Back from a jaunt to a friend’s place in Samoa with, of all things, a sauna. The thermometer within goes up to 240 which led me to wonder: just how hot can one stand it ? Water boils at 212… I reckon one could tolerate higher and higher temperatures with practice, but is there some absolute line not to be crossed ? I’d have thought it was 212. (And I’m sure, of course, that ultimately that thermometer bears as much relationship to the answer as the speedometer on a Kia).
I remember reading in the Guinness Book about the hottest temperature ever withstood by a human. I forget the figures, but I remember that they mentioned that it was hotter than the temperature required to grill steaks. I also remember that clothed men could withstand higher temperatures than naked men.
In USAF experiments in 1960, naked men withstood 400 degree temperatures. Clothed men 500 degrees. Ordinarily saunas are between 170 and 212, but they remain “bearable” up to 384.
Sources:
Guiness Book of World Records 1999
Encyclopedia Americana
Naked at 400 F? That’s hot, even when you convert it to Celsius! Why didn’t they broil?
Rigardu, kaj vi ekvidos.
Any good gym has warnings of overheating in a sauna. If you fall asleep at something like 120º, you can go into a coma. It’s like a fever of 106º can kill you. It’s a question of how long the body can fight the heat. And if you throw water on the rocks for steam, there’s no skin evaporation to help.
Typo. According to the Guiness Book, saunas remain ‘bearable’ up to 284, not 384 as I posted earlier.