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Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My

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Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb. Today is Saturday, so we have

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Speaker 1: a vault episode for you. This is going to be

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Speaker 1: Hair on Fire, Part one, which originally published seven eighteen,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. There's a lot to talk about here, chemistry, mythology.

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Speaker 1: It's one of those episodes. So let's dive right in.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My

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Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Stuff to

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Speaker 3: Blow Your Mind, I wanted to talk about burning hair.

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Speaker 3: That might be a kind of unusually niche or weird

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Speaker 3: thing to look into. But I was inspired to do

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Speaker 3: this a couple of weeks ago, on the fourth of

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Speaker 3: July actually, when I was making food for a for

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Speaker 3: a big family get together. You know, I was out

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Speaker 3: in the backyard grilling, and I did something I have

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Speaker 3: done many times before, which is burn all the hair

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Speaker 3: off part of my arm. Oh no, yeah, turn and look.

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Speaker 3: I mean like I wasn't like badly burned myself, like

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Speaker 3: on my skin. But you know, at some point I

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Speaker 3: look down and realized, like Oh, what are all these

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Speaker 3: weird little kind of pale curls?

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Speaker 1: Oh? I see, Okay, do you say you've done this before?

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Speaker 1: Do you at least alternate arms or is it just

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Speaker 1: always the same arm that it gets?

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Speaker 3: It's always my right arm, because that's the arm I'm

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Speaker 3: right handed doing that, you know, that's what I'm manipulating

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Speaker 3: the food with. You know. Sometimes it's more the hand,

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Speaker 3: like the I don't know if it's gross to talk

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Speaker 3: about your hand hair, like the hair on my knuckles,

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Speaker 3: the hair on my back, the back of my hand

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Speaker 3: that gets burned off. This time it was mainly along

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Speaker 3: like my forearm and the outside of my wrist. I

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Speaker 3: wonder if other grill operators have had similar experiences, because

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Speaker 3: I I never burn my hand or arm here when

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Speaker 3: I'm grilling a small amount of food, like a couple

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Speaker 3: of portions of whatever. It's always when I'm grilling for

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Speaker 3: a big crowd. So I guess it has something to

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Speaker 3: do with like trying to like fit a bunch of

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Speaker 3: different individual items on the grill and then go down

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Speaker 3: the line flipping them or moving them one at a time,

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Speaker 3: and something about that means like I'm holding my arm

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Speaker 3: directly over the hot part of the grill more or something.

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Speaker 1: Well that that would make sense, because I was thinking

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Speaker 1: about this as like, Okay, I don't know that I've

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Speaker 1: ever done this myself, but I think look back on

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Speaker 1: all on the grilling I have done over the years,

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Speaker 1: and it is generally just grilling for probably just for

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Speaker 1: my immediate family, So it's feeling just for like two

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Speaker 1: or three people. It's probably just going to be veggies

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Speaker 1: that aren't on there very long. And yeah, for I

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Speaker 1: guess a variety of reasons, and luck I have not

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Speaker 1: like burnt a lot of arm here on the grill,

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Speaker 1: but I have to, so I have to ask like

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Speaker 1: the follow up questions like what you mentioned what it

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Speaker 1: looked like, but that it was was that the primary

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Speaker 1: way that you realize something had happened or was there

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Speaker 1: also like a skin level sensation And was there a smell? Uh?

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Speaker 3: I mean, there's the feeling of heat obviously, which but

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Speaker 3: that's just naturally the air, because like I'm reaching over

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Speaker 3: a hot fire, I think there is a smell normal.

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Speaker 3: In fact, I would say that the smell is probably

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Speaker 3: the most characteristic and instantly recognizable sensory part of the

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Speaker 3: burning hair experience, right. I mean, almost anybody I think

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Speaker 3: can immediately think of the smell of burning hair. It

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Speaker 3: seems to stick in people's minds, even if hair burning

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Speaker 3: is like not something that happens very often to them.

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Speaker 3: It's just sort of I don't know, do you know

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Speaker 3: what I mean, Like it just sort of like sticks

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Speaker 3: in your memory. What that smells like?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'd be kind of wired, I guess,

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Speaker 1: to recognize.

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Speaker 3: It specifically in the context of grilling, though. There are

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Speaker 3: already a lot of volatiles in the air, there's a

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Speaker 3: lot of smoke, a lot of particles and everything. It's

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Speaker 3: an intense smell experience already, so I think the smell

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Speaker 3: of the burning hair, especially if there's only a little

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Speaker 3: bit of it, just kind of blends in more. You

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Speaker 3: might not notice that first. In this case, Yeah, I

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Speaker 3: remember just like looking down at my arm the part

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Speaker 3: that had been hot, and being like, oh, yeah, that

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Speaker 3: happened again.

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Speaker 1: Okay that yeah, that would make sense. There are a

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Speaker 1: lot of competing smells going on there. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, this experience got me wondering about the science

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Speaker 3: of burning hair. I started to wonder, you know, some

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Speaker 3: questions about the basic science and chemistry involved here, like

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Speaker 3: how flammable is human hair and why does it smell

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Speaker 3: that way? And so forth. I was looking around for

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Speaker 3: good sources on the question of the sort of the

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Speaker 3: underlying chemistry of the smell of burning hair, and basically

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Speaker 3: the best sources I found pointed me to the presence

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Speaker 3: of sulfur. Of course, hair is mostly made of keratin,

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Speaker 3: which is primarily protein, and of course those proteins, when

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Speaker 3: they're burned, release their own sort of there are characteristic

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Speaker 3: protein burning smells that we might associate with the burning

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Speaker 3: of other types of skin and even fingernails and things

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Speaker 3: like that. But a big thing is the presence of sulfur.

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Speaker 3: According to a paper that I'm going to mention in

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Speaker 3: a little bit, human hair is approximately five percent sulfur,

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Speaker 3: and that sulfur content is largely responsible for the characteristic smell.

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Speaker 3: And this is interesting to me because it explains a similarity,

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Speaker 3: at least as far as I can remember. That burning hair,

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Speaker 3: to me, smells a little bit like lighting a match.

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Speaker 3: Lighting a match produces the distinctive smell of sulfur dioxide

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Speaker 3: or generally sulfur compounds, which happened because there is usually

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Speaker 3: sulfur content in a match head. It's part of what

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Speaker 3: burns to set the match alight. As a side note,

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Speaker 3: apparently it is kind of known that you can temporarily

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Speaker 3: mask other unpleasant smells. A commonly referenced one is the

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Speaker 3: smell of feces by striking a match. Have you ever

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Speaker 3: heard this before?

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Speaker 1: Rob, Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, you know. I mean

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Speaker 1: sometimes you even see that in at least residential bathrooms.

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Speaker 1: You know, there will be like some matches out by

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Speaker 1: the bathroom facilities, that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that's interesting. I don't know if I ever made

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Speaker 3: that connection, I would have assumed that if there were

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Speaker 3: matches out, they're usually paired with the candle, and the

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Speaker 3: idea is that you would use the matches to light

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Speaker 3: like a pleasantly scented candle. And I always understood that

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Speaker 3: as the ideas you would use a pleasantly scented candle

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Speaker 3: to mask the smell of feces in a bathroom or something.

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Speaker 1: I guess often but not always, I guess. And then

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Speaker 1: there is also like the kind of just a saying

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Speaker 1: right like, oh, there's a bad smell that may be

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Speaker 1: associated with digestion. Someone will be like, oh, somebody light

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Speaker 1: a match, you know.

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Speaker 3: Oh okay, well, I may have misunderstood those sayings as well.

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Speaker 3: I probably would interpret that as like, I don't know,

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Speaker 3: what's the polite way of putting it, lighting afart kind

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Speaker 3: of comment.

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Speaker 1: Well, I don't Well, I'm not sure that that was

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Speaker 1: the level of excitement, Like it's a bad smell in here,

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Speaker 1: let's see if it can busts. It's more like there's

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Speaker 1: an unpleasant odor. Let us light a match so that

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Speaker 1: the smell of that struck match might mask the stink

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Speaker 1: that has enveloped us.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, Well, so now I'm understanding several things about

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Speaker 3: the world differently than I did before this conversation. But anyway,

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Speaker 3: so it makes me think about I see like a

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Speaker 3: candle in the bathroom and some matches. Maybe I'm thinking

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Speaker 3: about the mechanism differently. It's actually the lighting of the

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Speaker 3: match more so than the candle that helps, sort of

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Speaker 3: like calm your mind about the smells in there. But anyway,

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Speaker 3: the idea is that the sulfur compounds released by striking

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Speaker 3: a match overpower other smells in our olfactory recognition. I

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Speaker 3: have seen it written in a couple of places that

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Speaker 3: the idea is when you strike a match, like it

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Speaker 3: burns up the bad gases responsible for causing the smell

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Speaker 3: in the air. That does not seem to be true.

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Speaker 3: It's more kind of like your your nose and your

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Speaker 3: brain are primed to just let the smell of the

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Speaker 3: struck match. I think this will be primarily the smell

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Speaker 3: of sulfur dioxide. It just take over your smell sensing abilities.

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Speaker 3: But it makes me wonder if the burning of hair

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Speaker 3: also releases these sulfur compounds that are responsible for the

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Speaker 3: characteristic smell, if you could likewise cover up the you know,

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Speaker 3: these unpleasant body body aromas, fecal smells and stuff by

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Speaker 3: burning hair.

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Speaker 1: Well we're not advising that, no, no, but but just

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Speaker 1: from like a chemical standpoint, okay, perhaps so.

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Speaker 3: One of the most surprising and interesting things I discovered

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Speaker 3: by looking into these questions about about the science of

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Speaker 3: burning hair was that some of the best research I

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Speaker 3: could find on this came from studies about hair catching

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Speaker 3: on fire in spaceships.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, attack ships on fire off the shoulder of.

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Speaker 3: Orion, right, yeah. Yeah. So the main paper I was

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Speaker 3: looking at is called the Flammability of Human Hair in

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Speaker 3: Exploration atmospheres from the year two thousand and nine in

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Speaker 3: the SAE Journal International Journal of Aerospace by Sandra L. Olson,

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Speaker 3: Devon W. Griffin, David L. Urban, Gary A. Ruff, and

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Speaker 3: Elizabeth A. Smith. And so the authors here begin by

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Speaker 3: referencing an older study that I'll mention in a second

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Speaker 3: that says, the flammability of both skin and hair has

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Speaker 3: actually been a subject of major concern since the early

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Speaker 3: stages of the US base program. And they refer back

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Speaker 3: to an older paper, one from nineteen sixty eight by

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Speaker 3: Robert L. Durfey, called the Flammability of Skin and Hair

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Speaker 3: in Oxygen Enriched Atmospheres. This was published in in the

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Speaker 3: Or as part of a USAF School of Aerospace Medicine

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Speaker 3: technical report. This was from December nineteen sixty eight, and

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Speaker 3: durfy begins this study from sixty eight by saying, quote,

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Speaker 3: observations after recent fires involving human subjects in oxygen atmospheres

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Speaker 3: indicate that the humans may have contributed to the spread

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Speaker 3: of fires through combustion of their skin and hair. So

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Speaker 3: obviously that's quite morbid. But I was wondering what this

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Speaker 3: refers to, and I figured that since this was published

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Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty eight. I think it almost certainly must

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Speaker 3: be referring, at least in part to the tragedy of

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Speaker 3: the Apollo one fire, which killed three astronauts on January

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Speaker 3: twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven. Those astronauts were Gus Grissom,

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Speaker 3: Ed White and Roger B. Chaffey, and they died during

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Speaker 3: a launch test that was less than a month before

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Speaker 3: the scheduled mission, so they weren't actually in space. It

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Speaker 3: was a ground test on Earth before the launch of

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Speaker 3: an orbital mission. And the tragedy was that a flash

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Speaker 3: fire broke out inside the cabin of the command module.

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Speaker 3: The fire probably started with There could have been several

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Speaker 3: ignition points, but it may have been an electrical arc

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Speaker 3: from faulty wiring, maybe connected to some kind of chemical present,

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Speaker 3: like a volume of anti freeze fluid called glycol. But

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Speaker 3: however it started, it spread very rapidly due to the

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Speaker 3: enriched oxygen atmosphere pressurized inside the cabin. It was basically

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Speaker 3: pure oxygen in there, and due to a variety of

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Speaker 3: combustible materials spread throughout the cabin interior. Now, remember, as

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Speaker 3: we've talked about on the show before, fire needs three

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Speaker 3: things to burn, it needs heat, it needs fuel, and

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Speaker 3: it needs oxygen. Obviously, in this scenario there could have

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Speaker 3: been an initial heat source, some kind of ignition point.

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Speaker 3: There would have been lots of oxygen because it was

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Speaker 3: a pure oxygen atmosphere inside the command module. And so

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Speaker 3: the question is what was the fuel and what was

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Speaker 3: the fuel roll of very substances, including parts of human

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Speaker 3: bodies inside the command module. And so this study was

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Speaker 3: looking into human hair and skin, and so one thing

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Speaker 3: it says that is that taken as a whole, even

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Speaker 3: with enriched oxygen around, human skin is not especially flammable

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Speaker 3: because it has a lot of water in it, right,

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Speaker 3: So there is a major heat sink in human bodies

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Speaker 3: where heat has to be continually applied from the outside

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Speaker 3: in order for it to burn. There's a lot of water.

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Speaker 3: That water must be turned into water vapor, so it

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Speaker 3: doesn't catch fire easily. However, there are sort of little

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Speaker 3: layers on the outside of skin and also hair, which

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Speaker 3: can catch fire in enriched oxygen environments much more easily.

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Speaker 3: This study from sixty eight found that a high concentration

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Speaker 3: of inert helium in the air in an environment, in

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Speaker 3: this case seventy five percent helium would prevent hair from

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Speaker 3: burning at regular atmospheric pressure. And the study also tested

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Speaker 3: various protective measures such as smearing the skin and hair

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Speaker 3: with protective lotions and greases and covering it with flame

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Speaker 3: repellent cloth.

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Speaker 1: Was just shaving off all the hair just not an option?

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Speaker 1: Seems like if I got to choose between the two

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Speaker 1: for my space mission, I would just say, well, can

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Speaker 1: we just buzz it all off?

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Speaker 3: That is an option that is discussed in the two

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Speaker 3: thousand and nine paper, which I'll come back to now.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, So initially they cite the Durfy study and

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Speaker 3: they say, as a general matter, there are several factors

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Speaker 3: to consider that could increase the risk of fires within

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Speaker 3: spacecraft or space exploration testing environments. And a big one

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Speaker 3: they call out is the same thing we were just

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Speaker 3: talking about, elevated oxygen levels. So in some cases ambient

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Speaker 3: within spacecraft, but also in cases where supplemental oxygen is

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Speaker 3: being provided through a mask. Now, when would there be

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Speaker 3: supplemental oxygen inside a spacecraft? You could say possibly in

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Speaker 3: a medical intervention for ill or injured crew member. They

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Speaker 3: might have extra oxygen supplied to them. This is common

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Speaker 3: in hospitals on Earth as well, or possibly during emergencies

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Speaker 3: such as the leak of toxic chemicals or in fighting

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Speaker 3: a pre existing fire. Now, the authors point out something

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Speaker 3: interesting about the case of breathing pure oxygen through a mask.

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Speaker 3: They say, quote, for every breath of pure oxygen breathed in,

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Speaker 3: the exhaled breath still contains ninety five percent of the oxygen.

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Speaker 3: This creates an environment of increased oxygen near the head

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Speaker 3: and chest. Now, I did not know that, and don't

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Speaker 3: think I would have thought about that before, but from

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Speaker 3: what I looked up in other sources, yes, this seems right.

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Speaker 3: In breathing say normal air on Earth, which is roughly

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Speaker 3: twenty one percent oxygen and the rest is mostly nitrogen.

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Speaker 3: In rough terms, that air on Earth. You know, if

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Speaker 3: you say twenty percent is oxygen, about fifteen percent of

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Speaker 3: the air you breathe out is oc oxygen. So what

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Speaker 3: happened to that missing five percent of the air? Well,

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Speaker 3: about five percent of the air is oxygen that is

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Speaker 3: absorbed by the lungs. So when you breathe in, you

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Speaker 3: absorb about five percent of the air, about a quarter

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Speaker 3: of the total oxygen content of the air. And then

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Speaker 3: that oxygen is replaced mostly with carbon dioxide when you

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Speaker 3: breathe out, so that leaves you with what the author said,

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Speaker 3: if you're breathing pure oxygen, say through a mask, in

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Speaker 3: one of these scenarios, what you breathe out would be

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Speaker 3: roughly ninety five percent oxygen, So the area around your

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Speaker 3: head as you're exhaling is going to have a lot

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Speaker 3: more oxygen in it than it normally would. Now note,

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Speaker 3: with regard to ambient oxygen, the oxygen levels used in

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Speaker 3: like different space exploration and environments have varied. The International

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Speaker 3: Space Station actually maintains roughly the Earth's atmosphere mixture of

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Speaker 3: gases in the air, so about twenty one percent oxygen.

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Speaker 3: The rest is nitrogen, but the nitrogen has to be

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Speaker 3: supplied through through like bringing up tanks of nitrogen to

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Speaker 3: make up that difference. So that and other considerations have

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Speaker 3: led people to plan that in some other cases there

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Speaker 3: might be higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere breathed

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Speaker 3: within space exploration contexts in the future. The authors cite

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Speaker 3: a few other examples. They cite past examples as well.

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Speaker 3: They say the Apollo missions and sky Lab used higher

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Speaker 3: oxygen levels, and as of the time of this paper,

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Speaker 3: there were plans for other missions that the authors say

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Speaker 3: would have used higher oxygen concentrations. They cite the Orion

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Speaker 3: Crew exploration vehicle. They cite the Altai Lander, which would

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Speaker 3: have been at the time this mission was planned, would

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Speaker 3: have been a landing vehicle for a US mission returning

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Speaker 3: to the Moon. And they also talk about higher oxygen

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Speaker 3: concentrations in possible lunar surface habitats. So there would be

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Speaker 3: numerous scenarios where you're in a space exploration context and

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Speaker 3: you would have increased oxygen levels. Either there's just ambiently

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Speaker 3: increased oxygen in the particular mission or vehicle you're talking about,

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Speaker 3: or you might be needing to give somebody oxygen for

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Speaker 3: some reason, in which case there would be in much

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Speaker 3: increased oxygen around their head and chest. The authors also

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Speaker 3: point out that certain medical interventions could provide ignition points,

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Speaker 3: such as you could potentially start a fire during defibrillation,

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Speaker 3: and this could happen even on Earth, And I was like, really, yes,

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Speaker 3: I went and read about this. It seems to put

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Speaker 3: some fears at rest. It is very rare. This is

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Speaker 3: not something that commonly happens, but there have been reported cases.

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Speaker 3: For example, the following study. I was looking at a

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Speaker 3: study published in the Journal of the American College of

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Speaker 3: Cardiology by Sanchez at All from the year twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 3: It talks about a case where a seventy two year

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Speaker 3: old male showed up at the emergency room. He was

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Speaker 3: suffering atrial fibrillation, an erratic elevated heart rate, and there

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Speaker 3: were several interventions, including the use of a defibrillator to

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Speaker 3: stabilize the regular heartbeat. So they put the leads on

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Speaker 3: your chest and they send a charge to try to

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Speaker 3: synchronize the muscles of the heart. The report says, quote,

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Speaker 3: the defibrillator pads ignited in flames after the defibrillation button

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Speaker 3: was pressed. The betting and oxygen mask also caught fire.

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Speaker 3: Now that's something you don't usually think of happening. However,

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Speaker 3: the authors stressed that this is extremely rare. They say

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Speaker 3: there are only two known cases in the medical literature

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Speaker 3: that they could identify. And also fortunately the patient did

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Speaker 3: not suffer actually suffer burn injuries. What was burned appeared

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Speaker 3: to be the pads and the patient's body hair in

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Speaker 3: some parts of the betting. But they say to avoid

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Speaker 3: this happening. There are several steps you can do. Of course,

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Speaker 3: the increased oxygen from supplemental oxygen probably contributed here. So

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Speaker 3: they say you can remove or place oxygen masks or

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Speaker 3: nasal canul of further away from the patient's chest when

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Speaker 3: you're doing a defibrillation charge. They say that you can

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Speaker 3: prepare the pads better, make sure that they have complete

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Speaker 3: attachment to the chest wall. They say chest hair should

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Speaker 3: be trimmed ideally, that that helps, and they also say

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Speaker 3: avoid alcohol products during the preparation for the defib anyway,

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Speaker 3: so that was sort of a tangent. But defibrillation is

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Speaker 3: one of the scenarios the author is mentioned that could

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Speaker 3: possibly provide an ignition point in space. But coming back

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Speaker 3: to the burning hair in space study, the authors also

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Speaker 3: mentioned cauterization as a medical procedure that could provide increased

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Speaker 3: risk of fire in an oxygen enriched environment. So you

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Speaker 3: pair the oxygen ch atmosphere in some spacecraft and space

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Speaker 3: exploration environments with various ignitionen scenarios and you've got the

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Speaker 3: heat and the oxygen. So the third ingredient is fuel.

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Speaker 3: And here the authors point to the presence of potentially

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Speaker 3: flammable clothing and hair. Now, in addition to the medical

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Speaker 3: ignition scenarios mentioned above, like defibrillation and cauterization, the author

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Speaker 3: is note the conclusion of previous research, especially regarding Apollo one,

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Speaker 3: that it should basically be considered impossible to eliminate all

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Speaker 3: ignition sources in a spacecraft environment. You're always going to

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Speaker 3: have things that could generate sparks or electrical arcs or

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Speaker 3: hot surfaces. So the best way to limit the risk

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Speaker 3: of fire is to control access of those ignition sources

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Speaker 3: to fuel by removing combustible materials or making them less combustible.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've been watching enough alien movies recently to

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Speaker 1: of course know that standard issue. If you're going on

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Speaker 1: a space mission, you have a flamethrower on board, you

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Speaker 1: have or at least a flame or unit. I don't

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Speaker 1: think it's it's necessary. It's not nothing that's supposed to

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Speaker 1: be like spitting jelly gasoline or anything like that, Like

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Speaker 1: not a military flamethrower, but still a unit that shoots

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Speaker 1: a big plume of fire at things.

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Speaker 3: Do they have that, that's a good question. Is there

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Speaker 3: an industrial use or do they make them? Maybe they

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Speaker 3: make them now that.

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Speaker 1: I I think sometimes that's the case, But I don't

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Speaker 1: know the best I could do putting this together, watching

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Speaker 1: the films in the back of my mind, always thinking

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Speaker 1: like flame is probably not a great idea in an enclosed,

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Speaker 1: sealed environment without even factoring in and all the stuff

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Speaker 1: we've been talking about here. But I'm guessing you could

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Speaker 1: make a case for Okay, if you are dealing with

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Speaker 1: some sort of a life form situa biological threat, like

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Speaker 1: some sort of a bug, not a full blown xenomorph,

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Speaker 1: you know, but just kind of whatever is expected to occur,

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Speaker 1: then I guess you can make a case for a

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Speaker 1: flame unit. And then on top of that, if you're

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Speaker 1: looking at some sort of a potential like boarding scenario,

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Speaker 1: like a boarding action, like people coming on your ship.

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Speaker 1: They aren't supposed to be there and you want to

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Speaker 1: encourage them to leave or to back off. I guess

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Speaker 1: a flame unit you could make some sort of a

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Speaker 1: case that a flame unit is better than a gun

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Speaker 1: could potentially puncture the whole. But I don't know. Okay,

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Speaker 1: once you factor all this in, though, is the risk

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Speaker 1: of fire greater. I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I think we'll have to assume that, like the Nostromo

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Speaker 3: and other alien environments just use they're more like the ISS,

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Speaker 3: like they supply the nitrogen, they have a more earth

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Speaker 3: like atmosphere rather than the oxygen enriched atmospheres that would

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Speaker 3: increase the risk of using flames.

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Speaker 1: Sure, Plus everything's a little bit wet on the Nostromo,

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Speaker 1: so maybe that helps now.

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Speaker 3: The authors of this paper note that a lot of

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Speaker 3: individual mission durations are short enough that astronauts don't need

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Speaker 3: to cut their hair in space, but even that does

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Speaker 3: happen sometimes. The space haircuts are real. They include a

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Speaker 3: photo from the ISS of a space haircut where Russian

403
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Speaker 3: cosmonaut Valerie Corzun is doing a haircut for the American

404
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Speaker 3: astronaut Peggy Whitson in the year two thousand and two.

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Speaker 3: And you can see like he's got the scissors and

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Speaker 3: a comb in his hands, and she's holding a like

407
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Speaker 3: a hose up by her head. It's a vacuum cleaner hose.

408
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Speaker 3: And I guess that's to suck in all the clippings

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Speaker 3: right as their release, because man, you think hair gets

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Speaker 3: everywhere during a normal Earth haircut with regular gravity, you know,

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Speaker 3: I feel like I get a haircut and days later

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Speaker 3: I'm still finding hair. It's like I'm not even wearing

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Speaker 3: the same clothes. What's going on? But yeah, so in

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Speaker 3: microgravity you could imagine it's a real headache.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like you got to make a strong

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Speaker 1: case for that haircut and or be really good with

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Speaker 1: that vacuum huze.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, given all these considerations, it's important to know

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Speaker 3: for planning future space missions in these abnormal atmospheric and

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Speaker 3: gravity conditions, and especially in more unique scenarios where you

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Speaker 3: would need to supply somebody with supplemental oxygen, how flammable

422
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 3: are the fuel sources you would find inside a spaceship.

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Speaker 3: And in the case of this study, they looked into

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Speaker 3: how flammable is human hair with these increased concentrations of oxygen.

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Speaker 3: So the authors did some experiments. They tried to stimulate

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Speaker 3: what it's like in various space exploration environments using an

427
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Speaker 3: apparatus called a low speed flow tunnel, where you maintain

428
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 3: a forced flow of a controlled gas mixture. In this case,

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Speaker 3: it was mounted inside of a NASA Zero Gravity Research

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Speaker 3: Facility drop rig, so that was to simulate different gravity conditions.

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Speaker 3: They tried a few different lengths and styles of human hair,

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Speaker 3: they mounted them on a rack and they said that

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Speaker 3: basically the flame spread was pretty similar for the different

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Speaker 3: hairstyles tested different lengths. The spread was sort of quick

435
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,879
Speaker 3: at first over the sort of frizzy outer layer of

436
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,639
Speaker 3: the surface of a hair mass, and then would be followed,

437
00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:38,920
Speaker 3: especially in the cases of longer hair where there's a

438
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 3: lot of hair, followed by quote continued bulk burning. And

439
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 3: they found that, oh yeah, it is absolutely right that

440
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 3: increasing oxygen will increase the flame spread rate of hair significantly.

441
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 3: They say it's by more than an order of magnitude,

442
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 3: so it's major. And Rabbi included a couple of pictures

443
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:00,840
Speaker 3: for you to look at here of what the hair

444
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 3: looked like after being exposed to fire in normal atmosphere

445
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 3: versus in a thirty percent oxygen atmosphere, and it's a

446
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 3: major difference. The thirty percent oxygen one looks way more

447
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 3: like a matted mass of keratin ash goo. Oh yeah, absolutely, Chris,

448
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 3: So this is something that I don't think I ever

449
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 3: would have thought of before, but the authors say, yes,

450
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 3: their findings show that quote in the elevated oxygen concentration

451
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:32,440
Speaker 3: environments planned for future exploration missions, hair flammability becomes an

452
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 3: important consideration for cru safety. With the high flame spread

453
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 3: rates reported here, an astronaut's entire head would be engulfed

454
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:43,719
Speaker 3: in flames in seconds, and serious injury could occur before

455
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,400
Speaker 3: the flames are extinguished. It is suggested that acceptable mitigation

456
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,959
Speaker 3: strategies such as hair coverings be adopted and shaving be encouraged.

457
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,320
Speaker 3: And they talk about a number of different interventions you

458
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 3: could employ soul. Yeah, you could like cut hair. You

459
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,879
Speaker 3: could shave parts of the body. You could shave the head.

460
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 3: You could cover the hair with flame retardant kind of

461
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:10,920
Speaker 3: hair coverings and materials. You can put flame resistant gels

462
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 3: and jellies in the hair. They mentioned several of these

463
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 3: that in some cases are used and have been used.

464
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 3: So there are different interventions you could do. But ultimately

465
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:24,879
Speaker 3: they say, if you have elevated oxygen levels and you

466
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,159
Speaker 3: are trying to prevent fires, you really do need to

467
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 3: think about human hair.

468
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: Wow, you know, I can't help but think about like

469
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 1: the sci fi ramifications. And on one level, I love

470
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:37,879
Speaker 1: the idea of like hairless shaved astronauts. You know that

471
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 1: you have removed all their hair in order to prevent

472
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 1: this from happening. But On the other hand, I kind

473
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 1: of like the idea of a bunch of astronauts that

474
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: are using some sort of especially made palmade Yeah, and

475
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 1: I'll have some sort of like a maybe slicked back

476
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: greaser look going on with this special space space goop.

477
00:26:54,840 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, everybody looks like John Travolta. They in grease. They've

478
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 3: all got the space pompadoors that the Yeah, the flame

479
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 3: retardant jelly in there.

480
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, like the Misfits right where they have the hair

481
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,360
Speaker 1: all crafted. Now, I got to keep an eye out

482
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 1: for it. I keep watching all these space movies, and

483
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,920
Speaker 1: I have not been paying enough attention to everyone's hairstyles.

484
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: Which space movie has the has the most slicked back hair?

485
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: Where is the most palmate employed in science fiction? I'm

486
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: gonna have to be on the lookout for it now.

487
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 3: So anyway, this is one of these classic rabbit holes

488
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 3: I love on our show that I would not have

489
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 3: expected to go in this direction at all. I was

490
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 3: initially just looking into, like what's going on with the

491
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 3: with the chemistry of burning hair, and I ended up

492
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 3: with the threats of hair catching on fire in space.

493
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,359
Speaker 1: You know, we mentioned boarding actions earlier, and one of

494
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 1: the first places that my mind went when we started

495
00:27:56,160 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 1: looking into this was what about Blackbeard the Pirate. So

496
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: black Beard the Pirate was, of course a real person

497
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:12,640
Speaker 1: that has been mythologized and fictionalized to varying degrees over time,

498
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 1: but this was an actual pirate, Edward Teach, who reportedly

499
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 1: lives sixteen eighty through seventeen eighteen. And yeah, there's a

500
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: great deal of legend about this man, including the idea

501
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 1: that he would affix slow matches. Sometimes these are just

502
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 1: called fuses, but slow matches were they would have all

503
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: like coils of this stuff. They burned slow, as the

504
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: name implies, they burned very hot, and they're used for

505
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 1: igniting like the fuses for cannons, explosive materials, grenades, that

506
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 1: sort of thing, but also of course could be used

507
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 1: to like light pipes and so forth.

508
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 3: I think even at the time, well I don't know

509
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 3: if exactly at this time, but they were used, and

510
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 3: even handheld firearms at the time, like muskets and stuff

511
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 3: would have like they'd have like a powder pan with

512
00:28:58,360 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 3: a slow match that ignited it.

513
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so it would be common to have these

514
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: on hand. But of course part of the mystique of

515
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: black beard, is that he wouldn't just have burning slow matches,

516
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: say on his belt or whatnot, He would have them

517
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: under his hat. And I think this sometimes gets conflated

518
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: into being like woven into his hair or even in

519
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: his beard anyway that you frame it slow matches in

520
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 1: very close proximity to what is generally described and or

521
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 1: depicted as wild hair and beard. You know, Like the

522
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: idea here is that he would do this before array,

523
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 1: before a boarding action, to make himself look more fearsome

524
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: with those smoking fuses, with like the little pinpoints of

525
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 1: red ember sticking out on either side of his fearsome head.

526
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 3: So, of course I'm familiar with the story. I've heard

527
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 3: it many times, but this is one of those things

528
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 3: that has never made sense to me because I think, like,

529
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 3: how how do you actually do that and like operate

530
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 3: like move around and stuff with things on fire tangled

531
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,720
Speaker 3: in your beard, And wouldn't it be producing some amount

532
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 3: of smoke or fumes at least would it beginning in

533
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 3: your face? I don't know.

534
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's a very just few intensive

535
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: environment anyway, if their cannons going off, muskets firing, and

536
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 1: then you know, folks are smoking as well. That's something

537
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: worth noting, I guess is I've never been a smoker. Smokers,

538
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: of course, by practice, are going to have frequently have

539
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: burning objects in close proximity to their hair and beard,

540
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: and may have additional thoughts in all of this, like

541
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: I don't know how often, how often, say, just a

542
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: smoker of cigarettes with a prominent beard would encounter some

543
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: sort of a beard burn scenario. But then again again

544
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 1: we have to remember that a slow match would have

545
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 1: I believe burnt much hotter than your average cigarette or

546
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: pipe or whatnot. Yeah, anyway, so yeah, I had questions

547
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 1: about this too, like did he really do this? Was

548
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: this safe? I mean, I'm not particularly worried about Blackbeard's

549
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,959
Speaker 1: personal safety toil, but is this feasible? And so I

550
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 1: was looking around at some serious texts about Blackbeard and pirates,

551
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 1: and a number of them, number of them didn't really

552
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: do much deliberation on this point. They just kind of

553
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 1: mention it. And there's you know, there's a lot of

554
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: there's a lot more pressing history to discuss here, So

555
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 1: not a slide at those sources at all. I also

556
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: ran across at least a few more casual commentators who

557
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: dismissed it as a myth because they said, well, this

558
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: would have surely caught his hair on fire, so it

559
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: you know, he almost certainly didn't do it. But I

560
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: did finally find discussion of it in Dinnerson Little's twenty

561
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 1: sixteen book The Golden Age of Piracy, The Truth behind

562
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: Pirate Myths, and so he attributes, you know, a lot

563
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: of this myth making to Captain Charles Johnson's seventeen twenty

564
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: four book A General History of the Robberies and Murders

565
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: of the most most Notorious Pirates that's spelled p y

566
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: R A T E S.

567
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 3: Gotta love pirate with y Yeah.

568
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 1: And we have to note that the actual identity of

569
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: this author remains unknown. There is apparently no record of

570
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: such a Captain Johnson, and some have even argued that

571
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: the author here is actually Daniel Defoe. Yeah, of Robinson Crusoe, Yeah, exactly.

572
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: So we ultimately don't know for sure. I think historians

573
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: kind of go back and forth with different theories, but

574
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: it seems to be agreed upon that whoever wrote this,

575
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 1: they had some talent for fiction. They also had a

576
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: great love of facts and details, and the resulting work

577
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 1: is kind of a mix of the two. So you

578
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: have you do have some factual information that's very helpful

579
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,239
Speaker 1: to the historian, but you also have plenty of just

580
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: blatant fiction mixed in as well.

581
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 3: Oh well, that kind of source is in a way great.

582
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 3: I mean, it makes it not as very frustrating as

583
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 3: a historical source, but also an interesting problem for historians.

584
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 1: Right right now, on the slow match in or adjacent

585
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 1: to the hair, in particular, the author little here adds

586
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: the following quote. Still pirates, privateers, merchant seamen and naval

587
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: seamen tasked with throwing grenades in battle sometimes carried the

588
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: burning slow match needed to light the grenade fuses in

589
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,760
Speaker 1: their hats, but it was more usual to tie it

590
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 1: around a wrist or pin it to their clothing or

591
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: hat with a match case. Although one image of Jean Bart,

592
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: the famous French privateer in the service of France, shows

593
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 1: him with a length of lighted match held in his teeth.

594
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 1: Ugh and so he adds that Captain Johnson or whoever

595
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 1: was behind that pseudonym, would have surely seen the image

596
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 1: in question. They would have been familiar with this idea.

597
00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 1: This image of Bart, and so he and he also

598
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 1: points out that the slow match again burns slow but

599
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:48,080
Speaker 1: very hot by design in order to light fuses that,

600
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 1: despite what movies and looney tune cartoons portray, can be

601
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 1: rather hard to light. That's why you need a slow fuse.

602
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: You can't just you know, you couldn't just strike a

603
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: match and so forth. You need something hot and more

604
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 1: or less consistent. And then this is where he finally

605
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: gets to the part. This is where Little gets to

606
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,920
Speaker 1: the part that I was wondering about. He adds, quote,

607
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:11,240
Speaker 1: slow matches could thus easily ignite hair, and a pirate's greasy, tarry,

608
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: flaming beard would have been a hellish spectacle and one

609
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: probably never repeat it. So I guess that's as close

610
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,600
Speaker 1: to an answer as I could really find. Basically, like, yes,

611
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: slow matches on the hat, in the hat and so forth,

612
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 1: that's going to be expected to a degree, But there's

613
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: like a fine line. You wouldn't want to push it

614
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,919
Speaker 1: too far, and if someone did push it too far,

615
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 1: it would be notable. You know, that pirate would ever,

616
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: would forever be remembered as the guy whose head went

617
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: up in a ball of fire because he was trying

618
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,319
Speaker 1: to be a little bit too dramatic in the boarding action,

619
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:50,800
Speaker 1: and other pirates would decide, well, you know, I'll just

620
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,320
Speaker 1: keep it on the hat. Maybe I'll just tie it

621
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:53,800
Speaker 1: to the wrist.

622
00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,360
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think. Okay, so that's sort of a

623
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 3: count against this story, I guess, of black Beard putting

624
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:03,960
Speaker 3: them in beard. I wonder is it possible that along

625
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 3: the lines of this, like NASA research we're looking at

626
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:09,320
Speaker 3: where you could put some kind of gels or jellies,

627
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 3: you know, flame resistant gels or jellies in the hair.

628
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 3: There's something that would have been available in the seventeenth

629
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 3: or eighteenth century. You could like wax your beard with

630
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 3: a flame resistant material that would like prevent it from

631
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 3: catching on fire. I'm just spitballing here.

632
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 1: I guess. So, I mean, two things we have to

633
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,600
Speaker 1: consider about pirates without going into a deep dive on

634
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,399
Speaker 1: like the actual realities of pirates, is that in some

635
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 1: cases these were learned men or women, you know, that

636
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,799
Speaker 1: that might be pretty to information like that that would

637
00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: be useful. Also, that they could just be clever enough

638
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:46,920
Speaker 1: to figure out something that would work if they were

639
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 1: that attached to this dramatic flare they had in mind.

640
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 1: But On the other hand, I feel like, you know,

641
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 1: pirates are making bad life choices, so that can include,

642
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 1: you know, risk your head going up in flames.

643
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 3: More thoughts about the beard, Okay, I can imagine the

644
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:07,800
Speaker 3: plausibility of it would be affected by I think, how

645
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,920
Speaker 3: long the slow match you're putting in the beard is? Like,

646
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,759
Speaker 3: if it's significantly long and hanging out, that sort of

647
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,960
Speaker 3: gets it away from your face. But the longer the

648
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 3: match you put in, the heavier it would be, in

649
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 3: which case I would think, how do you get it

650
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:23,239
Speaker 3: to stay in the beard? Do you literally have to

651
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 3: like tie it inside a braid in your beard or something,

652
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 3: so you know what I'm saying, like just sticking it

653
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 3: in there? I don't know. I mean, beard hair can

654
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 3: be kind of thick and tangly, so you can imagine

655
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:38,719
Speaker 3: sticking something in a beard that's not very heavy and

656
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,240
Speaker 3: it stays there. But I don't know, a significant length

657
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 3: of something like rope or a slow match seems like

658
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:45,759
Speaker 3: that would start getting heavy enough to just fall out.

659
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 1: Yeah. Going back to some of these illustrations, these classic

660
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,600
Speaker 1: illustrations of black Beard, I guess the idea is that

661
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 1: he would take a length of slow match like place

662
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,120
Speaker 1: it over his head and then put the hat on

663
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: top of it, and then you have either end of

664
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:05,440
Speaker 1: the slow match sticking out on each side. Still I

665
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:07,799
Speaker 1: think too close for comfort to the rest of his

666
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:11,320
Speaker 1: hair and his beard. But the way it's physician, maybe

667
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 1: it has the burning tips of the matches sticking out

668
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: to either side.

669
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 3: Ah yeah, Okay, I guess that's more plausible because I

670
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 3: was imagining it literally being just in the beard, tangled

671
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 3: in the beard.

672
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 2: Man.

673
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: I think it sometimes gets conflated to that, either through

674
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 1: storytelling and embellishment or just by looking at a picture

675
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:33,239
Speaker 1: like this, where like the famous illustration in question, it's

676
00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 1: like his beard is already in kind of like squidlike arms,

677
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,360
Speaker 1: like like dreads, and then the slow match also looks

678
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:43,239
Speaker 1: like a dread coming out on either side of his

679
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 1: head that is then producing smoke.

680
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 3: Okay, but I see I was mentally personally supplying some

681
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:52,200
Speaker 3: of the more implausible elements myself there that it was

682
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,520
Speaker 3: like necessarily said to be in the beard. That's maybe

683
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:58,040
Speaker 3: a less common variation on the idea, but.

684
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: I think it's out there. Like I said, there's so

685
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 1: much you know, myth making and an exaggeration in pirate

686
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: mythology that I think it just inevitably goes there. All right. Well,

687
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 1: on that note, I think we're going to go ahead

688
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: and call this part one, but we will be back

689
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 1: for a second episode. I think this is just going

690
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,400
Speaker 1: to be a two parter. But in the next episode

691
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 1: we'll get a little bit into the idea of the

692
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: quest for flaming hair and flaming beards and mythology and folklore.

693
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,359
Speaker 1: We'll also get into some examples from antiquity, so I think,

694
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 1: and probably some other angles as well that we haven't

695
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: worked out just yet. But yeah, we thought this was

696
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:39,399
Speaker 1: going to be a one partner, but I think there's

697
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: enough interesting stuff for two here. In the meantime, we'll

698
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 1: remind you that Stuff to Will Your Mind is primarily

699
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 1: a science and culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays

700
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 1: and Thursdays. Let's see. Currently we are doing short form

701
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:56,279
Speaker 1: episodes on Wednesdays. We're doing Weird House Cinema on Fridays. Now,

702
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: you might notice that our Monday listener mail episodes have

703
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:03,720
Speaker 1: ceased for the time being. We're experimenting with a slightly

704
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 1: different format, going back to the old format of having

705
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 1: listener mail episodes occur, say, every month or so and

706
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: instead running a weird House cinema rerun in that Monday slot. Again,

707
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 1: we're just trying things out here, so if you have

708
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 1: thoughts on this experiment right in, we would love to

709
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 1: hear from you.

710
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:22,920
Speaker 3: Right so, want to be super clear, listener mail is

711
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:25,640
Speaker 3: not going away. Please keep the messages coming. We are

712
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 3: still going to read them on the show, just on

713
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,959
Speaker 3: a less frequent basis. The plan is roughly every month,

714
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 3: month and a half, more like we used to do

715
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:35,240
Speaker 3: before the weekly.

716
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,400
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, if you have experiences with burning hair some

717
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:43,000
Speaker 1: pirate thoughts to share, or certainly if you have thoughts

718
00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:47,879
Speaker 1: about standard issue Flamer units on space missions and deep

719
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: sea missions in science fiction, right in, we'd love to

720
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 1: hear from you.

721
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:55,840
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

722
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

723
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

724
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 3: to topic for the future, or just to say hello, you

725
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,279
Speaker 3: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

726
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 3: Mind dot com.

727
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

728
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:19,319
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

729
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:36,240
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,