If there was something in the past that surpassed the desire to preserve the human body intact after death, it was the terror of being buried alive.
Medicine wasn't a very refined practice, and historical reports about accidental burials are numerous. That led to the development of different methods to avoid premature burial, or in the worst case, to escape from it. From safety coffins to literature, the level of dedication on this topic has been impressive, and today we'll share some examples.
As we investigate the concept of premature burial, we inevitably come across situations that chill the blood. Its use as capital punishment goes even beyond the Roman Empire. Very severe charges (rape, infanticide) could lead to burial alive in the Middle Ages, and photos have emerged suggesting this practice during the Nanking Massacre. The fear of being buried alive is called taphephobia, and throughout the 19th century different methods or mechanisms were developed with the aim of preventing accidental burials, or alternatively, providing the trapped person a way out.
The Safety Coffin
The so-called safety coffin was particularly popular in the mid-19th century. The trapped person had several resources at hand, including a bell, a rope, and even a ladder in more complex models. One of the most cited patents is from that era, while the diagram of the 'Eisenbrandt coffin' is also well known.
Windows in Graves
Some cases of taphephobia reached extreme limits, and for a certain Timothy Clark Smith, this was no joke. This doctor from Vermont had such a great obsession with the possibility of ending up buried alive that he had a window installed in his grave. Other sources indicate that Smith's grave also has a ladder, and that the doctor himself holds a bell in his hands. None of that was necessary in the end, because Smith left this world without incident.
The Easy-Open Coffin
Unfortunately, not all of us have received Pai Mei's training, and to open a coffin, we most likely need help. Along those lines goes the patent by inventor Johan Jacob Toolen, who, anticipating the general fatigue of the trapped person, incorporated a series of mechanisms into his safety coffin to facilitate its opening.
Incorporated Ventilation
Needless to say, one of the main difficulties faced by a person accidentally buried is the lack of air, and a patent by Gael Bedl described a 'device for indicating life in buried persons', essentially a ventilation tube that opened upon detecting movement inside the coffin. At the same time, it was equipped with an 'electric alarm' that emitted a sound if the pipe was functioning.
Personal Vaults
Many believe that the simplest solutions are the best, and when it comes to preventing accidental burials, nothing is simpler than placing potential corpses in small vaults with an opening system similar to a hatch inside. When you turn the wheel, the lid falls, and the 'undead' can crawl out. A person could live 'for several hours' inside the vaults, or at least long enough to open them. The available images don't answer what would happen if the buried person never regained consciousness...
A Book?
That's right: A businessman named William Tebb met in the mid-1890s Dr. Roger S. Chew, who had escaped a premature burial thanks to the intervention of a relative. Tebb was impacted by the doctor's determination to prevent similar incidents, and made two decisions. On one hand, he founded the Association for the Prevention of Premature Burials in London, and on the other, he joined forces with Edward Vollman (another man who escaped an anticipated burial) to write and publish the book 'Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented' in 1905. You can access an excerpt of the book on Google Books.
This is just a sample of our ancient fight against premature burial. The advances of modern medicine allow doctors to take extensive precautions before declaring a person dead, and today coffins are simple wooden boxes, or true works of art depending on who makes them, but the need to escape from them seems to have been left behind... or not?
