IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFINS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hugh Hughes Lloyd, of Fort William, Douglas,
Isle of Man, Colonel late of the Bengal Army, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFINS."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Hugh Hughes Lloyd at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 18th January 1868, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HUGH
HUGHES LLOYD, of Fort William, Douglas, Isle of Man, Colonel late
of the Bengal Army, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COFFINS," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the
same, and have made solemn Declaration that I am the true and first.
Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hugh Hughes Lloyd, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement :-
My Invention has for its chief object the preservation of the bodies
of the dead in the condition in which they may be at the time of
death. This is done by enclosing them in vacuum anti-corrosive
composite metallic coffins made of sheet copper or zinc or other suitable
metal or alloy of metals or other material impervious to air, the coffins
being so constructed that the air may be abstracted by air pumps applied
to circular valves or apertures which are by preference placed one at
each extremity of the coffin and another near the centre. The valves
are provided with steel springs secured within the lid of the coffin. The
ends of the springs are covered with india-rubber or gutta percha plugs.
Each valve is pressed by its spring upwards against the inner surface
of the lid of the coffin, but will yield to the pressure of the nozzle of
the air pump which is inserted through the valve and extracts the air
from the coffin. When that has been effected the air pumps are removed
and the valves close instantaneously leaving the dead body hermetically
sealed in a vacuum coffin, from which atmospheric air is after having
been exhausted perpetually excluded while the coffin is above or under
ground; near the head of the coffin a piece of thick air-tight plate glass
9 inches by 6 according to circumstances may be securely let in so as
to allow the face only of the deceased to be seen.
The body may be carefully secured in the required position as
represented in Fig. 1, and herein-after more fully described by means
of invisible anti-corrosive wires. The metallic sheets of which the coffin
is made are rolled out into sheets of suitable thickness and form; the
joints are doubled over in forming the sides, ends, and bottom, and are
securely soldered inside and out at all the joinings. The body of the
coffin rests upon and is secured to diagonal double planking as
represented in Fig. 2, r, r, to avoid straining the coffin after the
body has been placed in it. When the body is placed in the coffin
anti-corrosive wires are used for securely fixing it in its place, for
transmission to or from distant places by land or sea. The wires are
placed transversely across the body and limbs, and are secured to rings
at the lower inner edges of the coffins, as represented in Fig. 1, a, a, a,
b, b, b, the head is secured in its place by an oval invisible wire of the
same description placed round the face and secured to rings round the
head of the coffin at the bottom. After the body is secured in its place

page_text: the interior of the coffin is firmly arched over in two places by metal
bands below the chest and waist for the purpose of strengthening ne
coffin only. The lid will rest on angle half inch bar metal of the same
description which is soldered close round the upper edge of the coffin, as
shewn in Fig. 2, d, d, and forms a shelf for the lid to rest on, and to which
it will be firmly soldered. Three spring valves are by preference fixed in
the lid in the positions shewn at e, e, e, Fig. 3, but more or fewer may be
employed, and they may be fixed in other parts of the coffin. When the
lid is properly fixed and soldered down the nozzles of the air pump are
introduced into the apertures and the air is exhausted from the coffin.
The nozzles are then withdrawn and the apertures being instantaneously
closed by the action of the spring valves, each aperture is covered with
a lid or cover which is then firmly screwed or soldered down leaving the
body hermetically sealed in the vacuum coffin in which it can be
conveyed to any required distance and be preserved without decay for
an indefinite period of time.
Having now described my Invention I would have it understood that
I do not claim the use of metallic sheets for making coffins, but what
I claim is, the construction of a coffin of sheet metal provided with
spring valves so arranged as to allow the nozzle of an air pump to be
inserted and the air to be exhausted, and the vacuum coffin to be
hermetically sealed as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Hughes Lloyd, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight.
HUGH HUGHES LLOYD. (L.S.)
Signed and sealed in the
presence of,
W. F. MOORE, J.P.,
Cronkbourne, n'. Douglas,
Isle of Man.