Improvements in Coffins.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in Coffins.
I, JOSEPH URSELL, Merchant of Attendorn in the Province of Westphalia and
Kingdom of Prussia do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
The wooden coffins in use up to the present have many disadvantages and these
are especially their great expense and great weight and the fact, that they admit
air and damp especially at the joints and at the points where they are closed.
As distinguished from this, iron-coffins such as are shown in various forms in the
annexed drawings in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, have great advantages, for firstly they are
much cheaper and lighter than wooden coffins and then they are absolutely tight so
that the damp and the smell from the corpse do not penetrate from the coffin into
the houses which is injurious to the health and very disagreeable from an asthetical
point of view.
Of course a coarse flat iron-plate coffin does not look so pretty as a wood or
metall coffin and the latter would perhaps be preffered by the public in spit of
every thing. In order to remedy this, on the one hand the coffins will be made of
a shape and with ornaments corresponding to those of the simple wood or metal
coffins, and on the other hand they will be painted or varnished on the outside so
as to resemble wood, or nickel-plated or galvanized. At the same time, as is shown
in Fig. 1 of the drawing the lower part A and the upper part B of these coffins can
each be pressed out of one piece of iron-plate and the longitudinal closure may be
variously shaped as may be seen at C to the left and at C1 to the right.
Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the lower part A and the upper part B of the coffin formed
not of one piece but composed of several parts. In Fig. 2 the parts simply overlap
each other and are either riveted or screwed together; in Fig. 3 the edges are
simply folded together; in Fig. 4 the parts are joined by using band-irons,
angle-irons or flat irons. The longitudinal closures may again be of various shapes
as will be seen in every figure at C to the left and at C1 to the right. In Figs. 1,2
and 3 in order to insure absolute tightness, strips D of india rubber or the like of a
transverse section corresponding to the shape of the closure (flat, square or round)
are laid in.
The interior margin round the transverse section of the iron-plate represents the
coating of paint or varnish or the galvanic layer.
It need not be stated that all the ornaments usually put on coffins may be used
in connection with these coffins.
Deted this 19th don of Von 1806

page_text: I, JOSEPH URSELL, Merchant of Attendorn in the Province of Westphalia and
Kingdom of Prussia do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
The wooden coffins in use up to the present have many disadvantages and these
are more especially their great expense and great weight and the fact that they
admit air and damp especially at the joints and at the points where they are
closed.
As distinguished from this, iron coffins such as are shown in various forms in the
annexed drawings filed with the Provisional Specification in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 have
great advantages, for firstly they are much cheaper and lighter than wooden coffins
and then they are absolutely tight so that the damp and the smell from the corpse
do not penetrate from the coffin into the houses which is injurious to the health and
very disagreeable from an aesthetical point of view.
Of course a coarse flat iron-plate coffin does not look so pretty as a wood or
metal coffin and the latter would perhaps be preferred by the public in spite of
every thing.
In order to remedy this on the one hand they will be made of a shape and with
ornaments corresponding to those of the simple wood or metal coffins, and on the
other they will be painted or varnished on the outside so as to resemble wood, or
nickel-plated or galvanized. At the same time, as is shown in Fig. 1 of the
drawing the lower part A and upper part B of these coffins can each be pressed
out of one piece of iron-plate and the longitudinal closure may be variously shaped
as may be seen at C to the left and at C1 to the right.
Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the lower part A and the upper part B of the coffin formed
not of one piece but composed of several parts. In Fig. 2 the parts simply overlap
each other and are either riveted or screwed together; in Fig. 4 the parts are
joined by using band-irons, angle irons and flat irons etc. The longitudinal closures
may again be of various shapes as will be seen in every figure at C to the left and
at C1 to the right. In Figs. 1, 2 and 3 in order to insure absolute tightness,
strips D of india-rubber etc. of a transverse section corresponding to the shape of
the closure (flat, square or round) are laid in.
The exterior line round the transverse section of the iron-plate represents the
coating of paint or varnish or the galvanic layer.
It need not be stated that all the ornaments usually put on coffins may be used
in connection with these coffins.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said iuven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
Coffins stamped from iron-plate folded or riveted, closing air-tight, of a shape
essentially like that of the ordinary wood, galvanized, varuished or covered with a
layer of bright metal on the surface or in the inside and on the outside, of all sizes
and shapes.
Dated this 18th day of January 1897.
For JOSEPH URSELL,
Beruhard Brockhues.