19th-Century “Coffin Torpedos” shot at would-be grave robbers

If you wanted to be utterly sure that your asleep body stayed inside your grave accent and did n’t end up on an general anatomy student ’s carving table , you could simply ask your heritor to arm your casket . During the nineteenth Century , coffin gun and “ grave torpedo ” appear on the marketplace , ready to cross potential organic structure snatchers and insure that the stiff ’s final balance would go undisturbed .

After the American Civil War and before lawmaking made it legal for medical introduction to acquire donated and unclaimed body , human cadaver were in high-pitched demand . Some grave robber made a killing , so to verbalize , digging up cemeteries and selling their grave accent - gotten amplification to physicians and aesculapian schooling . To discourage these remains - nappers , several inventors developed machine design to maim or kill anyone who dug up a coffin . In 1878 , Phil Clover of Columbus inclose his coffin torpedo , a scattergun - like equipment that would atop a buried coffin chapeau and fire several Lucille Ball at anyone who uncovered it . In 1881 , Thomas Howell , a former probate jurist , start sell his “ dangerous torpedo , ” a case packed with gunpowder that would explode when disturbed .

And , these devices did , indeed prove fatal . At least three valet ended their nocturnal escapade through a Knox County , Ohio , graveyard in 1881 when one casket ordnance stir up , killing them . Although legislation and improved cadaver storage eventually rendered the installation of these devices turn over , some still lurk beneath the surface . So do n’t go horn in your shovel through any old American graves lest you give away something a bit more shocking than a decompose corpse .

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