Foot Roasting

Foot roasting is a method of torture used since ancient times. The torture takes advantage of the simple medical fact that the sole of the foot is covered by the most heat-sensitive skin in the human body. The Romans immobilized the prisoner and pressed red-hot iron plates to the soles of his feet. The Spanish Inquisition frequently employed an enhanced technique, binding the prisoner face-upward to the rack with their bare feet secured in stocks. The soles of the feet were basted with lard or oil and slowly barbecued over a brazier of burning coals. A screen could be interposed between the feet and the coals to modulate the exposure, while a bellows controlled the intensity of the flame. Foot roasting remains a popular technique of torture to this day, though the modern variant (a favorite technique of the KGB ) typically makes use of a clothes iron applied to the soles, optionally complemented by the use of a soldering iron or electric wood-burning pencil to explore the delicate webbing between the toes. In one of his science fiction stories, the noted author Poul Anderson introduced the concept of computer-controlled foot roasting, where nervous response is measured and fed back to modulate the temperature distribution with sufficient precision that the prisoner is kept continually screaming at the top of his lungs. Maintaining this precise level of agony is critical, since inflicting any more pain could cause the victim to lose consciousness, while inflicting any less pain is less effective.