The 18th and 19th centuries saw a huge surge in the popularity of safety coffins – coffins designed to allow the interred to alert the living in the event of a premature burial – and so great is the fear of being buried alive that even today, with all of our medical technology, patents are still being filed for such devices.

An Italian watchmaker named Fabrizio Caselli, as recently as 1995 (RISK-FREE BURIAL, PEDIATRICS Vol. 98 No. 5 November 1996, pp. 960), patented a coffin that includes a flashlight, oxygen tank, intercom system, heart monitor and, from the looks of the photos, a video camera and flashing lights.

I suspect that we’re a bit more proficient than we were two hundred years ago at determining a persons living-or-dead status, so Caselli’s invention may be better aimed towards those above ground who simply don’t want to let go – or perhaps those that have a strange fetish for watching the dead.

If in fact you are one of those strange fetishists, or simply enjoy visiting bizarre cemetery structures, the 1893 grave of Timothy Clark Smith in New Haven, Vermont might be of interest to you.

Located at the Evergreen Cemetery just off Route 7 (a well-traveled and easy-to-find route), Mr. Smith’s grave features a square capstone into which is fitted a 14” x 14” plate of glass, peering into a six foot deep concrete tube leading to the actual grave, underneath which is situated Mr. Smith’s face (though you’d be hard pressed to actually see it). In addition to the viewing window, he was buried with a bell in his hand to use (in vain?) in the event that he needed to signal for help.

Though on the more simplistic side of the safety coffins introduced during that part of our history, the Timothy Clark Smith grave stands as a wonderfully preserved and extremely accessible example of our centuries-long fear of being buried alive.

For more on safety coffin technology, visit the Wikipedia article on the subject. There you will discover that the first recorded construction of a safety coffin was in 1792 at the request of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick – which included not only a viewing window but also an air tube (which would be my first request) and keys to the specially prepared locks to the coffin and crypt door.

There’s also a book on the subject entitled Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear.

Though there are “no documented cases of anybody being saved by a safety coffin“, there are plenty of stories of people being buried alive.

As recently as 2001 a 39-year-old Ashland, MA woman – presumed dead – was found gurgling inside her body bag while at a funeral home (okay, maybe we do need those modern safety coffins). She was rushed to the hospital and later released.

In 1993, 40-year-old Coney Island resident Nancy Vitale (wonderfully ironic surname) was declared dead by an incompetent EMS crew, only later to be treated and released from the Coney Island Hospital after a doctor heard – you got it – gurgling noises.

And most remarkably, as late as 1937, Angelo Hays actually made it all the way to full burial for several days before being found alive when insurance inspectors exhumed his body for insurance purposes! He went on to become a minor celebrity in his native France, inventing his own extremely elaborate security coffin and performing for television audiences – though with only 200 to 300 television sets in France as of 1939, I wonder how popular his appearances really were.

The lesson from these stories? When in doubt, gurgle.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the original link to the Vermonter.com article.

For more on premature burial – including even more modern accounts of gurgling – see Just Dying to Get Out

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[tags]angelo hays, burial practices, buried alive, cemeteries, coffins, evergreen cemetery, fabrizio caselli, graves, nancy vitale, new haven, premature burial, safety coffin, timothy clark smith, vermont, weird vermont[/tags]

Casey just recently (re)posted his decade-old skydiving video on Maison Bisson, Cliff beautifully chronicled his own first jump at Z-Hills (Skydive City) over on Spiralbound, so I figure, as I was third to jump, it would only be fitting if I were third to post as well. So here you go!

Each of the three videos has its own unique stand-out features – Casey’s, for those who know him, stands out for how young he looks. Cliff of course was the only one lucky enough to do the AFF program for his first jump, so his stands out for the fact that it really was his jump. Mine? The funny hat! Yes, yes… the Jumptown padded helmets look ridiculously funny on everyone, and I’m no exception.

It was my intention, along with Scott (the reason I did the first jump) and Cliff, to enter the AFF program this season and begin working towards our fully solo jumps and licenses. Alas, after a bizarrely distressing month of unfortunate circumstances the plan had to be taken off the table. But it’s on the back burner still simmering, waiting to move to the fore again by next jump season.

With any luck we’ll find ourselves at Jumptown‘s AFF Camp – a four day intensive training program that takes you from your Category A skydive through your E-2 jump and into solo jumping – then of course we’ll need to log a minimum of 25 solo jumps in order to begin qualifying for our licenses.

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here – 100+ jumps at least, I’m sure – but I can’t wait to start freeflying. But, one step at a time…

About Jumptown
Jumptown is a skydiving club and dropzone in Orange, MA (70 miles west of Boston). Not only is it the home of the first commercial skydiving center in the United States, it is also the birthplace of sport skydiving itself and the home base of the Massachusetts Sport Parachute Club (dba Jumptown, actually…)

If you visit Jumptown for a tandem skydive, I’d recommend the jumpmaster that I had in a heartbeat. Ask for Kevin Barrett. He’s a fantastically friendly guy, is exceedingly thorough and even makes a great sightseeing tour guide on your way down. You’ll be in great hands that you can trust (though that’s never a question at Jumptown – everything is top-notch!).

Quick Note About Video Editing
The video above was shot by Ben Lowe of Jumptown and provided to me originally on DVD. Naturally I had to rip it from the disc (also performed minor edits) to get it to YouTube, and if you’re anything like me you may have become irritated at the availability of free (and good) ripping programs for the PC. For this one video rip I used Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK) and not only was it free, it was dead simple! I’d recommend it. AutoGK ripped it to AVI, I then popped it into Windows Movie Maker (all free, simple and low tech – good for basic things), made my edits and exported the movie.

[tags]accelerated freefall, AFF, Auto Gordian Knot, AutoGK, Ben Lowe, Casey Bisson, Cliff Pearson, DVD Ripping, Florida, freeflying, jumptown, Kevin Barrett, massachusetts, Massachusetts Sport Parachute Club, orange, Roderick Russell, skydive, Skydive City, skydiving, skydiving videos, tandem skydiving, United States Parachute Association, USPA, VOB, VOB to AVI, Windows Movie Maker, Z-Hills, Zephyrhills[/tags]

The public outrage regarding high gasoline prices may have died down some since the initial push past $3.00 a gallon that consumers saw two seasons ago, but there is no doubt that drivers still grimace and curse the oil companies as they march to the pump to fill up their cars, trucks and SUVs.

While there is still much debate surrounding whether high gasoline prices are good (and here) for American consumers or not, one thing is certain – we’re all interested in better fuel economy.

Be it a financial concern, desire to lessen your environmental impact and carbon footprint, or simply an attempt to “stick it” to the oil companies, we’d all love to pay less at the pump – but not all pumps are created equal! A recent experiment in my own vehicle led to some interesting surprises.

The story begins with my obsessive-compulsive tendency to watch the dashboard display in my Volvo S60. While always interested in better fuel economy, the need to watch my MPG consumption stems more from habit and compulsion than an attempt to boost the average. Nevertheless, regularly driving 7+ hours one-way, 75% highway, at night (no traffic) and loaded down with roughly 250 pounds of extra cargo (I’m a stage performer) has revealed that my Volvo S60 averages 27 to 28 MPG while running on a higher octane fuel (91 to 93). I fuel up at every possible type of filling station and have used every brand of fuel – at 2am in the middle-of-nowhere, you take what you can get. Always, however, my fuel consumption stays solidly within that 27 to 28 MPG range, unless I’m intentionally trying to boost it with a crawl-and-coast methodology (Don’t laugh! Traveling alone three quarters of the time leads to all sorts of strange behavior.)

That’s why I was surprised when I noticed my average creeping past 29 MPG last July on a trip from central Pennsylvania to Stamford, Connecticut! Round-trip in one day, including stop-and-go city driving, I averaged 29.6 MPG – the highest my rating has been for distance driving in this vehicle, and good news for the people paying my travel expenses.

Curious as to why I was seeing an increase, especially given the city driving and travel on the Connecticut section of I-95 – not recommended, ever – the only contributing factor that I could find was the gas that I filled my tank with in central PA – 92 octane from a Sheetz station. (btw – if you’ve never been to a Sheetz, let me just say that they are brilliant stores! Great fuel, Made-To-Order food, even good coffee! And clean, clean, clean!) At the end of the day though, I chalked it all up to luck, good driving and, well, more luck.

In truth, I didn’t give the good mileage in July a second thought beyond that day, until just yesterday when I filled up yet again at a Sheetz in central Pennsylvania and drove two hours through extremely mountainous Pennsylvania Coal Country, only to emerge on the other side with a 30.1 MPG reading!

Not only had I never seen such a high rating in this vehicle before, but it happened in the mountains, the last place I’d expect it to occur!

Once on the highway I kept a very close eye on the display window and it kept improving. Before long my Volvo was at 31 MPG. This was unprecedented, and those who drive vehicles that boast real-time fuel consumption stats know how difficult it is on long trips to boost your rating by even a few tenths of a mile per gallon – yet here I was, averaging 31 MPG.

This average maintained itself without any special driving on my part, and to test the now fairly convincing theory that my fuel economy was due to the Sheetz station, after 4.5 hours of driving and half of a tank consumed, I filled the now empty portion with Exxon-brand, 93 octane fuel.

My fuel economy plummeted, and quickly. The Exxon/Sheetz blend, continuing on for another 2.5 hours, brought my rating down to a high 28 miles per gallon.

While this is far from a controlled, scientific experiment, there is certainly enough evidence to at least suggest that different brands due indeed lead to different fuel economies. It’s likely that I will repeat the “experiment” under more controlled circumstances that include same time-of-day driving, route, traffic conditions, perhaps even utilization of cruise-control, and I will report the results here. The fact that my vehicle has never seen such a high rating, however, does suggest that there can be a significant difference between filling stations, the fuel that they carry and the resultant performance of said fuel.

Assuming my vehicle typically runs at an average of 28 MPG (usually between 27 and 28, in actuality), a 3 MPG increase as I saw with the Sheetz-brand fuel is almost an 11% increase in performance. An 11% increase is certainly not something that I’d want to dismiss – with the current national average of premium fuel at $3.071, that’s a savings for my vehicle of just over $6 per tank of fuel. That may seem like a small sum – but hell, that’s three cups of very good coffee, enough to last me while driving that tank empty! And for someone like me who drives an awful lot, that difference would have saved me about $260 over this past summer alone – enough to help defray the costs of my domain name being stolen, in fact. Combine savings like that with an even more fuel efficient vehicle and you’ll be saving even more money and a whole lot more of the environment.

While the jury – and the fuel providers – are still undecided, I for one will be listening to the voice of my Volvo and will be seeking out better performing fuels.

Coal Region, Connecticut, driving, Exxon, fuel economy, fuel efficiency, gas, gas prices, gas savings, gasoline, I-95, MTO, Pennsylvania, Sheetz, Volvo, Volvo S60