Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-12-08
Sit Thomas Invention.

Row things are more unpleasant to
contemplate than the prospect OF DC
inn hurled alive. The horror OF the
idoa taUnts some people like a night
marc. the dread Of such a fate
amouDts in some of them to n species
of madness. It was so with old
Thomas Twfning, who had, on repeat
cI occasions given the most precise lu-
etrnctions as to the tests which should
bc applied to his presumably lifeless
cornsc before it was finally made
ready for its resting place among the
Twinings Of three generations.
One evening as he sat Illuminating
over the subject he was struck with
what he thought was new idea. 1t
was not new, by any means, for cot
fms which would open automatically
on the revival of a supposed corpse
have been known from almost the ear
licst times. Sir Thomas never heard
of these of course; if he had he would
have had one made long ago, and be-
SUES, tLttC was lctillS oolHStliii&o hSN
about his idea-Which was that the
coffin should not merely open, but fly
to pieces. so as to afford instantaneous
relief. and should contain the neces-
sary tools, explosives, etc, to enable
the prisoner to escape, even if he
should awake to find himself bricked
in from the air and the sun.
The baronet had always had taste
for mechanics, electricity, chemistry
and the like Castle Twining was
full of apparata-lathes, benches and
tools-and so Sir Thomas decided up
on inventng with his own hands, the
coffin which was to inclose his re-
mains, and which was to effectually
/uard him against the doom which he
regarded as ten times more terrible
than death.
He thought over all sorts Of projects
of levers which the slightest move
mcnt of the body must certainly act
upon; of elongated electric buttons,
the faintest pressure upon which
would lift the cover of the coffin and
lay its sides and ends fiat upon its bed;
of ccments which the increasing tenn
pcrature of the ''body" would melt,
and of fabrics which. while air proof,
would easily be torn in shreds by con-
vulsive and desperate fingers. All
these, after full consideration, he dis
cardcd as failing in some particular
to meet the requirements of the case.
Patience rewarded him at last, how
ever. The next solution, he perceived.
must be a pneumatic one. The rele..s'
ing apparatus must be operated upon
by an increase of the internal air pres
sure. How was this to be achieved?
The answer came to Sir Thomas just
as the idea of gravitation came to
Newton and that of steam to Watt
by observation of one of the common
est incidents Imaginable. The falling
apple of the former and the Kissing
Kettle OF the latter, spake not more
clearly to those keen observers than
dld the opening of a bottle of soda wa
ter TO Sir Thomas TWining What was
the gas IN soda water but imprisoned
airf And why should not the release
OF imprisoned air in the projected cot
I'M effect the purpose in view?
Still there was this difficulty-that
tlc force necessary to let loose the
soda water was greater than that
needed to operate the mechanism
winch would throw the coffin open.
AND how was this initial force to be
provided? Much anxious thought was
bestowed upon this problem. But it,
100 at length yielded to the baronet S
persistent efforts for he found that
'ne same effect, on a much larger and
Wefeiore better scale, could be pro
u"ced by an ordinary seidlitz powder.
~ ueVlSe plan by which light met
III pate, attached by slender rod to
"o cups containing tartaric acid AMI
N"'ooNatc Of soda, which would rest
urou the corpSes' hands. and on the
s1Ie>t movement tilt the chemicals
''o vessel Of water, was no difficult
natter And then Sir Thomas had the
'>'aeio0 of beholding his coffin
'"~0'c,c.