In the engine-rooms of some steamers plying in tropical
waters temperatures as high as 150 degrees F. have been
registered, yet the engineers and the stokers become habituated
to this heat and labor in it without apparent suffering. In
Turkish baths, by progressively exposing themselves to graduated
temperatures, persons have been able to endure a heat
considerably above the boiling point, though having to protect
their persons from the furniture and floors and walls of the
rooms. The hot air in these rooms is intensely dry, provoking
profuse perspiration. Sir Joseph Banks remained some time in a
room the temperature of which was 211 degrees F., and his own
temperature never mounted above normal.
There have been exhibitionists who claimed particular ability to
endure intense heats without any visible disadvantage. These men
are generally styled "human salamanders," and must not be
confounded with the "fire-eaters," who, as a rule, are simply
jugglers. Martinez, the so-called "French Salamander," was born
in Havana. As a baker he had exposed himself from boyhood to very
high temperatures, and he subsequently gave public exhibitions of
his extraordinary ability to endure heat. He remained in an oven
erected in the middle of the Gardens of Tivoli for fourteen
minutes when the temperature in the oven was 338 degrees F.
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