#fire walking

Protective clothing. NASA Spinoff. 1981.

On this day:

KUDA BUX

On September 9, 1935, Kuda Bux, a Kashmiri magician, performed the first fire walk ever seen in Great Britain. It was conducted by phenomena investigator Harry Price, "under scientific conditions." Two tons of oak logs, one ton of firewood, half a load of charcoal, ten gallons of paraffin, twenty-five copies of the Times, and a box of matches created a twenty-foot-long bed of red embers. Bux's feet were examined, washed, and photographed to attest that no trickery was involved in the performance. Pieces of paper and cotton calico fabric were dropped in the trench to test the heat; they instantly incinerated. Four times Bux walked the row of coals. A skeptical onlooker removed his shoes and socks and, in the spirit of scientific investigation, took two brave steps down the trench. He immediately jumped out, his feet badly burned.

Bux also sensationally promoted himself as the Man with X-Ray Eyes. He gave free demonstrations in hope of people realizing their own innate potential. Volunteers pressed paddies of bread dough, six inches in diameter and one inch thick, over his eyes, sealing them shut. Next, one-inch thick cotton wads, four inches high by six inches long, were taped firmly over the dough. Then strips of black cloth, three feet long, were wrapped around Bux's entire head except for two small openings for each nostril and a small space for the mouth. A thick opaque sack was then placed over his head and tightened under the chin.

Thus blindfolded, Bux would identify colors of objects selected by the audience, identify objects such as thread needles, read paragraphs from books, and trace over writing, in any language, that volunteers wrote on a blackboard. When he was unwrapped at the end of the demonstration, the impression of his closed eyes were in the dough. In 1945 Kuda Bux rode a bicycle through the congestion at New York's Times Square while his eyes were taped shut.

Mount takao