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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Spontaneous Human Combustion




Hey Friends this is me back again with yet another treatment on complexity ,sorry for my last post, it was created in haste, was an attempt to save somebody's life, trying to be heroic... this instance i will not even think about somebody, because i am thinking about everybody now.Today i will present you something very strange, which existed for more then centuries ago, scientist died  to prove it  .

This is the best example of Pseudo science(which can’t be proved by science like god, soul) .Before I proceed I would like  you all to imagine this
                    “ what happened to that lady  burnt to fire so badly that even her bones were converted into ashes , she was alone in her room, and to convert bones into ashes we need to achieve some thousands degree of temperature , but the shocking thing was that the bedsheet over which she was lying was absolutely no sign of fire on it  “??????
!!!!!

 Now see these images below

 These are the remains of Dr. John Bentley (on left)who died of spontaneous combustion in Pennsylvania in 1966.  The spot where the body lay is burnt, but the rest of the room, including the toilet, was not even scorched. This shows a quick, hot flame that devoured the body in seconds.  Only the bottom of one leg remained to identify this as a person




Mrs. M H Reeser of Florida who apparently died of spontaneous combustion in July of 1951.  The only remains found was her skull, shrunken to the size of an orange





                                         Look at the surroundings its completely spotless, with such temperature even the neighbors of yours can become roasted neighbors.



Well this phenomenon is called Spontaneous Human Combustion, Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged process of a human body catching fire as a result of heat generated by internal chemical action. though no one has ever witnessed SHC, several deaths involving fire have been attributed to SHC by investigators and storytellers.
For the  past decades it’s been a biggest,unsolved mystery of pseudoscience. As   SHC is quite rare phenomenon there are only 98 instances for last century. So we don’t have much specimen to treat  upon.
Well some bizzare facts for SHC are
  •     Eighty percent of the victims are female
  •    Most of the victims were overweight, elderly and/or alcoholics
  •     The body is very badly burned, but the room the body was found in is pretty much intact except for a fine layer of soot
  •     A yellow, foul smelling oil is usually surrounding the body
  •      The burns are not distributed evenly over the body



However this is something which can happen to anyone of us as researchers are able to distinguish this SHC into two i.e FATAL SHC, the fatal SHC is one in which victim doesn’t even survives, usually these victims are identified by their leftovers or body parts .



Now the good news  is we have Non FATAL SHC as well , this is recognized by  mysterious burns and mysterious smokes from the body   and the bad news is  people with these symptoms are very much prone to convert into FATAL SHC , so researchers don’t have this proof for it.
We I am  inspired by a documentary on discovery channel. This documentary left me  amazed of the fact that something of this sort is related to we humans .
Thus i want to discuss on the topic to spread the theories about spontaneous human combustion because I  believe that  the mysteries can only be solved by contribution of masses and thus want to connect people to the topic so as to ensure support.    So if you find anyone around you of such kind, ensure his presence and contribution to science before his Non FATAL SHC converts to FATAL one .
Note::-You all are allowed to google it now, you will get some theories like Pig effect and wick effect!!!

9 comments:

Abhineet said...

This was a big mystery until scientists found the phenomenon.
I saw this documentary on Discovery Channel many years back (when I was in school). They experimented spontaneous combustion on a pig's dead body.

Discovery is short of new shows. I am tired of watching the same shows again and again.

Abhishek Shukla said...

Here are some unverifiable theories:-

* Since every human body contains varying strengths of electrical field and the human body also contains flammable gases (mainly methane in the intestines), an electrical discharge could ignite these gases.

* SHC victims are sometimes described as lonely people who fall into a trance immediately before their incineration. Heymer[3] suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by reacting nitrogen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions. This theory has been criticized on the basis that Heymer "seems to be under the illusion that nitrogen exist as gases in the blood and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case."[4] (Mitochondria are organelles found within cells.) The theory also fails to take into account the fact that nitrogen is an inert, non-flammable gas.

* Another theory suggests high-energy particles or gamma rays coupled with susceptibilities in the potential victim (e.g. increased alcohol in the blood) triggers the initial reaction. This process may use no external oxygen to spread throughout the body, since it may not be an oxidation-reduction reaction. However, no reaction mechanism has been proposed, nor has a source for the high-energy particles.

* The victim is an alcoholic and has been smoking while drinking or shortly after drinking a strong spirit. There are claims that this raises the blood alcohol level to a point where it ignites; however, this theory is implausible, since ethanol typically burns only if the concentration is greater than about 23%, whereas a fatally toxic level is about 1%. However, this does introduce the probability that the victim will fall asleep while holding a lit cigarette.

* A suggested possibility is that both clothing and the person are caused to burn by a discharge of static electricity. A person walking across a carpet can build up sufficient charge and voltage to create a spark. It is unlikely that this could start a clothing fire, as although the voltage can be high (several thousand volts), the stored energy is very low (typically less than a joule).

* The controversial phenomenon of ball lightning has also been proposed as one of the causes of spontaneous combustion.

Simi Chauhan said...

Good learning element.......I am surprised to get this information from you.

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kieran said...

spontaneous human combustion is (i'm affaid) a missunderstood and slightly fantasized judgement.

the victims of "spontaneous combustion" have several simularities, these being
elderly, ill or sleeping,
overwieght,
smokers or close to an open fire,
and wearing highly flamible clothing.
the real reason for the body self combusting is becuase lets say a person is smoking and drops the ciggerette on their clothing which catches light. this fire now goes around the whole body setting fire to all clothing. the body then burns at a low temperature for a period of time eventually burning through the skin.
underneath the skin is a layer of fat which when set on fire acts as a candle continuing to burn like a candle and using the cloting as a wick. the body will burn at this low temperature not spreading to nearby furniture.
the reason only legs and arms are found at the scene of the fire is because you have less fat around your hands and feet and your cloths tend to stop at your hands and feet.

any questions please ask

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kamal

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