Spontaneous Combustion -- S/D

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What do ILErs think about this purported phenomenon? And which ILEr is the most likely to spontaneously combust?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am still frightened by the photos they used to print in "The Unexplained" of alleged SHC victims - piles of ash with the end of a leg sticking out. You don't want that.

However, I think it's a non-phenomenon that isn't worth worrying about. Unless you're the Pinefox.

― DV, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am totally intrigued by this and saw a great documentary where they explained how it happens using a dead pig. A part of me thinks it would be a great way to go but another part of me fears it deeply, after watching the documentary I was very nervous about smoking in bed.

― Emma, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd like to spontaneously combust in a lift or on a packed train, taking many with me hopefully.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's not spontaneous combustion, it's being a suicide bomber. It takes many hours and very intense heat to spontaneously combust (plus it's not really very spontaneous as you do need a spark) and it's a very localised thing e.g. people burn to death but nothing around them is burned up.

― Emma, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Spookiest thing about that programme - they call it the wick effect.

― Pete, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was just about to say I was walking a fine tite-rope between SC and suicide bombing. But the difference would be I had never planned to Spontaneously Combust obviously, so it would not be pre meditated and therefore I would be innocent. I'm not an expert on SC though so I could be wrong....

― Ronan, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

wasn't it something to do with the fat content of the body involved too? Hence the wick/candle link?

― cabbage, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I got a bk abt this out of Hackney library in the early 80s, along with (because i am a ponce) Illuminations by W.Benjamin. Read SHM book: grate grisly anecdotes (some foax explode and bits of their bodies must be got off the rooftops), explanation of phenom poor (non-alignment of physical and astral bodies, ah yes). Then started on Benj. As I got to the end, each successive page was first somewhat discoloured, then obscured by a disc-shaped burn-mark, of slightly larger radius as I proceeded through the book. After a while I turned the book over: to find on the back a perfectly circular char-scar — as if the book had laid against a hot lightbulb for a long time w/o catching fire. The burn also had travelled into the book, a sphere of intrusion. I absolutely did not notice this burn when I got the book out: it MIGHT have been there. Surely it was there. I returned both books quite quickly. When I glanced after them on subsqeuent visits, neither was evah to be found. The librarian — a man with cobwebs over empty eyesockets — waved his hideously thin fingers at me, but said nothing.

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark my sister thinks you should write a novel.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What happens (I think) is a little spark catches your clothes. You then have to become unconscious for some time as otherwise you would just extinguish the spark e.g. if you dropped a cigarette on your lap then had a heart attack. This gives time for the wick effect thing to happen, it's like candle reversed, you are the wax and your clothes are the wick. It is somehow related to body fat which is why they often find only your lower legs / feet as there's not so much fat there. In the pig experiment it took about 8 hours for the pig to totally combust, bones and all.

― Emma, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

they don't wear clothes = they are shit wicks

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Serves them right the fat bastards.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Why Mark, you M. R. James fan, you. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Surely dave q is most likely to combust?

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't like the actual description at all. If it didn't build up for hours it would be the perfect way to die, quick and bright and without planning or expectation. I'll have to try suicide bombing instead, but that will not be as convenient because it would involve technical knowledge, preparations, and wanting to die. Ugh.

― maria, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My Godfather was in that documentary. He was the scientist putting a bone in a science oven.

― Magnus, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Putting a bone in a science oven" = Hanley's department, surely?

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry. Testing skeletal resistance to heat under controlled conditions.

― Magnus, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A sudden memory that this thread has sparked off: Sandi Toksvig, everyone's favourite quasi-dwarf scandanavian lesbian comedian, had a discussion / humourous documentary show on Children's ITV called "Toksvig", and they covered the subject of spontaneous combustion one week. They had a big long talk about it, went into the gory details, but best of all, they staged this thing where an actress playing a tealady spent the entire show trying to combust. This consisted of her sitting alone in a dark room with her fingers in her ears and eyes tightly shut. At the very end of the show Sandi was signing off the programme, and there was this massive explosion, and she rushed into the dark room where the tealady was and found a pile of smouldering guts on the floor. There were intestines and everything. And this was on half past four in the afternoon on ITV. It was the first time I ever heard of people exploding/burning to legpieces.

― Croooooow, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Most likely to spontaneously combust? ~~Scary~~ Starry Sarah. Conducting mad fusion experiments in her secret maths lab to splice mark s' coherent mumbling, Bubbles' shrieking, the boy Hanley's...erm...Hanle ying, DP's post format, and chemical x. She could blow at any moment.

(NB I wuv Starry Sarah. But I stand well back and wear safety goggles)

(Do they still make Cadbury's Fuses? What about Pretzel Flipz? Can somebody check)

― Graham, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ten years pass...

First Irish case of death by spontaneous combustion
A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled.
It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Ireland.
West Galway coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin said it was the first time in 25 years of investigating deaths that he had returned such a verdict.
Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home at Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway on 22 December 2010.
An inquest in Galway on Thursday heard how investigators had been baffled as to the cause of death.
Forensic experts found a fire in the fireplace of the sitting room where the badly burnt body was found had not been the cause of the blaze that killed Mr Faherty.
The court was told that no trace of an accelerant had been found and there had been nothing to suggest foul play.
The court heard Mr Faherty had been found lying on his back with his head closest to an open fireplace.
The fire had been confined to the sitting room. The only damage was to the body, which was totally burnt, the ceiling above him and the floor underneath him.
Dr McLoughlin said he had consulted medical textbooks and carried out other research in an attempt to find an explanation.
He said Professor Bernard Knight, in his book on forensic pathology, had written about spontaneous combustion and noted that such reported cases were almost always near an open fireplace or chimney.
"This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15032614

― Armand Schaubroeck Ratfucker, Friday, 23 September 2011 10:37 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0923/1224304578285.html

― Armand Schaubroeck Ratfucker, Friday, 23 September 2011 10:42 (thirteen years ago)

Dr McLoughlin said he had consulted medical textbooks and carried out other research <--- citation needed

― mark s, Friday, 23 September 2011 10:53 (thirteen years ago)

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