Today, with the advance of medicine, it is very unlikely that you will be buried alive. However, this was relatively common in the past, giving rise to taphophobia, which is the irrational fear that this will happen. Timothy Clark Smith, who died in New Haven, USA, in 1893, suffered from this disease and created a windowed tomb!

Its tomb is quadrangle-shaped, with a 14-inch glass window on top. By the time he was buried, it was possible to see his decaying face. Today, 124 years later, the window is quite dark and you can see droplets resulting from the condensation of water on the glass. Already the interior of the grave is quite darkened.

Smith was a doctor, diplomat, and traveler. While studying medicine, he eventually developed the fear of being buried alive. Some states of coma may give the impression that the person died, and many people must have been buried alive from it. Smith's phobia was justified, so he designed his own grave so that in case of error he could be unearthed in time.

Grave with window is located on a small hill at Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Vermont

Safety coffins

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, many people developed “safety coffins”: objects that could contain an escape route if the person woke up buried or allowed them to warn the living gravedigger. Although many such coffins have sprung up, there is no record of anyone who has been saved by them.

Among the models, there was a coffin in which the undead could push a little flag out of the tomb and show that it was alive, as well as coffins with compartments for water and drink. Interestingly, most of these projects did not include a vent tube so that oxygen would not end up inside the coffin. What a hesitation, huh?

In addition to the glass window on his grave, Timothy Smith was buried with a bell in case he wasn't really dead. And if you found this macabre story, just get the date the guy kicked his boots: October 31, 1893, just before Halloween. Can this mean anything?

It's hard to see anything through glass these days