The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-17
HORRIBLE THOUGHT.
A Human Body Goes Into Machine
and Comes cut Paper Weight.


and Comes ut Paper Weight.
From the Neto York Graphic.
Material, dead body. Process, COM
preston. Result, paper weight.
This is the result mapred out by an IN
ventive genius in Pittsburg Heis doctor
by trade, and Their efore can speak with au-
thority of the destiny Of his patients. Ills
name Is Cooper. If his idea goes" he
will make barrel out of it. His appara-
tus is a combination of steel presses and
hot rollers-a sort of rolling mill on small
scale. There is little sentmentality about
the operation, but it is effectual.
A human body is put in at one end,
and taken out at the other in the shape OF
paper weight. In other words, the enor-
nous pressure excludes all moisture from
the body, and congresses it to fraction OF
its original bulk. TIE body of full grown
man can thus be reduced to cubic CT L
foot. as hard and lmperishable as marble.
DR.. Cooper asks no one to take his word for
all this. In his respect be is like the man
who owned a hon which he said laid two
| eggs day. IF you don't believe it." he
| said, there's the hem" When DR.. Cooper
runs across skeptic he takes him by the
| arm, leads him into his study, and BEAM
ingly points on his center table to what APP
| pears to be a cross fashioned Of the purest
marble.
"There," he exclaims, "are the remains Of
child converted by my process into a
| handsome and valuable ornament. Taste
| it-you will fl id it tasteless Smell of it
you see it is odorless. Try it with knife
it's as hard as marble. And, what's more,
| can turn out as neat job every time"
People says the Chicago Tribune, who
ought to have intelligent ideas on the sub
ject are puzzled, and hardly any two think
| alike. The reporter first asked the doctors
abOus it. One said fully that it coldn't be
| done; that compress the human body as
| much as you pleased it would still be ami
NAL matter, and therefore perishable; and
a second pronounced it hoax A third
| did not doubt the possibility of the reduc-
ton of bulk by pressure. but insisted that a
chemical change would be necessary before
anything like the result claimed could be
obtained.
The chemists were divided in opinion.
Nothing" said one, ais impossible now
adays, especially in the way of hydraulic
| compression. | saw lrief dispatch on the
| subject In the Tribune this morning, and
saw at once that the idea was practicable.
By employing sufficient pressare-and there
| if no limit to tall moisture can be elm
| mated from the residuum and the PARTICLES
SO closely cemented as to he air and moist
ure proof, and therefore practically indie
structible. No chemical change is neces-
sary."
Other chemists made light, of it, and pro-
| nounced it nonsense of the rankest kind.
One of the Oldest undertakers in the city
| took i'll the situation at glance.
"Practicablep' said he; "of course, and
| easy and simple besides. There is a great
| deal of solid matter in the human body.
Take the blood, for instance: In body
weighing $50 pounds one-thirteenth of the
weight is blood and 20 per cent. of the
| blood is solid matter; this gives you about
| two and one-third pounds to start with.
| The muscles weigh seventy-seven pounds
and quite proportion is solid matter. The
| skeleton weighs tweDty-one pounds and
eight ounces, and here the proportion of
solid matter is large Compression will re,
duce everything to solid matter, which would
be indestructible, without the necessity
of any chemical change. In embalming the
principal thing we have to contend with is
the liquids of the body. Exclude these
thoroughly and the remainder will last in
definitely, just as mummy does. l don't
| know how much the resideum would re-
semble marble, but by the introduction Of
coloring matter any desired effect could be
produced just as easy as any shape. Cheaper
than cremation9 l should hope so. 1t takes
three hours to cremate body; they use 81
worth of gas and charge $50. If we put 81
into casket and charged $50, people woulc
| say we were robbers"