts 68 as it sat in Idaho. the O2 bottles are behind the seat but I'm not see int the ring

 

[Jeremy D. Ledford]

Paid a visit to the car before heading to Nashville for our meet this weekend and Ed's right, there is a opening seen here in photo on O2 bottle side of cabinet. The ring is to small a diameter for the O2 bottle to slip into and wouldn't go in anyways due to lack of clearance of the above bulk head. Also there is a lip to keep the tray/container from sliding around. So it seems the consensus is that this is a built in trash receptical! BTW Ed the ring is there. You can just barely make out the ring in you last photo.

 

[Scott A. Anderson]

Here's a different angle to go with Ed's photo. If the car was sitting in my garage I would have just gone out and snapped a new photo but its 30 miles away in the body shop. So this is one on Tony's photos. The oxygen cylinders were behind the seat cushion. The metal ring is visible above the fire extinguisher.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Brendon's 63 had a similer hole but the ring was missing. I could not find a place to set a contaner or hang a trash bag. nore could we find the trim ring so we covered it over. but no way to put a bottle in there and hold it down

 

[Kevin M. Lyons Sr.]

might be a thermos bottle holder- I can remember when I was a kid there was always a thermos in the 50's era units - don't remember them beyond the early sixties though

 

[John ED Renstrom]

one more view of the cabinet in question. here you see how the O2 bottles went in and how you access the cubby under the hole

 

[Kenn Evans II]

I have seen somewhere a photo with a suction unit sitting in the hole. The glass bowl sits in the hole and the top is still high enough up to see if you are full of fluid.

 

[Rich Koski]

The suction unit close to the oxygen tanks makes sense as some of the early suction units ran off oxygen/resucitators. www.emsmuseum.org has information regarding early oxygen powered suction units. Oxygen powered aspirators are still used today.