Wilson Updated: Feb 22, Jugglers, magicians, acrobats and sideshow performers have something in common -- they make astounding or difficult tricks look very easy. Fire breathers, who often specialize in one of these forms of entertainment, amaze people because they seem to exhale a plume of fire as though it were as easy as taking a breath. But fire breathing is the most dangerous of all the fire arts. People who breathe fire professionally have to go to great lengths to keep themselves and their audiences safe.
And since the process involves fire and flammable, toxic fuel, fire breathing accidents can be deadly. To get an inside look at how fire breathing works, we interviewed two fire breathers.
Mike Garner is a juggler and vaudevillian performer who started breathing fire in She had about ten years of fire stunt experience at the time of our interview.
Performers agree that fire breathing is the most dangerous of all fire stunts. The fuels are toxic and potentially carcinogenic , and a fire can get out of control quickly. Magazines, books, and Web sites often have incomplete or incorrect instructions, so people who want to learn to breathe fire should do so only with the help of a trained professional. Fire breathing acts can be stunning, or even startling. To make a pillar of fire , a fire breather uses two basic components: fuel and a flame source.
Put very simply, the performer directs a mouthful of fuel in a forceful spray over a flame. The result can be a pillar, a plume, or a ball of fire. It sounds simple, but controlling the fuel's direction and the consistency of the spray is a technique that takes a lot of time to refine. Fire breathers usually practice extensively with water before ever taking a mouthful of fuel or lighting a torch. They focus on controlling the spray's direction and consistency.
Garner adds that if the spray is not fine enough, "the fuel will catch on fire and then fall to the ground and burn. Another important factor is the angle of the fuel, and therefore the flame. Pele explains that it should be "between a 60 [and] 80 degree angle…Lower can make the flame come up on a body part, and higher can cause un-ignited fuel to fall back into the face.
The angle is extremely important. When preparing to breathe fire, performers examine their surroundings, including the direction and speed of the wind. They respond to every subtle nuance in the air. Garner stresses the importance of knowing the surroundings: "Be aware if there are any power lines or there are trees with low hanging branches One of the challenges of talking about fire breathing is that there is no perfect word to describe exactly what the performer does.
Performers use a range of words to describe fire breathing, including aspirating, blowing, breathing and spitting.
Even though "breathing" is not the most technically accurate word, it is the word most people associate with this type of fire stunt. The choice of fuel is just as important as a fire breather's technique. Fire breathers consider several factors when choosing a fuel, including:. The most commonly used fuel is kerosene , also known as paraffin outside of the United States. Lamp oil is chemically similar to kerosene and is also a common choice.
These fuels have a high flash point, making them somewhat safer, but tend to be smoky and produce a noticeable smell. Neither is safe for ingestion, and both can contain toxic additives. Some performers use naphtha , also known as white gas , Coleman fuel or lighter fluid , for some fire stunts. However, naphtha has a low flash point, making it more volatile and more likely to burn the performer.
It is also toxic. Most performers consider it to be a more dangerous fuel choice for fire breathing. Fire performers stay away from some fuels entirely. Both [alcohols] also have extremely low flashpoints, which make them very dangerous to work with. Fire breathers typically use a torch, which they either make or purchase, to ignite their fuel. This slow exhalation keeps the heat away from the fire eater's face as she moves the torch closer to her face and places it in her mouth.
So far, so good. Now the fire eater has to extinguish the flame, and quick. There are two ways to do this. The fire eater can completely close her lips all the way around the torch, cutting off oxygen and killing the flame, or she can put the flame out with a quick exhaling breath. The second method is preferable for performances where the torch has been lit for a while and may be too hot to touch with the lips.
That's fire eating in a nutshell though fire eaters have a number of other tricks in their repertoires, like vapor tricks, multiple torch eats and fancy extinguishes. It seems pretty basic, but to do it right and make it look good for a crowd, fire eaters learn the method and then spend years practicing. Always transport fuel in a secure manner, so it can't roll around and become a fire hazard in your vehicle.
All fuels have what is called a "flashpoint. Heavier Oilier fuels like kerosene and lamp oil have a much higher flashpoint. These fuels must be heated to several hundred degrees before they will release enough vapor to sustain a flame. When lighting a prop using one of these fuels, the lighter will have to heat the fuel on the prop to release enough vapor to cause ignition. Sometimes a low flashpoint fuel will be added to a higher flashpoint fuel to make it easier to light.
You can't burn a liquid. When a prop is on fire, you are actually burning the vapor that is evaporating from the fuel. As the liquid evaporates off the surface of a prop, the vapor has to come from the liquid that is deeper inside the wick.
Because of this, the flame moves closer to the wick as the fuel burns. Towards the end of the burn, the flame will actually start burning into the outer layers of the wick. This heats the wick beyond the temperature Kevlar is designed to sustain.
After many burns, wicks will turn white. This is because the Kevlar has burnt off, and the higher temperature fiberglass core of the yarn is now exposed. This is not a problem, however fiberglass is not as strong as Kevlar so it will be less resistant to impacts with the ground.
You can substantially increase the life of your wicks by extinguishing your flame towards the end of your burn. These sheets tell you the dangers of these fuels in the liquid state. They do not provide any information for the hazards related to burning them. Fuel used for fire tools varies greatly, but I'm going to focus on what is typically used in the United States.
It is also referred to as white gas. Coleman Fuel is an easy to light, fast burning fuel with a moderate to low smoke level. It is readily available at camping and discount stores such as Walmart and Kmart. This fuel has a low flashpoint, meaning that it is very easy to light the vapors on fire. Because of this, you have to be very careful around open containers of fuel. Because Coleman fuel is very oxygen hungry, it is actually easier to extinguish than oilier fuels like kerosene. Get MSDS.
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