Victorian Urban Legends: Surviving Death by Molten Iron October 10, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
A busy day today as Beach is going to go and do five or six useless tasks. Here, then, is a fillip post, put tentatively in the urban legends file: surviving death by molten iron (or ‘molten metal’). This can’t be true can it? Can it? Drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
But few men have ever fallen into a pot of molten metal and escaped with a few trifling burns, yet John Adam, of Tacoma, Wash., did it recently. He is an employee of the Ryan Smelter, working on the night shift, and it was only through great presence of mind that he was not burned to death. By some misstep he lost his balance, and started to fall headlong into an immense pot of molten metal. As he fell he caught the rim of the pot, and although immersed almost to his armpits, he drew himself out, and, with almost superhuman effort, threw himself into adjoining pot filled with cold water. Some of his fellow-workmen saw him cast himself into the second pot, and, rushing to his assistance, rescued him. His hands were badly burned, but otherwise he had hardly a scar on him. The secret of his escape was that had heavy woollen underwear and outer clothing, and before it had been burned through Adams was in the pot of cold water.
Nope, don’t believe it. But it is a very pleasing story. Beach can see John Adam brushing the now cold molten iron from his clothes and hopping into a nice bath prepared by his wife.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 4 Sept 1891, 2
Chris from Haunted Ohio Books writes: This had a wide circulation. No idea if it is true. ENTOMBED IN AN INGOT One of the strangest coffins ever told of is that for which the British War Department is said to be responsible. The story is that a workman engaged in casting metal for the manufacture of ordnance at the Woolwich Arsenal, lost his balance and fell into a caldron containing twelve tons of molten steel. The metal was at white heat and the man was utterly consumed in less time that it takes to tell of it. The War Department authorities held a conference and decided not to profane the dead by using the metal in the manufacture of ordnance and the mass of metal was actually buried and a Church of England clergyman read the services for the dead over it. American Architect and Architecture, Volume 48, 25 May 1895: p. 82
Bruce T, 25 Oct 2016: I had an Uncle who worked at an aluminum smelter and a cousin who worked for US Steel. The clothing is heavy, multi layered and meant to protect you from back splash when raking slag and pouring metal. If you go in the pot up to your armpits, you’re dead. There’s no way you could go in that deep and pull yourself out covered in molten slag in protective clothing, much less sling yourself into a nearby pot of cold water. I’ve read of brewery workers falling into large mash tuns and dying of scalding in a short time after getting out. A mash tun temps are only around 150-165 degrees F. Molten metal is nearly ten times that. I don’t care how many times they dunked him, that story smells like pure b.s.
An old friend of this blog, Chris S, writes, 25 Oct 2016: This trick’s a staple of science education, except they use molten lead. Lead’s melting point is considerably lower than the melting point of iron, 327C for lead, 1538C for iron. As for this effect happening to the whole human body, I would be uncertain regarding its veracity. Here’s a video of the trick.
