+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++wm wrote:but Dr John de Haan and his self-immolation pig disagree with these objections:phylo_roadking wrote:Next, a body combusting as you describe - in effect melting enough to release fats - needs to be able to draw air into the pyre...a bit like a mini-firestorm?...and thus needs to be rested ON something to burn and to allow the fire to draw air in beneath and up into the flames. Just plonking a body - or two! even more to burn with the available fuel - in the bottom of a depresssion in the ground, pouring in the petrol, and lighting it, is one of the worst possible ways to get rid of a body!
Dr John de Haan of the California Criminalistic Institute used a dead pig in a gruesome experiment to show that small flames can consume a human being with the help of burning body fat.
A pig was used because it closely resembles a human's fat content.
The pig was wrapped in a blanket and a small amount of petrol was poured on it.
After five hours of continuous burning the bones were being destroyed.
The gasoline would have to be soaked into wood, etc, to support the articles 'wicking effect'. for example, a kerosene lantern does not 'explode' because the kerosene is directed into the flame. There was enough destruction wood around to build a pyre.
As to 'who dun it"- my prime suspect is Friedrich Schmeed...
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1971/0 ... _000298347