The inquest never sorted it out, but I know what I saw. Dr John Irving Bentley's death was among the cases of SHC which captured the imagination of newspaper editors and readers alike in the s, with an image purporting to show his charred remains now a symbol for the theory. The lower leg and slippered-foot of the year-old retired physician were discovered next to the toilet in his Pennsylvania home, surrounded by a pile of ash beneath a walking frame.
In a highly dramatic tale which mirrors claims of blue flames and SHC, but diverts from the recurring theme of victims dying in their living rooms, Maybelle Andrews was reportedly taken over by a flame in To test the theory , Mr Ford marinated abdominal tissue from pigs in acetone - a highly flammable substance which the body produces in reaction to alcoholism, fat-free dieting and diabetes — and set it alight.
He told the Cambridge News at the time: "This was used to make scale models of humans, which we clothed and set alight. They burned to ash within half an hour.
How could a man catch fire and then burn so completely without igniting everything around him? At first, Bentley's demise was identified as a careless mishap. The elderly gentleman loved to smoke his pipe and he had a habit of carrying matches in his robe pockets.
Upon reviewing the scene, the coroner deduced that Bentley had fallen asleep while smoking in the bathroom and was burned alive after some of his clothing caught fire [source: Nickell ]. But there's another school of thought. Bentley's case and many others like it have been presented as examples of spontaneous human combustion SHC. Although he and other alleged victims of the phenomenon burned almost completely, their surroundings were left somewhat unscathed.
So can humans spontaneously burst into flames? A lot of people think spontaneous human combustion is a real occurrence, but most scientists aren't convinced. In this article, we will take a look at this strange debate, see what believers have to say about it and try to separate the scientific truth from the myths. Spontaneous combustion occurs when an object — in the case of spontaneous human combustion, a person — bursts into flames from a chemical reaction within, apparently without being ignited by an external heat source [source: National Parks Service ].
The Danish anatomist Thomas Bartholin has been credited with penning the first written account of spontaneous human combustion. In , he described how a woman in Paris "went up in ashes and smoke" while she was sleeping.
The straw mattress on which she slept was unmarred by the fire. In , a Frenchman named Jonas Dupont published a collection of spontaneous combustion cases in his work "De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis" [source: Reville ]. The hundreds of alleged SHC accounts since that time have followed a similar pattern: The victim is almost completely consumed, usually inside his or her home.
Coroners at the scene have sometimes noted a sweet, smoky smell in the room where the incident occurred [source: Endeavour ]. There's something peculiar about many of the photos that document suspected SHC victims. Also, the room around the person may show minimal fire damage — though a greasy residue is sometimes left behind on furniture and walls [source: Nickell ].
Reports have also been made about spontaneous human combustion victims who didn't simply burst into flames. These individuals are said to have developed strange burns on their bodies with no obvious source.
And not every person who supposedly caught fire has died — some people say they've experienced SHC and then lived to tell the tale [source: Lewis ]. For an object to combust spontaneously, three things need to happen. First, the body must be heated to its ignition temperature — the point at which it will catch fire without being exposed to an external flame or spark.
If the heat building up inside the object cannot escape, and if it's being exposed to a steady flow of oxygen that isn't rapid enough to cool it down, the stage will be set for spontaneous ignition [source: South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service ]. We know this can happen to certain inanimate objects that will be discussed later. But does the phenomenon occur in humans?
The jury is still out. That said, a few explanations for how people could hypothetically experience spontaneous combustion have been forth over the last few centuries. Charles Dickens blamed booze. In the s, the writer ignited great interest in SHC by using it to kill off a character in his novel "Bleak House. American prohibitionists helped spread this notion as they denounced the evils of alcoholism [source: Behr ].
All that was left of him was a leg, a shrunken skull and pieces of his rib cage. Spontaneous combustion was suspected, but a recent medical examiner's report concluded Vanzandt died from a heart attack before a lit cigarette may have ignited his clothing. And in , Frank Baker, a Vietnam veteran living in Vermont, claims he spontaneously caught fire while sitting on his couch.
Unlike others, Baker lived to tell the tale. Most scientists dismiss the idea that humans can catch fire for no reason. Many cases involved victims who were alone and close to a flame, such as a cigarette or candle. Often, the victims have been elderly or intoxicated, and thus unable to put out the flames.
Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Is the curse of King Tut real?
0コメント