# How long does it take to die on a pool of molten steel?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 27, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751 "2014-06-27T03:00:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/41 "2014-06-28T07:08:50Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> But a coat of dragon scales is known to be protective.
But heavy enough to allow the creature to be immersed in a liquid about three times as dense as molten steel, rather than floating like a cork.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/42 "2014-06-28T13:02:26Z")
In John MacDonald’s “A Tan And Sandy Silence”\*, Paul Dissat dies when covered by a spill of molten asphalt. It takes at least several seconds.
\*an unimpeachable source.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/43 "2014-06-28T20:22:42Z")
> [@Artemis\_Tardis](#):
>
> How long would it take for that poor bastard to die? Would he dive into the “lava” or hit it like a hard surface? Would he feel excruciating amounts of pain?
He’d certainly be in extreme agony, yes.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/44 "2014-06-29T00:25:43Z")
I think any talk about a swift death is too optimistic.
Seems like there are only four physiological pathways to death when a person falls into a pool of molten metal or lava - none of them quick:
1. Suffocation - either drowning in the superheated liquid, or hot air searing the lungs so that the lungs can’t work anymore. Either way, suffocation doesn’t kill quickly.
2. Fluid loss due to third-degree burns to entire body. But fluid loss doesn’t kill quickly.
3. Brain heats up beyond survivable temperature. The brain would inevitably cook eventually, but is surrounded by a thick skull that would afford some temporary thermal protection. Not a quick death.
4. Body core temperature rises too high. The person, immersed in molten red-hot liquid, would eventually cook inside and outside. But this still wouldn’t happen quick enough to prevent intense suffering.
No matter what, it sounds like it would involve a long time of agony.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/45 "2014-06-29T00:50:37Z")
**Velocity** , you forgot about the impact itself. If you land head-first, that could kill you immediately, before any thermal effects.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/46 "2014-06-29T01:32:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> **Velocity** , you forgot about the impact itself. If you land head-first, that could kill you immediately, before any thermal effects.
Perhaps, but I wouldn’t want to depend on it.
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/47 "2014-06-29T02:08:49Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Carbon steel. :eek:
>
> 😃
With a dash of calcium and phosphorus
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/48 "2014-06-29T03:40:09Z")
How do y’all suppose that gold-plated dame in Goldfinger died?
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/49 "2014-06-29T04:36:58Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> How do y’all suppose that gold-plated dame in Goldfinger died?
Crushed? Suffocated, not because of her pores, but because her lungs couldn’t expand?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/50 "2014-06-29T14:04:29Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> How do y’all suppose that gold-plated dame in Goldfinger died?
She was covered in “gold paint”, not coated in gold.
Fleming’s claim was that she died of “skin suffocation” – her pores couldn’t breathe. He went on to say that this afflicts cabaret dancers, who, to avoid it, left a bare patch somewhere, usually at the base of the spine.
It’s typical Fleming barroom gossip explanation, of the sort that seems to show up quite a bit n the Bond books, and is no more true than any of them. You don’t die from “skin suffocation”.
Jamie on Mythbusters got awfully hot trying to duplicate this, but he was using a mixture of metal dust mixed into latex, which I seriously doubt they used in the novel or the movie – she looked as if she was covered in metal dust mixed into greasepaint base (ands very unlike Jamie, even discounting the walrus moustache).
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### Author:  [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/51 "2014-06-29T20:27:50Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> I think any talk about a swift death is too optimistic.
> Seems like there are only four physiological pathways to death when a person falls into a pool of molten metal or lava - none of them quick:
>
> 1. Suffocation - either drowning in the superheated liquid, or hot air searing the lungs so that the lungs can’t work anymore. Either way, suffocation doesn’t kill quickly.
>
> 2. Fluid loss due to third-degree burns to entire body. But fluid loss doesn’t kill quickly.
>
> 3. Brain heats up beyond survivable temperature. The brain would inevitably cook eventually, but is surrounded by a thick skull that would afford some temporary thermal protection. Not a quick death.
>
> 4. Body core temperature rises too high. The person, immersed in molten red-hot liquid, would eventually cook inside and outside. But this still wouldn’t happen quick enough to prevent intense suffering.
> No matter what, it sounds like it would involve a long time of agony.
You ignore the effects of the moisture in the body instantly flashing into steam upon contact with molten iron. I have worked the past score years in a gray iron foundry that melts a thousand tons of iron products per day with induction furnaces. The most dangerous contaminant we encounter is a closed container that does not open or completely evaporate in the preheating system. When it finally does open in the furnace, whatever fluid that remains erupts launching several cubic feet of molten iron that lands on whatever and whoever as fragments from the size of BB’s to aggies. These are containers that may hold at most a few ounces or so of liquid as all of our raw materials are shredded to about that size. We have had iron poured on people, but I have not heard of anyone falling in the melting furnaces and our transfer ladles will not contain a full body.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/52 "2014-06-29T20:43:42Z")
> [@PoppaSan](#):
>
> You ignore the effects of the moisture in the body instantly flashing into steam \*\*upon contact \*\*with molten iron.
But that “contact” would be the exterior of the body, right? The internal organs (shielded by inches of fat+muscle) would take a while, especially the brain, and as long as the brain is functional there would be intense pain.
Even 20 seconds to die would be too long.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/53 "2014-06-29T20:58:40Z")
> [@PoppaSan](#):
>
> Y We have had iron poured on people, but I have not heard of anyone falling in the melting furnaces and our transfer ladles will not contain a full body.
Note to self:Chop up bodies first.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/54 "2014-06-29T21:07:15Z")
I think that the point is that the first parts to make contact would explode from the steam, and that that explosion could destroy the inner parts quickly.
Again, not something you’d want to count on, but then, the only thing you really do want to count on is “don’t fall into molten steel in the first place”.
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### Author:  [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/55 "2014-06-29T21:16:41Z")
This has been the general consensus at work also. Either that or the body would be blown clear from the vaporization. Old timers tell of 500# transfer vessels getting emptied from tossing in an empty milk carton. It does knock the dust off the rafters, that’s for sure. I heard about a dumpbox full of wet metal filings (~10cuft) getting dumped into a furnace. The blast shattered the safety windows 50’ away and blew the swinging doors open 300’ away. The operator told me fortunately for him, the majority of the iron blew over his lift truck and the plywood roof over his safety cage and his flame retardent suit kept him from serious harm.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2014, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/56 "2014-06-30T05:08:09Z")
> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> Would that batch of steel then be considered ‘contaminated’ and junked, or would it be on with the show?
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Some steel formulations are more picky than others. It’s possible that for some very precision thing it could screw up the chemistry of the alloy - but in that case when they junked the mess they would just put it into something with more relaxed tolerances. They wouldn’t put the steel into a landfill or anything, it would get recycled.
I would think you’d just stick it back into the front of the refinery process and let those contaminants come out with the slag. Perhaps **PoppaSan** can weigh in?
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/57 "2014-06-30T07:44:02Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> In John MacDonald’s “A Tan And Sandy Silence”\*, Paul Dissat dies when covered by a spill of molten asphalt. It takes at least several seconds.
>
> \*an unimpeachable source.
However, asphalt melts at a much, much lower temperature than steel - and all this talk of “red-hot” aside, steel is white-hot before it melts.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/58 "2014-06-30T12:07:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I don’t think that’s the right calculation. It’s resiliency that matters, not density. Yeah, density would be one component, since it’d take more force to move a dense medium out of the way, but viscosity and surface tension would also be relevant, plus probably many other factors. Plus, you’ve got the resiliency of the human body itself to consider, which probably dwarfs that due to the impacted surface.
Unless the viscosity is _extremely_ high (see e.g. [the pitch drop experiment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment)), it’s not likely to be a factor in the impact force. Liquid steel appears to have a viscosity that’s only about [six times that of water](http://www.matter.org.uk/steelmatter/steelmaking/ladle_stirring/stirring_4.html), which is still orders of magnitude too small to matter.
Someone always brings up surface tension when it comes to jumping into water but this is a vanishingly small force; typical values are in the range of a few tens of millinewtons per meter of length across the surface, which only matters if you’re a [water strider.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_strider) Even if you imagine molten steel to have a surface tension as implausibly high as 1 newton per meter, that’s still only 0.22 pounds; injurious impact forces, which will be due almost exclusively to the density of the fluid, will be in the hundreds or thousands of pounds.
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### Author:  [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/59 "2014-06-30T15:01:27Z")
> [@Irishman](#):
>
> I would think you’d just stick it back into the front of the refinery process and let those contaminants come out with the slag. Perhaps **PoppaSan** can weigh in?
Nothing of that magnitude has occurred since I have been there. I would venture a guess though that if someone did “contaminate” the iron by falling in, corporate sensibility would likely landfill the iron in 1 ton blocks (the largest containment we have.) Iron that falls on someone is, if in small enough chunks, put into the reuse pile. Larger areas are lanced apart before going to the same place. I am not sure what would happen if a body is in it though. The people that are in the high temp clothing would most likely drag the person out before the iron solidifies. I don’t want to be there to see it though.
Molten iron hits the floor like water and splatters everywhere. Enough iron though will coalesce into chunks. A small leak in a stationary vessel will pile up like a stalagmite. Coolest fireworks show I ever witness was when the foundry flooded and 6 15ton furnaces were dumped into the knee-deep flood waters one at a time before they solidified. The power circuits were underwater by then. Continuous blasts and sparks for about a half hour until the hydraulic tilting pumps flooded and shut down. Most of the iron was lifted out as one chunk several days later after it cooled enough to work with.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-die-on-a-pool-of-molten-steel/691751/60 "2014-06-30T16:33:30Z")
From what my friends in the steel industry say if you fall in there really isn’t a “body” left. Then again, they work at the Gary Works, so they’re dealing with massive amounts of molten metal. Maybe that makes a difference.
I also get the impression that if you fall in no on is going to risk themselves trying to fish you or bits of you out since you’re already a goner.
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