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THREAD👇 (1/12) ESCAPABLE BURIAL CHAMBER built by Thomas Pursell for himself & his family. The ventilated vault can be opened from the inside by a handwheel attached to the door. Pursell was buried there in 1937, and (so far) has never reemerged. 
(2/12) Anxiety about premature burial was so widespread during the Victorian period that in 1891, the Italian psychiatrist Enrico Morselli coined the medical term for it: taphephobia (Greek for “grave” + “fear.”).
(3/12) In 1822, Dr Adolf Gutsmuth set out to conquer his taphephobia by consigning himself to a "safety coffin" that he had designed. For hours, he remained underground, during which time he consumed soup, sausages, & beer—delivered through a feeding tube built into the coffin.
(4/12) Gutsmuth wasn’t the first. In 1790, the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick had a safety coffin built which included a window and a breathing tube. The lid was then locked and two keys sewn into his burial shroud: one for the coffin itself and one for the tomb.
(5/12) The Germans were particularly ingenious, patenting over 30 different designs in the 19th century. The best-known was the brainchild of Dr Johann Gottfried Taberger, which included a system of ropes that attached the corpse’s hands, feet and head to an above-ground bell.
(6/12) Although many subsequent designs tried to incorporate this feature, it was by-and-large a design failure. As the body begins to decompose, it can shift inside the coffin. These tiny movements would have set the bells ringing, and visitors to the cemetery running.
(7/12) Contrary to popular opinion, the phrase “saved by the bell” is an old boxing term. As for “dead ringer:” a “ringer” was is horse substituted for another of similar appearance in order to defraud the bookies, so a “dead ringer” is an “exact duplicate."
(8/12) The American doctor Timothy Clark Smith created a grave that continues to intrigue (and frighten) visitors of Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Vermont.
(9/12) When Smith died (aptly enough on Halloween 1893), his body was interred in an unusual crypt, with his face positioned beneath a cement tube that ended at a piece of plate glass which would allow the unfortunate doctor to gaze upward in the event of his premature burial.
(10/12) Visitors to the cemetery used to report that they could peer down inside the grave and see Dr Smith’s decomposing head. Nowadays, all you can see is darkness and a bit of condensation.
(11/12) If all this seems a bit superstitious, consider the fact that safety coffins are still available for purchase today. In 1995, Fabrizio Caselli invented a model that includes an emergency alarm, two-way intercom, flashlight, oxygen tank, heartbeat sensor & stimulator.
(12/12) I hope you enjoyed this thread! If you like my content, you can support me on @Patreon (I have fun perks on offer!): patreon.com/drlindseyfitzh… … or buy a copy of my book #TheButcheringArt: amzn.to/2CeAalH This freelance writer thanks you in advance!
