safety coffin
Premature interment prevention
A safety coffin is a coffin designed with mechanisms to allow a prematurely buried person to signal for help or escape—typically a bell, speaking tube, or air vent connected to the surface.
These devices emerged from 18th and 19th century fears of being buried alive, before reliable methods of confirming death existed.
The patent described an elaborate safety coffin with a ladder and breathing apparatus.
Few if any were ever needed.
The eighteen hundreds
- deathwatchAttendance at dying
- cholera epidemicOutbreak of severe diarrheal disease
- putrefactionBacterial breakdown of tissue
- patentObvious; inventor's monopoly
cemetery · interment · vigil · fear of death · Victorian era · catalepsy · coma · embalming
Hollow resonating instrument
- escape hatchEmergency exit opening
- viewing windowTransparent panel for observation
- cordFlexible twisted strand
- flagCloth symbol or signal
alarm · speaking tube · feeding tube · pull chain · hinged lid · ventilation shaft · ladder
Entombed before death
- graveSerious and worrying
- cryptSubterranean burial vault
- shroudBurial cloth or covering
- undeadDeceased yet animate
revenant · vault · Edgar Allan Poe · horror · morbid · sepulchral · memento mori · cadaver
Inherited cultural narratives
- urban legendUnverified viral story
- literatureBody of written works
- filmMovie or coating
- penny dreadfulCheap Victorian crime serial
Kill Bill · gothic fiction · superstition · myth · sensationalism · newspaper accounts
19th century
The eighteen hundreds
- deathwatchAttendance at dying
- cholera epidemicOutbreak of severe diarrheal disease
- putrefactionBacterial breakdown of tissue
patent · cemetery · interment · vigil · fear of death · Victorian era · catalepsy · coma · embalming
bell
Hollow resonating instrument
- escape hatchEmergency exit opening
- viewing windowTransparent panel for observation
- cordFlexible twisted strand
flag · alarm · speaking tube · feeding tube · pull chain · hinged lid · ventilation shaft · ladder
buried alive
Entombed before death
undead · revenant · vault · Edgar Allan Poe · horror · morbid · sepulchral · memento mori · cadaver · exhumation
folklore
Inherited cultural narratives
- urban legendUnverified viral story
- literatureBody of written works
- filmMovie or coating
Kill Bill · penny dreadful · gothic fiction · superstition · myth · sensationalism · newspaper accounts
safety, coffin, safe, safely, safeness, safer, safest, safeguard, safekeeping