Chapter 7; Coffins, burial cases and caskets

Question 1

Acquired only after a long period of training under a master craftsman

Answer 1

Art and Mistery

Question 2

a trade or occupation

Answer 2

a Craft

Question 3

How many apprentices/journeymen were sheltered in the household of the master craftsman at a time?

Answer 3

1 or more

Question 4

A cerecloth might be used to preserve the body for short periods and placed it in a coffin before burial

Answer 4

shroud

Question 5

When was it believed that the dutch colonists used coffins in their burials?

Answer 5

1683/ 17th century

Question 6

When were coffin furniture (trimmings and fittings) imported?

Answer 6

18th century

Question 7

by 1775, what type of coffin was being made?

Answer 7

Wood coffin.

Question 8

What did different varieties of wood reveal?

Answer 8

different classes

Question 9

Polished or strained; More expensive wood coffins served well-to-do

Answer 9

Hardwood

Question 10

Painted with a mixture of lamp black and glue water, sufficed for less- fortunate

Answer 10

lowly pine wood

Question 11

What did the coffin traditionally symbolize?

Answer 11

the trade of English undertakers

Question 12

Following the war of 1812, period of westward was marked by rapid growth and spread of coffin shops focused exclusively on

Answer 12

production of burial receptacles and coffin warehouses

Question 13

Coffin and casket-maker goals :

Answer 13

1. product should have increased utility
2. better indicate importance of the deceased and family
3. provide more protection against grave robbers
4. forces of dissolution
5. more artistic and more beautiful to better harmonize aesthetic movement in burials

Question 14

a simple, unadorned wooden receptacle was used to encase the dead body before burial.

Answer 14

utilitarian

Question 15

5 themes in defining and fulfilling the proper function of the burial receptacle

Answer 15

1. utility
2. status indication
3. preservation of the body
4. protection
5. aesthetic representation

Question 16

Describe some materials used to produce coffins?

Answer 16

hardwood, lowly pine, mahogany, iron, stone, metal, metallic, marble, hydraulic cement, potters clay, artificial stone, zinc, glass, rubber, elastic materials, papier-mache, aluminum, cloth.

Question 17

An air tight coffin of cast or raised metal

Answer 17

fisk

Question 18

When was the Fisk patented for specified as an improvement of coffins

Answer 18

1848

Question 19

Who created the Fisk metallic case “a new and useful manner of constructing an air tight coffin of cast or raised metal”

Answer 19

Almond D. Fisk

Question 20

What were the reasons for the metallic burial cases? (5)

Answer 20

1. to allow distant relatives to journey to the deceased’s home and behold again the features of their departed friends
2. protection of the body against water seepage and vermin
3. safeguarding against infection and contagious diseases
4. facilitation of removal for the body for reburial
5. provided an improved device for returning bodies from a distance for burial with ancestors and other relatives.

Question 21

pauper burying grounds

Answer 21

“potters fields”

Question 22

Why did the “covered case” mark the ultimate attempts of the company to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the original pattern, although it fell out of the idea of beauty in burial cases led to a new and rather distinctly American form of burial receptacle.

Answer 22

The casket was born

Question 23

Who’s innovation was designed to improve burial cases of the square variety, ie caskets by reducing the excess space through the ogee design

Answer 23

A.C Barstow

Question 24

What year was the earliest straight sided burial case?

Answer 24

1830

Question 25

What does the term casket suggest?

Answer 25

a jewelry box or container for something valuable.

Question 26

What does the term “iron casketts” represent

Answer 26

an iron box or container and not a burial receptacle

Question 27

who was the first to offer caskets to the American public?

Answer 27

William Cooley of Boston Mass

Question 28

Shaping the casket top to the human form

Answer 28

sarcophagus principle

Question 29

pure and simple in design; not ornate and airtight

Answer 29

chaste

Question 30

the primary idea expressed in earlier burial receptacles, is now modified toward the presentation of the dead in a burial receptacle designed to provide an aesthetically pleasing setting for its visually prominent and dramatically centered object of attention

Answer 30

encasing the body

Question 31

Who and when supplied the first true sheet-metal casket to the trade

Answer 31

Crane, Breed & Co in early 1870’s.

Question 32

a term sometimes used generically to designate all burial receptacles, sometimes to indicate a coffin built along Egyptian mummy-case principles or some modification or refinement thereof

Answer 32

burial case

Question 33

the traditional term taken over from earlier English usage

Answer 33

coffin

Question 34

In what year did the term casket dominate the language of burial receptacles in patent literature

Answer 34

1890

Question 35

Who manufactured President Ulysses S. Grant’s casket and in what year?

Answer 35

Stein Manufacturing Co. and 1885

Question 36

What was President Ulysses S. Grant’s casket named?

Answer 36

The “style E state casket”

Question 37

Describe the style E state casket

Answer 37

Made with the finest black broadcloth, heavy silver metal mountings and a flat top with full French plate glass; inner metallic case was finished on the interior and set off by a pillow which had the generals initials embroidered.

Question 38

3 types of burial receptacles

Answer 38

1. traditional wooden coffin
2. metallic “mummy case”
3. cloth covered metal reinforced burial case

Question 39

When was the burial vault patented and by who

Answer 39

May 1, 1880 & William H. Bachtel of Canton, Ohio

Question 40

unvulcanized natural rubber

Answer 40

caoutchouc

Question 41

invented “a life preserving coffin in case of doubtful death” ; featured an arrangement of wires and pins and a spring lid, that enabled the occupant to cause the coffin lid to spring open by the slightest movement of hand or head.

Answer 41

• Christian Eisenbrandt of Baltimore Md (November 15, 1843)

Question 42

invented a square tube containing a ladder and a cord, one end of which was to be placed in the hand of the person laid in the coffin, while the other extended up to a bell on the top of the tube, which was attached to the head of the coffin.

Answer 42

• Franz Vester of Newark New Jersey, 1868

Question 43

invented the “improvement of life detectors for coffins” consisted of a narrow round tube, similar to the speaking tube, attached to the head end of the coffin in such a manner that the rope within it might be pulled by the buried person, releasing an air opening in the mouth of the tube and simultaneously setting off an electrical alarm.

Answer 43

• Theodore Schroeder and Hermann Wuest of Hoboken, New Jersey 1871

Question 44

invented a rather formidable arrangement of pipes, bars, tubes and cross pins; that would upon a movement of the hands pf “persons beign buried in a trance” open an air vent and at the same time, give indication that there was life in the coffin below.

Answer 44

• John Krichbraum of Youngstown, Ohio 1882