There are many tales and chilling stories about crematoria, these houses of death, where access to the relatives and friends of the deceased is closed. Most of them are fictional, and the real facts about the work of these "houses of death" are much more interesting.
Meiso no Mori Crematorium in Kakamigahara
The first cremation in a regenerative oven, designed by Friedrich Siemens, was performed on October 9, 1874. The combustion took place in a stream of hot air. Prior to that, for sanitary and hygienic purposes, corpses were burned on funeral pyres. The first modern crematorium was built in 1876 in Milan. Currently, there are more than 14.3 thousand crematoria operating in the world.
Khovansky crematorium - the largest crematorium in Europe
On the territory of Russia, the first crematorium was built before the revolution in Vladivostok. A Japanese-made stove was used for it. The first crematorium in the RSFSR (furnace "Metallurg") was opened in 1920 in Petrograd in the building of baths, house No. 95-97 on the 14th line of Vasilievsky Island. And the first cremation in it was carried out on December 14, 1920. A document has survived - an act on this cremation. It was signed by B. G. Kaplun, Head of the Petrogubispolkom. However, this crematorium worked for only 3 months and was stopped due to “lack of firewood”. In 1927, the cremation furnace began to operate at the Donskoy monastery in Moscow. After 45 years in Moscow, the largest crematorium in Europe was built at the Nikolo-Arkhangelskoye cemetery, and three years later - at the Khovanskoye cemetery.
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Furnace in the Nizhny Novgorod crematorium
In modern crematoria, to turn on the furnace, you must have a key with a cipher and know a special code. This eliminates the possibility of using the equipment by unauthorized persons.
The cremation process looks like this: after the coffin, boarded up or closed with latches, enters the drive, a metal plate with an engraved number is nailed onto it and the coffin is sealed. All metal and plastic decorations are removed from the coffin (crosses, handles). The combustion of these elements pollutes the atmosphere with harmful emissions and prolongs the cremation procedure. After the end of the cremation, together with the remains, the number plate is removed from the ashes and the numbers are reconciled to eliminate confusion.
Some crematoria have a glazed viewing room from where you can watch a relative's cremation.
Only 1 deceased can be cremated in the oven at a time; before loading the next, it is thoroughly cleaned.
Ashes after grinding in a crematorium
Cremation ovens are usually two-chambered, in the second chamber smoke-forming particles and impurities are removed, so the ashes are almost sterile. The process of cremation itself takes place at a very high temperature (depending on the type of equipment, it can reach 1000 ° C and above) and lasts about 1.5-2 hours. Upon its completion, ash is formed with small brittle inclusions, they are crushed to the state of ash in a crematorium, in a ball mill. The ashes are then placed in a special container-urn, which is given to relatives.
Urns for ashes can be purchased at the crematorium itself or purchased elsewhere. They can be of different shapes and sizes.
Columbarium in the Minsk crematorium
The urn is placed in a columbarium. Often, relatives reserve the neighboring cells of the columbarium in order to “be near” after death.
Crematorium in Kiev
Many people choose cremation as a more economical method of burial. For example, the total cost of cremation in 2017 in Moscow without transporting the body to the crematorium was about 6,000 rubles.
In addition to burial in the columbarium, the urn can be buried in the ground, including in the family grave. In addition, the relatives of the deceased can dispose of his remains as they please - for example, dispel it. The legislation of the Russian Federation does not define special places for scattering ashes, so this is entirely the choice of the loved ones of the deceased.
