Many people choose relatively
inexpensive cremation of their dead body or a loved one over the high expense
of a standard funeral…cremation is done at a temperature that ranges between
1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit…rather hot…the chamber is pre-heated (how
thoughtful of them, we wouldn’t want our dead bodies to get too cold)…they are
then placed in the chamber through a door which does not allow the heat built
up to escape…or any stubborn customers…but what this heat does is reduce the
body to its most basic elements such as fragments of dried bones…during
incineration of the body, the body is exposed to a wall of flames that is produced
by a furnace that is run by oils, natural gas, and other flammables…the corpse
is placed in a casket or container (preferably prepared from a combustible
material), as the process goes along, the container burns up…then, the intense heat
dries out the body, burns hair and skin, chars the muscles, vaporizes the soft
tissues, and causes calcification of the bones so powerful that they eventually
crumble…any gases accumulated during the process are discharged through an
exhaust system…usually, bodies are burned one at a time…some crematories have what
is called a secondary burner to help burn the body completely…if not, the
cremation technician may have to crush the partially cremated remains…the
corpse is reduced to tiny skeletal remains and bone fragments, which are
collected and then set aside to ‘rest’…that is cool down…it’s not unusual for
small bits of one body to be mixed it with another cremation…the bone fragments
are then ground down to a sand like consistency…the average body will be
reduced to about 5-7 pounds of what is called cremains…these cremains will be a
whitish color…even some metal objects like screws, nails, hinges, and other
parts of the container or casket may be collected…also, one may find pieces of
dental work, screws inserted during a surgery, implants and other
things…although these items are removed with magnets or forceps during manual
inspection before the ashes are turned over to whoever is collecting them…
