Short Stuff: Safety Coffins | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm. Josh, and there's [music] Chuck, and. Jerry's here, too. Dave's here in. spirit. So, this is a Short Stuff that. we can begin now. That's right, Josh. Let me set the. stage. It's 1799. Uh Founding Father George Washington is. on his deathbed. He calls over his uh secretary, Tobias. Lear, and says, "I am just going. Have me decently buried.

But do not let my body be put into the. vault in less than 3 days after I'm. dead, because hm you never know.". >> [laughter]. >> That is the last part. But that's. basically what he was saying. Yeah. So, um yeah. And that was a great George. Washington, especially dying George. Washington. Thanks. The reason why he said that is because. at the time there was a. there was a chance, let's call it a. non-zero chance, to get nerdy, Yeah. [laughter] that um you might be buried.

alive accidentally. There's all sorts of. different conditions and stuff that we. understand now if you hook somebody up. to like a EKG or EEG or some sort of G, um you'll be able to detect their. heartbeat that you wouldn't be able to, say, like um palpating it with your. fingers or like watching somebody um to. see if they're actually breathing. You might not even have a decent doctor. around at the time, and you may end up. being buried alive, in which case you. are.

effed. Yeah, I wonder when they started. checking pulses. I don't know. Let's say 1800 on the dot. Uh I did a quick rare lookup, and if we. trust the AI overview, >> I do not. >> [laughter]. >> All right. National Institutes of. Health? >> Sure. Uh they're talking like. 4,000 plus years they've been checking. pulses. Okay. Well, apparently some people were better at it.

than others because there do seem to be. documented accounts of people who were. found. like entombed. um who had like scratch marks on their. coffin or they were actually out of. their coffin in a tomb. Yeah. Um that. that seemed to have. been buried alive, came to, and then did. actually did die. Yeah. Like they said, "I feel better.". >> [laughter]. >> And they got up. And so, you know,

let let's say it didn't happen that much. cuz it probably didn't happen enough to. the level of which people were scared of. it. >> Sure. Like a plane crash. Yeah, it seems. to be an outsized fear back then of. being buried alive. Um that that is an. actual phobia. It's called. taphophobia. T A P H E is Greek for. burial. And you know, because where we're going. with all this, and we may have mentioned. this briefly in our coffins episode. >> I know we have. We had to have, but this.

is a deeper dive into what was known as. a security coffin or a safety coffin, which was. you know, for a while there, a lot of. people got patents to build coffins that. had all these little kind of ingenious. ways to either get you out of there or. alert people above ground that, "Hey, I'm feeling better.". Right. [laughter]. Come get me. I got some life left in me, right? >> Yeah. These patents date back to the. 1790s. Um I I think in Central Europe at least. there's a guy in this How Stuff Works.

article that um they interviewed named. Adam Bisno, who's a historian at the US. Patent and Trademark Office. And so, he. would know about patents, even ones in. Central Europe from the 18th century. And at this time the argument the that's. made for the the kind of sudden. appearance for them is that this. coincides with the popularity of. romanticism, which um. kind of came as a backlash to the. rationalism of enlightenment the. enlightenment. Um and romanticism is.

like, "No, there's stuff beyond this. life that we can't see. There's um. there's beauty in nature. There's like. all of the stuff that you can't just. think your way out of or think your like. things that you can't see that actually. do exist." Mhm. And there's probably. some sort of afterlife and who knows. whether the people are fully gone. This. eventually led to the rise of mediums. and spiritualism. And there was just. this kind of zeitgeist that um the dead.

could conceivably still be in some sort. of contact or communication, which. doesn't directly go to taphophobia, but. if you're already thinking like, "I. don't want to be buried alive." This. would probably goose you into. potentially buying a safety coffin. Yeah, for sure. I mean the. sort of a popular idea at the time was. that there the veil is very thin between. life and death. Ah, yes. And like how. thin could it be? Like maybe so thin. where you bury me by accident. Yeah, like poor Bill Pullman in Serpent and.

the Rainbow. Oh, yeah. Or uh. Kiefer Sutherland's wife in that movie, which was a remake of a foreign film. So. good. Both of them were It was one of. those rare films where the. American adaptation was just as good as. the European original. Both of them are. worth seeing. What were those called? It was the one. word? >> Yeah, Vanishing. Yeah. Yeah. So um yeah, and then also that poor guy.

who almost got buried in the Twilight. Zone, but he he started crying cuz he. was so sad and scared. And some nurse. one of the nurses noticed his tear and. was like, "Doctor, he's still alive.". right before I think they um um, did an. autopsy on him. Yeah, or like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. That's a great one, too. Sure. I think. also Barnabas Collins you can make a. case for in Dark Shadows, the the TV. show, not the terrible terrible terrible.

movie. I didn't see that movie though. >> I saw 20 minutes of it and I was like. like these people should be individually. shamed for this. It was Tim Burton, wasn't it? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, we're going. to take a break and. call Tim Burton, tell him to think about. what he's done and we'll be right back. with safety coffins.

>> [music]. >> All right. So, more than 100 security. coffin patents were granted in the. United States alone. in the 19th century and they got a. little wacky. Like each one had its own. sort of spin on the best way to either. get someone out or to alert people above. ground.

Yeah, one way was, like you could just. do something as simple as a bell to. basically and put the cord in the. person's hand and they could just like. pull the bell. It's pretty simple and straightforward. There are others that had like. I guess they would put a tube in that. led. and connected to the coffin and then. buried the person around buried around. that stuff. So, if the person came to, they could actually crawl, use the. ladder to crawl out of their own grave, which.

talk about a. story to tell at parties. It's like you guys aren't going to. believe this. >> Yeah. Are Are you the guy who climbed. out of his grave? Yeah, yeah. Uh, cuz. you know, that starts at the dinner. party and when anyone's like, "I've been. really lucky. I haven't lost a lot of. close friends. Like, has anyone ever. lost like close friends and had to like. preside over their funeral?" And the guy. just. puts his napkin in his. [clears throat and laughter] lap. That's pretty good. [gasps]. Uh, yeah, the um a life-preserving coffin, I. believe, is what the patent file was in.

1843 from Christian Eisenbrandt of. Baltimore, Maryland. And this had a. spring-loaded lid where if you the quote. was, "The slightest motion of either the. head or the hand would spring this thing. up." Of course, that's no good if you're. buried under 6 ft of dirt. >> Sure. Um, so his suggestion is like, "Hey, this coffin only works if you're. in a in a tomb, like an above-ground. vault. And. uh, you got to leave a key on the inside. of that thing. So, if you pop out of the. coffin and you're still locked in the. tomb, that's no good, either." Can't you.

see a loved one like sitting up in the. middle of the night like, "I forgot to. leave the key.". >> [laughter]. >> Yeah. There's something There's another. problem with that, too. If this thing. sprung open at the slightest movement of. the of the person, um corpses move and. shift around during decomposition. And I'm sure that that has accounted. like I think there's accounts of corpses. flipping over and being found face down. I'm sure that that accounts for a lot of. the stories of people being found and. suspected to have been buried alive, but.

I don't think corpses like leave claw. marks on their their coffins. So, there. there seem to be some that are legit. Yeah, for sure. Uh, Edgar Allan Poe didn't help things much. when in 1844 he wrote a short story. called "The Premature Burial". >> [laughter]. >> where in it he says, uh, "To be buried alive is beyond question. the most terrific of those these. extremes which has ever fallen to the. lot of mere mortality. That it has. frequently very frequently so fallen.

will scarcely be denied by those who. think." And then he talks about the. boundaries between life and death uh. shadowy and vague, kind of playing into. that he was writing of the times, you. know, cuz that's like we talked about, that's kind of how people thought of. things. So, after that I think there. were even more people coming out with. these things. Yeah, there was a guy. named um Franz Vester who in um New. Jersey, I guess that's where he was. from, he had an improved burial case and. um you could essentially climb out of. it, I think. Uh this is the one that had.

the tube with the ladder. Yeah. And if. you were too weak, you could pull on a. bell. So, this is like, you know, it had. a fail-safe. And he gave demonstrations of his coffin. um where he would be buried under like 4. ft of dirt and would make his way out of. the coffin back above ground. Yeah, he's not the only one. Uh it seems. like the the big showman. because this was sort of around the. snake oil time where you would put on a. big show to try and talk people into. buying your thing.

>> Sure. And in the 19th century there was a guy. uh. Count Michel de Carnice Carnicki. Such a great name. Mhm. He dubbed himself as the Chamberlain to. the Tsar of Russia, whatever that means. >> It it's the. >> [sighs]. >> high-ranking manager of a royal. household. Oh, okay. So, he was like, yeah, like a. butler. Essentially, but he was in charge of. everybody. Like the head butler. >> Yeah, I guess, sure. Or the Chamberlain.

Yeah, I mean, hey, I'm not trying to to. degrade him. uh because he was quite the showman. He. would travel through the Europe and the. United States trying to sell his unit. called the Carnice. And there was an article from the. Chicago Tribune in 1899. uh that they would read before his big. show where. uh at the Academy of Medicine in New. York City, Dr. Henry J. uh. How would you pronounce that one? Uh. Garrigues? Garrigues? >> Garrigues. Where he startled his fellow members. with the assertion that one of every 200.

people buried in the US was actually in. a lethargic state and is buried alive. Yeah. So, very dubious numbers, obviously, but he. would use that as prelude to take the. stage and do his own demonstration where. he would uh bury somebody alive. Yeah, and um the La Carnice had an own had. like a bell. Again, this is pretty. low-hanging fruit and it makes a lot of. sense. Um but he also put in a tube that. you could breathe through. You could. also talk through it. Yeah. And be like,

"What what's what's been going on the. last few days?" While you wait for help. Yeah. He didn't He wasn't himself buried. alive like Fran Franz Vester. He would. get um volunteers to do it and there's a. guy named Faropo Lorenzo, who was. Italian, believe it or not, and he. volunteered to be buried alive uh in. this um. this uh La Carnice um casket and he. stayed there for 9 days back in 1898, which is currently still the record for.

being buried alive. Yeah. And I think at one point on day. like seven, he spoke through the tube and he was. like, "I'm going to put my mouth around. the tube now and just drop a couple of. Tic Tacs.". >> [laughter]. >> Yeah, and then the next day he shouted, "I got a poop." Through the. >> [laughter]. >> through the tube. 9 days, Chuck. Let's. think about that. Uh yeah, that's a long. time. And that seems verified. Yeah. Uh there's one other thing, too, um that. we can't not mention. We've definitely.

mentioned him before, but I find it so. fascinating. Um Timothy Clark Smith, whose grave in New Haven, uh Vermont, not Connecticut, back in I think 1893, was. fitted out with a window. that looked down the 6 ft uh to his face. >> Oh, that's right. >> exposed so that passersby could check on. him to make sure that he wasn't alive. Oh, man. And it's still there today. Um. except you just can't see very far. because the window's kind [music] of.

well, it's more than 100 years old. Yeah, that's too bad. Uh you got anything else, man? I got nothing else. Say it. Uh then I guess short stuff is out. Stuff You Should Know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts [music]. by iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows.