A man who was so afraid of being buried alive was given a window in his grave. Weird

A man who was so afraid of being buried alive that he had a window built into his grave.

Due to the progress of modern times medicine; Once a loved one is declared dead, he or she will remain dead forever and be laid to rest for eternity.

Unfortunately – as the headline suggests – this has not always been the case, as the fear of being buried alive, taphophobia is a reality for anyone who knocks on the door. 19th century.

Why were people in the 19th century afraid of being buried alive?

Before the advancement of modernity science declaring that someone was more of a guessing game. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was still a very new medical technique, and the defibrillator wouldn’t be invented until 1899 – which meant the only way to definitively determine if your relative had passed on to the next life was to wait for it to decay disappeared. entering or hacking into the body.

Neither is a particularly dignified way to treat recently deceased people.

Couple this with the sensational stories of coffins being dug up only to find scratches inside, and you got a society terrified of being buried prematurely.

This would be a pretty horrific situation to find ourselves in – especially since most of us wouldn’t be able to get out of a coffin like The Bride did in that coffin. Kill Bill scene.

With taphophobia reaching a point of hysteria, the idea of ​​a safety box didn’t seem too extreme at the time – at least not to Timothy Clark Smith.

Why did Timothy Clark Smith have a window placed in his grave?

A doctor who lived nearby US In the 19th century, Smith decided he wasn’t taking precautions when it came to his death and designed a specialized coffin with a window in it.

The window was placed just above his head, with the idea that he might attract the attention of a passing mourner or gravedigger.

But surely the window would only work if someone started straight into Smith’s (supposedly) dead face? Fortunately, he had also thought of this and also installed a bell, which was attached to his hand.

There was even a breathing tube installed in the grave, allowing Smith to breathe safely while he waited for rescue.

For anyone who wants to satisfy their morbid curiosity and see the grave for themselves, you can still see it to this day in a cemetery in New Haven, Vermont.

But don’t expect to see Smith’s skull staring back at you, as condensation (presumably from the doctor’s decomposing body) has completely obscured the view.