Body Can Take Heat that Boils Water (Mar, 1948)
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1948
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262 degrees, that’s pretty damn hot.
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Body Can Take Heat that Boils Water
SWEATING it out in a metal box at more than 250° F., University of California at Los Angeles experimenters have proved that the human body can take temperatures that would cook meat and boil coffee—but only for a short time. The tests are being conducted for the U. S. Air Force to find out how pilots would react should the cooling apparatus fail in the supersonic planes of tomorrow (see Cooling “Hot” Pilots, p. 110).
The reason the body can withstand temperatures previously regarded as fatal is that it acts as its own refrigerator. Evaporation of moisture through the skin forms a boundary layer of cool air in which the body wraps itself. Subjected to temperatures of 200° F. and more the skin heats only to about 105°, while the body hovers around a safe and fairly comfortable 100°.The sweatbox used in the experiments is a metal-sheathed cylinder, five feet in diameter, that served to test aircraft instruments during the war. Electric strip heaters, thermostatically controlled, produce any desired -heat. Already several volunteers have taken 220° F. for 15 minutes and more. Dr. Craig Taylor, in charge of the project, has “cooked” at 262° for two minutes, and is warming up for a 300° session.
My father-in-law is Finnish, and he liked to keep his Sauna at 105 degrees C. (221 F)
Fifteen minutes in there was about the maximum for me before I had to jump into the Baltic. Less if somebody dumped water on the rocks.
I was much happier with 95 degrees C. You sit in there a long time with it cooled down like that.
-Jake
Comment by Dirty Jake — July 3, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
Temperatures that high will definitely kill cancer. It’s a good idea to expose yourself to high temps either through sauna or hot bath (up to 110 degrees F) on a regular basis for general health. Enducing mild fever also causes an imune response which has been proven to kill cancer. Cancer cells die at 108 degrees F.
Comment by cafenitro — January 6, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
I WANT A WRINKLE METER! (As a guarantee against baggy pants.)
Comment by Don — January 6, 2009 @ 5:32 pm