The secrets inside the incarnation furnace

Currently due to the sudden growth in population as well as the development of awareness and technology, cremation has gradually been widely accepted. However, there are still some questions surrounding this burial form.

So far, there have been various forms of burial in the world, such as ordinary burial, water burial (dropping dead bodies into the river / sea), cremation and cremation (in Tibet people often carry corpses go to the mountain to feed the birds), . In it, cremation is one of the hygienic forms and helps the friendly people carry the ashes of the deceased so that cremation is gradually gaining many people. accepted and used.

What is cremation?

According to Wikipedia, cremation is the process of burning, evaporating and oxidizing the dead body to obtain substances in basic form such as gas, ash and mineral fragments obtained after drying the bones. Cremation is also seen as a funeral or ritual after the funeral as a substitute for other burial forms such as the burial of an intact corpse in a coffin.

The ash is collected after cremation.

The cremation of cremation, which does not contain health-damaging elements, will be gathered and buried in cemeteries or central memorial parks, even if it can be retained or dispersed by family members in various forms. different.

In modern times, cremation is often done in a crematorium, except for a few countries like India and Nepal that choose other forms, such as outdoor cremation.

History of ups and downs of cremation

Based on archaeological documents, cremation began at least 20,000 years ago through archaeological records of a woman named Mungo Lady, in which archaeologists collected Part of the body was cremated after surveying Lake Mungo in Australia.

In Nepal and India, many places still use traditional wood cremation methods.

In the Middle East and Europe, evidence of cremation is also found in archaeological records in the Neolithic period (from 6000-4000 BC) of many tribes. Though buried throughout history, burial is still the most common form of burial, but this form of burial remains quietly in various forms until now, despite being banned in some certain forces / stages, such as the Egyptians themselves, banned cremation because they developed theological thinking in the period of Zoroastrian Martyrs.

It should be noted that there are different forms and rituals of cremation, influenced by cultural factors, political, religious, cognitive and historical factors. For example, with the ancient Romans, cremation was often associated with honor in the army. Oddly, there are tribes that only cremate some parts of the body. Meanwhile, there are periods, many churches also consider cremation as the only form to kill "witches" and they have burned many people alive with this teaching.

How do people cremate?

Structure of a standard cremation chamber.

In the United States and some countries, most services are required to use a specially designed coffin (container form) for cremation in the form of a lease, in which liners will be replaced after each use. use. Another option is a cardboard box that fits in a wooden box like a traditional coffin.

In the UK, it is the same as in Germany often cremated with the coffin, not in a container like in the US So the British Cremation Code has clearly defined that the casket wood must be a flammable wood, forbidding the opening of a coffin once it has been moved to the crematorium and forced to cremate within 72 hours. The cremated finish will be transferred to a magnetic device to remove metal components, then the ashes will be transferred to relatives.

Storage box.

In the present era, containers of corpses (containers) are placed in an electric cooker and burned at temperatures ranging from 760-1150 degrees Celsius. This cremation process will cause most of the body (especially especially internal organs and soft tissues) all evaporate and oxidize at high temperatures, while the exhaust gas will be processed through the exhaust system. This burning process usually takes 90 minutes to 120 minutes , with larger bodies may take longer.

Jewelry such as necklaces, watches, rings . are often removed before cremation and sent to the family. In particular, the implants in the body are forced to be removed , because devices such as a pacemaker or spinal cord stimulation can explode and damage the crematorium as well as hurt the crematorium. . Therefore, most crematoriums require to sign a commitment not to contain harmful equipment in the body before being put into cremation .

The burned bones are often collected by Japanese and put into bottles containing ashes through a separate ceremony.

Contrary to what many people imagine, almost everything obtained after cremation is not ordinary ash, because after burning the pieces of dry bone exist in crystal form and are removed from the distillation pot and crushed. into cotton through a device called Cremulator , a high-speed grinding device similar to a smoothie, to process them into "real ashes" before giving them to relatives.

This process makes the bone crystal collected like fine sand, which can be dispersed without mixing. The size of the powder obtained depends on the different Cremulator grinding equipment, the ash weight obtained corresponds to about 1.8kg with the female body and 2.7kg for adult men, this "grinding" process takes place about 20 minutes. Ashes account for about 3.5% of body weight compared to before cremation (this figure in children is 2.5%).

The ashes obtained after cremation are mainly dry calcium phosphate and a small amount of minerals such as sodium and potassium salts. Meanwhile, sulfur and carbon are blown into gas during high-temperature oxidation, although small amounts of carbon may still exist as carbonates.

Video simulating the cremation process.

Cremation technology

Unlike fire / coal or oil burning methods in some specific cultures like India, in modern crematoria, the adjustment and monitoring process are automated, the control devices will receive know when the cremation process is complete and will disconnect itself. The time of cremation depends on body weight, an average of about 50kg per hour. A crematorium is designed to cremate just 1 body at a time, avoiding any risk of confusion as well as other religious / religious disadvantages.

Picture inside a standard crematorium in America.

The cremation chamber is called a pan and is lined with heat-resistant tiles. This tile is designed with multiple layers, the outermost layer is simply an insulating material, followed by the insulating brick layer mainly made of natural calcium silicate. Large capacity crematoriums are often designed with two layers of insulating bricks. These insulating bricks are exposed to high temperatures and must be replaced periodically over time (usually every 4-5 years). While the coffins or containers will be brought into the distilleries as quickly as possible through a slide to avoid loss of heat loss at the door. .

Some crematoria allow relatives to see the cremation process, but most are kept secret for spiritual and spiritual reasons.

In some advanced countries such as the US stone started using alkaline hydrolysis technology, due to the exclusive "Resomation" brand, this process used hot alkaline solutions at high pressure, allowing mechanical decomposition. Can quickly become basic chemical compounds. This process is more advantageous in terms of biological treatment, but it is still not really popular because it still mainly uses electric cremation technology.

Video illustrates a crematorium in liquid at high pressure.

Cremation is currently considered to be the most beneficial method of handling burial in terms of environment , because biologically, the conventional method of burial is a certain impact on the environment, not to mention bringing many economic benefits (especially in the area of ​​burial). Currently advanced countries require cremation services that meet environmentally friendly treatment standards, including waste treatment (filtration) equipment. The approach also changes as people gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Store ash at the base of the cremation

For different cultures, customs, religions, beliefs, doctrines, etc., people will have different methods of preserving and dispersing ashes.

The ash is sprayed into the sea according to the customs of the US Navy.

In the United States, the ash collected is usually contained in a sealed polyethylene plastic bag and placed in a rectangular hard plastic box and labeled with the deceased information with a government official cremation certificate. and cremation unit.

After sending it to the family, it is common for the ash to be stored in a jar in the home or in a memorial building (arranged in the form of a pigeon with round boxes to remove the pitcher), or buried / sprayed into the ground and sea. Even, some services will receive scattered ashes by . fireworks or balloons, airplanes

Some religions will allow cremated remains to be watered or stored at home, while in India people often sprinkle ashes in the Ganges. In Japan and Taiwan, the ashes were buried by their relatives before being buried / sprayed into the ground or put into memorial areas.

A cemetery buried with ashes usually takes up less space than other burial methods.

In Vietnam, although cremation is not really popular mainly due to ideological issues, many people still think of "beautiful and peaceful graves" for their loved ones. However, in recent years cremation is gradually gaining attention, with a small number of crematoriums, so there are times when falling into . more demand than supply. In which, the service provided the coffin at the price of 2.5-5.5 million VND / turn, plus the costs such as burning 1 million VND / turn and the fees of keeping the coffin and the cadaver ranging from 200-500 thousand dong.