Endnote 20 – New Evidence May Explain Image on Shroud of Turin

Incidentally, the experiment appears to destroy effectively the so-called hot-statue theory (see discussion of various scorch theories in Schwalbe and Rogers, “Physics and Chemistry of the Shroud,” pp. 25–28. According to these theories, the image on the shroud was produced by an artistic scorching process from a heated statue. It is true that, if tenable, this process would produce an image that does not contain directional strokes like a painting. But in light of our experiment, the hot-statue theory is not tenable to explain the observed character of the shroud’s image—the dehydration of the cellulose. All of the materials used in the production of statues, when heated, will either hold that heat too long and unevenly burn areas of the cloth, or dissipate heat too quickly and produce nothing. Only the heat of a human body and the characteristic rate at which that body’s temperature eventually lowers to meet its environment can produce an image of a quality approaching that exhibited by the Shroud of Turin. The image process lasts only as long as the body maintains a temperature above its surroundings.