A safety coffin or security coffin is a coffin fitted with a mechanism to prevent premature burial or allow the occupant to signal that they have been buried alive.

It is not clear if Poe inspired innovation or if he was merely tapping into the feelings of the time, but this fear led to one of the creepiest categories of invention—coffin alarms. There were a...

Jul 18, 2019 · One of the basic features that almost all designs shared was the bell. By installing a bell above ground, connecting it with a rope down to the coffin, designers hoped to give the entombed a chance to raise the alarm, letting the night …

Jun 9, 2023 · One of the wildest ways that taphephobia manifested was through the invention of "safety coffins" (aka "security coffins"), tricked-out caskets that provided a way for prematurely buried people to escape from 6 feet under.

Jul 18, 2018 · In the late 19th century, books and newspapers were full of stories of terrifying premature internments, although it's not clear how many actually occurred. The solution to the possibly-made-up...

Feb 9, 2016 · In 1995, a modern safety coffin was patented by Fabrizio Caselli. His design included an emergency alarm, an intercom system, a torch (flashlight), a breathing apparatus, a heart monitor, and a stimulator.

Sep 29, 2018 · But, obsessive fear of premature burial gnawing at his own mind, he designs ever more complex alarm systems for his own coffin, finally insisting his family have him cremated.

Mar 9, 2022 · With the growing fears of possibly being buried alive, a number of inventors, in order to alleviate the public concerns and trying to make some money along the way, used their imaginations and developed patented safety coffins for the unfortunate souls trapped alive.

Feb 2, 2024 · As a result, numerous individuals were mistakenly pronounced dead and subsequently interred, only to wake up in their graves, desperate for rescue. This frequent occurrence of premature burials prompted inventors to devise a range of ingenious safety coffins. One such example was the “coffin alarm.”

The movie version, starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland, shows an alarm coffin in one sequence. It was known in the 19th century that even if one manages to survive the processes employed pre-burial, there is so little air in a coffin that one would asphyxiate quickly, but there was still widespread fear of premature burial.