Year: 1889

page_text: I, JOHN GRANVILLE MEYERS, of 711, G. Street, N.W. Washington, District of
Columbia, United States of America, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the saine is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My Invention relates to the treatment of the hodies of the dead whereby
decomposition may be arrested and the bodics kept in a state of preservation for
ages.
The Invention is based upon the discovery that a corpse, placed in a sealed
mausoleum or cell or other closed structure and subjected to the action of currents
of air, may be so far desiccated that decay of the body will be practically or
wholly arrested so that the body may be kept for an indefinite period of time
without change.
The Invention consists in placing the dead body to be preserved in a vault or cell
hermetically sealing the same except as to certain inlet and outlet passages for air,
and then passing or permitting to pass through the vault or cell a current of air, the
current to be continued for a considerable period of time.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specifi-
cation, in which the figure is a longitudinal section of one form of a corpse cell or
enclosure which I employ in carrying my invention into effect.
While I may use any form of air-tight vault, cell, or enclosure, to receive the body
I prefer to construct a mausoleum containing many suitable cells, vaults, or receptacles, A
each of which is provided with a door B for placing the casket and corpse within the
cell. An inlet opening a and outlet opening bare formed in each cell, as clearly
shewn in the drawing.
The body to be preserved is placed in the cell and the door closed and hermetically
After the cell is thus
sealed to exclude all admission of air except at the orifices a b.
closed and sealed a current of air is continuously passed into the cell, the current by
preference entering at a and exhausting at b. This current of air is to be continued
for several weeks and by it all moisture and other emanations from the body are
removed and the body becomes thoroughly desiccated, and in this condition will
keen for ages.

page_text: Cis a glass plato fitted in the door B and through which the body can be examined
at any time from the beginning of the process to the end.
The process as a rule will be conducted with common atmospheric air, and I
may depend upon natural currents, such as might be produced by warming or
henting the coll, or I may use any air-forcing devico, a common air-pump or fan
for example, for producing and keeping up the required air current.
In some cases the air passed through the cell may be first dried or heated, which
would hasten the process.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what I
claim is
The process of preserving a corpse, which consists in placing the same in a vault
or cell of a mausoleum or other structure for the reception of dead bodies,
hermetically sealing the same except as to inlet and outlet passages for air,
then passing through the cell a current of air, substantially as, and for the purposes,
set forth.
and
J. G. MEYERS.
By A. M. & Wm. Olark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.
Dated this 5th day of February 1889.
J. G. MEYERS.
By A. M. & Wm. Olark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.