Improvements in or connected with Coffins for: Rescuing People Buried Alive.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Aug., 1896-Accepted, 5th Sept., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Coffins for: Rescuing People
Buried Alive.
I, MICHAEL KARNICKI of 12 Masowiecka, Warsaw, Poland, in the Empire of
Russia, Landed Proprietor, 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 :-
This invention relates to a coffin, with a transparent lid, for rescuing persons
buried alive, in which the plate of the upper part or lid of the coffin consists of
one or more parts or doors connected with the lid by means of hinges, which parts,
are adapted to immediately spring up automatically under the action of previously
compressed springs the moment a holding or stop device is released by a slight
pressure or pull exerted by the person recovering consciousness.
In such a form of construction it is possible to arrange in the centre of the lid,
fastening bars, which produce a tight connection of the plates or doors with the lid,.
together with a device for holding or preventing the mechanism from. acting until
required, and further the whole mechanism may be considerably simplified by the
employment of only two bars directly held or retained in their compressed position,
intermediate parts being avoided.
The advantages connected with this improved arrangement consist mainly in the.
considerable facility for sitting up afforded to the aroused person through the
springing up of the plates or doors hinged to the coffin lid, and also in the increased
effectiveness of the whole mechanism caused by the simplified construction.
The invention is shown in a practical form of construction in the accompanying:
drawings, in which :-
Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the hermetically closed coffin;
Figure 2 a partial plan view of Figure 1;
Figure 3 a vertical cross section on the line 3-3 of Figure 1 and
Figure a similar section on the line 4-4 of Figure 1, but with the lid plates open,
whilst
Figure 5 is a vertical longitudinal section on the line 5-5 of Figure 2, together.
with a plan view of the same part.
The plate in the coffin lid consists for instance of two doors pip hinged to the coffin
lid and allowing light to pass.aty, one of said doors being provided on its inner face
with the hereinafter described mechanism, whilst the other which overlaps said door is
provided at each end of its inner longitudinal edges with a catch or keeper.pl for a
fastening bolt or bar b.
The frame a, which is firmly connected with the lid of the coffin and on which the
washering material a³ is arranged, has elongated holes a¹ at the head and foot to
receive the catches or keepers p of the one door, and is also provided with two flat
springs a which effect the springing up of the doors p when the mechanism. has been
released.
The bolts or fastening bars b, the outer end of each of which is provided with a
wedge shaped piece 62 to enter the slot in each of the catches pl, are guided by screws:
and slot holes, and are always pressed inwards by means of springs & Figure

page_text: These bolts or bars when the springs are compressed are directly held or stopped as
shown in Figures 1, 3 and 5 by projections d2 on a bar d. Said bar carries a push
disc d' and can be moved vertically within certain limits in a central opening in
a bar p².
Levers fare flexibly connected with the bar d and revolubly mounted in lugs f¹ and
in the curved brackets k, Figures 1 and 3, and these levers engage with their outer
ends a ring r, which besides the pressure disc d¹ attached to the bar d also serves to
release the catch mechanism when actuated by the aroused person.
In Figure 1 the coffin is shown closed, that is to say, the bars b arranged on the
one door are pushed outwards, the spiral springs 6 being compressed, so that the
wedge shaped ends of the bars fit into the slots of the catches or keepers p' fixed on
the other door, and the bar d with the pressure disc d' is moved downward, so that
the projections d2 project from the opening of the bar p2, and, as shown in Figures 3
and 5, arrest the bolts 6 in their extended or locking position.
If a slight pressure be made on the disc d' or a slight pull at the ring by the hands
of the awakened person (said ring being also connected with the bar d by the
levers) the bar d will move upwards, the projections connected therewith will
move upwards out of the way of the bolts b, and the latter will be drawn inwards by
the previously compressed spiral springs 66' and thus come out of the slots of the
catches or keepers p'p', whereupon both doors p will at once spring up by the action
of the flat springs a in the manner shown in Figure 4. The awakened person can
thus rise, easily throw completely back the doors p and then leave the coffin which had
been placed in a vault, having a light inlet.
It is then possible for the person in question by tapping on a glass grave stone and
by operating an alarm device to attract the attention of passers by and thus be
rescued.
If the coffin be again closed in order to be again used it is necessary to remove the
lid or upper part from the under part by unfastening the screws. The door provided
with the bars b is then closed first and afterwards the one having the catches or
keepers p' and the bars b are pushed by hand or by means of a suitable tool, so far
apart, as to again enter with their wedge shaped ends 62 into the slots of the catches
or keepers p', the springs b¹ being thus compressed.
The holding of the bars in this position is then effected by means of the
projections d² of the bar d which are moved out of the opening of the bar p² as shown
in Figure 5. The tight connection of the upper part or lid to the under part of the
coffin can then be effected.
Instead of the hereinbefore described simplified mechanism being employed with a
coffin having two doors in the lid, it may of course be employed with the plate p
formed in one piece and hinged to the coffin lid. In this case the mechanism must be
fixed on the free longitudinal edge of the plate and the wedge shaped ends 62 of the
bolt or bar b may directly enter suitable slots in the frame a, the catches p¹ being
dispensed with.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The improvement in or connected with coffins for rescuing people buried alive,
which consists in forming the lid of the coffin with one or more hinged plates or doors
(preferably transparent) adapted to be thrown open by springs, and in providing said
doors with bolts or bars having springs tending to keep them normally in an unlocked
position, and with a sliding stop adapted to be inserted between the bolts to retain
them when forced into their locked position, but adapted to be readily moved out of
engagement with said bolts by a slight push or pull from within the coffin in order
to allow said bolts to shoot back under the impulse of their springs and the said doors
to be thus thrown open without the use of special fixing slides for said bolts
substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

page_text: 2. The construction and combination of parts taken as a whole forming the
improved means for throwing open the cover of a coffin from within on the revival of.
a buried person substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated.
Dated this 1st day of August 1896.
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, Agents for the Applicant.