I got away from paper-grading (but came back) and went to Freeport,
Grand Bahamas, for a few days in the sun.
While there I watched two people do fire-eating as part of a dance and
magic show. They had sticks with a padded end that appeared to be soaked in
a flammable liquid (alcohol?) that they lit and played with.
One common trick seen often on tv is to put the end in your mouth and put
the flame out. I suspect that the fluid soaked pad does not maintain a hight
temperature when you cut off the air and so it could be done without too
much damage. However, this woman put one out, then held the other one in
her mouth with flames coming out for about 10 seconds and somehow got some
flames to stay in her mouth when she removed the stick and then used those
to re-ignite the one that was not burning.
she also took four of these and ran in up her leg and arm in contact wiht
the skin without apparent burning. When she brought them to me in the audience
fo taking a picture the bundle of four certainly was not something I wanted
to rub on my body.
I have seen Jearl Walker walk on hot coals and stick his finger in boiling hot lead but these do not seem to be using the same phenomenon.
Any clues as to how it is done besides very quickly?
Jim Braunsdorf