FIRE WALKING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3739, 8 January 1907, Page 4

FIRE WALKING.

A scientific correspondent of the “ Otago Daily Times,” discussing the performances of the Fijian fire walkers, inclines to the belief that their immunity from burns when walking over the hot stones is due to the spheroidal state so well known in chemistry. The common method of illustrating the spheroidal condition is to heat a slightly concave metallic disc to a sufficiently high temperature and then let a drop of water fall on it. A curious feature of the experiment is that the drop of water does not actually touch the hot metal, but remains suspended above the surface, and freely evaporates. The test of dipping the hand for an instant in molten lead when the vapour raised from the moisture of the skin prevents the hand from being burned, is another illustration of the spheroidal state. Actual contact of the hand with the moulten metal is prevented by the moisture of the skin. This is, the informant of the Times believes, the explanation of the Fijian’s performance, and all the elaborate explanations oi the scientists are, he considers, beside the mark.