HPB-SB-4-32: Difference between revisions

The crematory which he has erected at his own expense is one story in height and built of brick. It has a corrugated iron roof, fitted with three chimneys. The interior consists of two rooms only, one of which is furnished with accommodation for spectators, which is about twenty feet square, and the other contains the furnace and retort. In the center of the visitors’ room is a cataufalque upon which to rest the body. Egress from the visitors’ room to that containing the furnace is had by a doorway about ten by twenty feet in size. The retort in which the remains will be placed in somewhat similar in shape to an ordinary gas retort, and is in size about seven and a half feet in length, twenty inches high and twenty-eight in wide. The furnace underneath the retort, and the whole is inclosed in a wall of brickwork. By this process the body is not required to touch the fire, but is entirely consumed by the hot air produced by the furnace. The furnace was lighted with coke at 6 o’clock this morning, and it is calculated that by 8 a. m. to-morrow the furnace will have attained the necessary heat of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, when the remains will be placed in the retort, and by 1 o'clock all that will remaining of the noble Baron will be represented by limited quantity of dust. A number of scientific men have already arrived here, and large numbers more are expected by the night and early morning trains. The body was removed from the vault in the Lutheran Cemetery on Monday morning, the order for its removal having previously been obtained from the Brooklyn Board of Health. Prior to its conveyance to the depot the coffin was opened and the corpse exposed to view. It had shrunken appearance, and presented an ashy color from the effects of a coat of powder with which it had previously been covered. The eyes were sunk in their sockets, and to the touch the body felt similar to ordinary parchment. The hair of the head had remained firm but the whiskers on one side of the face had fallen off. A cut which was made in the face showed that the muscles were comparatively dry, and it was also ascertained that the joints had remained flexible. The smell which came from the body was not unpleasant, but, bore strong resemblance to carbolic acid, and if the same treatment had been continued for a little time longer the body would have become as hard and dry as an Egyptian mummy. What is to be done with the ashes of the Baron after the cremation has not been definitely settled. Some of the members of the Theosophical Society are in favor of their being placed at the disposal of any branch of the family which may exist on this Continent, while others propose that they should be placed in a vase and become part and parcel of the worldly goods of the Society. The embalmer believes that the ashes will be distributed among the Theosophists, who will wear them in locked-in their watch-chains, and he is very emphatic in the opinion that in the distribution he should not be forgotten.