CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFINS, AND FOR PREVENTING NOXIOUS EMANATIONS FROM DEAD BODIES."
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Victor Pean, Gentleman, and Alphonse François
Legros, Architect, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire
of France, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFINS, AND
FOR PREVENTING NOXIOUS EMANATIONS FROM DEAD BODIES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Victor Pean and Alphonse
François Legros at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 13th July 1864.
We, VICTOR PEAN, Gentleman, and ALPHONSE FRANCOIS LEGROS, Architect,
of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
COFFINS, AND FOR PREVENTING NOXIOUS EMANATIONS FROM DEAD BODIES," that is
to say:-
Our Invention consists in coating coffins internally and externally with a
thick coating of a composition, herein-after described, for preventing the
disengagement of noxious emanations from the decomposition of dead bodies
and the diffusion of the gases in apartments, whereby the health of the living
is subject to injury and disease.
To carry out our Invention, we coat the coffin internally and externally
with a layer of a composition prepared with bitumen, asphalte, tar, liquid or
solid marine glue and sulphur combined or not with resin, white lead, or
other analogous agents having the property of disinfecting the noxious and
infectious gases.

page_text: We do not make any alteration in the form or dimensions of the coffin,
which after being coated, as herein-before described, is closed hermetically
with a glass lid by means of a rabbet and the above composition. When the
body is to be put into the ground, the wooden lid is then screwed on as usual
over the glass lid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Victor Pean and Alphonse François Legros in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 13th January 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, VICTOR
PEAN, Gentleman, and ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS LEGROS, Architect, of No. 10,
Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Victor Pean and Alphonse François Legros, Her special license that we,
the said Victor Pean and Alphonse François Legros, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Victor Pean and Alphonse
François Legros, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFINS, AND FOR PREVENTING NOXIOUS EMANATIONS PROM DEAD
BODIES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Victor Pean
and Alphonse François Legros, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Victor Pean and Alphonse François
Legros, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in coating coffins internally and externally with a

page_text: thick coating of a composition, herein-after described, for préventing the dis-
engagement of noxious emanations and filtrations from the decomposition of
dead bodies and the diffusion of the gases in apartments, whereby the health
of the living is subject to injury and disease.
To carry out our Invention, we coat the coffin internally and externally,
or only internally or externally with a layer of a composition prepared with
bitumen, asphalte, tar, liquid or solid marine glue, sulphur combined or not
with resin, white lead, or other analogous agents, having the property of pre-
venting the escape of noxious and infectious gases.
We do not make any alteration in the form or dimensions of the coffin,
which after being coated as herein-before described, is closed hermetically
with a glass lid by means of a rabbet and the above composition. When the
body is to be put into the ground the wooden lid is then screwed on as
usual over the glass lid. A tube may be put in communication with the
interior of the coffin and the external air for the escape of gases.
And having now described our said Invention, and the best means to put
the same into execution, we wish it to be understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise details herein laid down, as they may be varied
without changing the principle of our Invention; but what we claim, and
wish to be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
the coating of coffins with a composition for preventing noxious emanations
and filtrations therefrom, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Victor Pean and Alphonse François
Legros, have bereunto set our bands and seals, this Ninth day of
January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-five.
Witness,
30
HY. GILBEE,
10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris.
PEAN, V.
(L.S.)
ALPHONSE LEGROS. (L.s.)