Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1883 — A Process of Cremation. [ARTICLE]

A Process of Cremation.

The body, covered with a pall or winding sheet, is placed in a catafalque in the chapel or reception hall, whence it descends noiselessly by means of an elevator to the crematory chamber. ;This, by means of superheated air, has ibeen raised to a white heat at a temperature of about 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. When opened to receive the body, the in-rushing cold air cools this chamber to a delicate rose tint, and the body, after an hour in this bath of rosy light, is completely decomposed, nothing remaining but a few pounds (about 4 per cent, of the original weight) of clean, pure, pearly ashes, which are taken out and put m an urn of tera cotta, marble or other suitable material, and placed in a niche of the columbarium, or buried, or delivered to the friends to be disposed of as they desire. < A man dies very much as a bucket of wator is drawn from the East river.' 0 There is a deep depression for a moment, then with a slight gurgle the waves fill it and the stream flows on with the sun shining Upon the spot as before.— Henry Ward Beecher.