|
|
Post by mrfatso on Jul 22, 2014 12:05:18 GMT
A last year I went to the British Museums exhibition on Pompeii and as well as the many interesting artefacts there where the obligatory casts of people frozen in their death throes. But walking around listening to people it became clear that people did not understand that what they were seeing where Plaster of Paris casts taken from voids within the Tufa deposited by the eruption, basically trace fossils. Instead they seemed to believe the myth these were some how ash covered, carbonised bodies they were looking at.
I know am a. Little late with this thought, and possibly this should be in the ahistorical myth section, but would it be possibly to recreate the casts using a pig carcass somehow?
|
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Jul 22, 2014 14:59:43 GMT
A last year I went to the British Museums exhibition on Pompeii and as well as the many interesting artefacts there where the obligatory casts of people frozen in their death throes. But walking around listening to people it became clear that people did not understand that what they were seeing where Plaster of Paris casts taken from voids within the Tufa deposited by the eruption, basically trace fossils. Instead they seemed to believe the myth these were some how ash covered, carbonised bodies they were looking at. I know am a. Little late with this thought, and possibly this should be in the ahistorical myth section, but would it be possibly to recreate the casts using a pig carcass somehow? I think it might be a logistical impossibility; but what do I know, I goofed off in volcanic disaster physics.  it would be interesting to see it addressed, but I don't know how they would be able to do it in the limits of the show format. |
|
|
|
Post by Lex Of Sydney Australia on Jul 23, 2014 2:06:56 GMT
It's an interesting idea but they wouldn't be able to do it for several reasons. Firstly a fresh pig would simply rot, & we all know how much the Mythbusters LOVE the smell of rotting pigs!  (Remember the Stinky Car & the Jimmy Hoffa Myths.) The Pompeii casts came about do to a particular set of circumstances. When Vesuvius blew a plume of smoke rocketed 20 miles (32 km) into the air from the volcano & Pompeii and Herculaneum were engulfed in smoke and noxious gasses that spewed forth from the volcano. Although most of the people of Pompeii escaped, at least 2,000 who stayed behind were crushed or buried alive in the ash and rock that rained down from the sky. In addition to clouds of ash and rock came a massive heat wave the bodies at Pompeii were flash heated to death, killed instantly by extreme thermal shock by the volcanic blast. Temperatures outdoors—and indoors—rose up to 300°C [570°F] and more, enough to kill hundreds of people in a fraction of a second. The ash from the pyroclastic blast swept over the victims bodies covering them in the ash which clung to them like wet plaster making the famous ash bodies. 1864 Giuseppe Fiorelli made the first casts by injecting plaster of Paris into the ash body cavities around the skeletons inside. But these days plaster casts are no longer made as they destroy the delicate skeletons within & with them a wealth of scientific knowledge. Read more about making the plaster casts here.The Mythbusters (nor anyone else for that matter I suspect) simply don’t have the facilities available to recreate the conditions required to make instantly blast heated bodies needed to recreate the Pompeii plaster casts. |
|
|
|
Post by Cybermortis on Jul 23, 2014 2:10:07 GMT
Flash heating might not be a problem, but the ash would be. Anyone with equipment to flash heat bodies to those sort of temperatures is not going to let them dump ash into it seconds later as at best they'd spend the next few months cleaning it off.
|
|
|
|
Post by mrfatso on Jul 23, 2014 10:19:33 GMT
It's an interesting idea but they wouldn't be able to do it for several reasons. Firstly a fresh pig would simply rot, & we all know how much the Mythbusters LOVE the smell of rotting pigs! (Remember the Stinky Car & the Jimmy Hoffa Myths.) The Pompeii casts came about do to a particular set of circumstances. When Vesuvius blew a plume of smoke rocketed 20 miles (32 km) into the air from the volcano & Pompeii and Herculaneum were engulfed in smoke and noxious gasses that spewed forth from the volcano. Although most of the people of Pompeii escaped, at least 2,000 who stayed behind were crushed or buried alive in the ash and rock that rained down from the sky. In addition to clouds of ash and rock came a massive heat wave the bodies at Pompeii were flash heated to death, killed instantly by extreme thermal shock by the volcanic blast. Temperatures outdoors—and indoors—rose up to 300°C [570°F] and more, enough to kill hundreds of people in a fraction of a second. The ash from the pyroclastic blast swept over the victims bodies covering them in the ash which clung to them like wet plaster making the famous ash bodies. 1864 Giuseppe Fiorelli made the first casts by injecting plaster of Paris into the ash body cavities around the skeletons inside. But these days plaster casts are no longer made as they destroy the delicate skeletons within & with them a wealth of scientific knowledge. Read more about making the plaster casts here.The Mythbusters (nor anyone else for that matter I suspect) simply don’t have the facilities available to recreate the conditions required to make instantly blast heated bodies needed to recreate the Pompeii plaster casts. I remember the pigs in a car myth, I guess this would not fly in real terms, but decomposition would be part of the process, they found the remains of the victims in the bottom of the voids, where the flesh had rotted away. It would be difficult to emulate the Pyroclastic flow caused by plume collapse, (I still prefer the old name Nuee Ardente, burning cloud, but that's just me), but simulate it might be possible I think if you where to bury a pig or pig parts in an ash, in a vessels of some kind and the heat the vessel to high temperatures , probes could be placed in side to insure the correct temperature was reached. You may be correct though Lex and LTW, not usable for the show. |
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Jul 30, 2014 7:26:42 GMT
If You Asked nicely?...
The casts in the British museum are "One of many"....
You will find, I believe, that the casts were produced then reproduced many times to give many museums the same display abilities.
I am sure the British museum would be quite happy to show you how the casts were made?....
And reveal how they discovered the ability to do that.
|
|
(Remember the Stinky Car & the Jimmy Hoffa Myths.) The Pompeii casts came about do to a particular set of circumstances.
