Modern Mourning: New Ways We Honor Our Dead

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View Caption + #1: Method of Treating Corpses, John H.

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Patenting Death: Photos

Method of Treating Corpses, John H. Chambers: July 8, 1890

A decade before the turn of the century, John H. Chambers submitted a patent to systematically remove decomposition fluid from caskets -- which no longer needed to be buried, given his upright, contained design: "I am aware that it is not new to provide for the removal from the coffin of the fluid in a matter created by the decomposition of the body, and I do not seek to cover such, broadly. Neither do I claim, broadly, the process of embalming, as I am aware that it has long been the practice to embalm bodies after death; but so far as I am aware it never has been proposed to embalm the body and then provide for the exclusion of the air and the removal of the fluid matter from the coffin. This is important. I also attach importance to the employment of the disinfecting-trap in the outlet-pipe to the coffin."

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patents

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Improvement in Poison Bottles: James W. Bowles; Oct. 10, 1876 During the 19th century, losing your poison among the assortment of other -- non-lethal -- liquids and tonics in your collection was evidently a common mishap. Or at least James W. Bowles thought as much, so he set out to solve that problem in 1876 with his coffin-shaped bottles. Bowles explains in his patent: "(T)he peculiar shape of the bottle serves as a warning against the careless use of the contents."

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patents

View Caption + #3: Method of Preserving Corpses: Graham Hamrick; Jan. 5, 1892

Can a torch of burning sulfur really keep a body from decomposing? Graham Hamrick thought so. In 1888, Hamrick devised a complicated process of embalming that included a plethora of chemicals and a burning sulfur torch that needed to be relit on a regular basis. The record shows it took more than four years for his patent to be approved, but Hamrick defended his process: "Subjects preserved by my procedure above set forth involving treatment for the longer period of about 40 days have been kept for many months through the hottest weather, in the open air, in a perfectly natural condition, and without any decomposition. I am unable to assign any limit to the continual preservation of such embalmed bodies."

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patents

View Caption + #4: Corpse Eye Closer: J.M. Spear; April 21, 1891

It turns out that "effectually adjusting and closing the eyelids of corpses in such manner as to impart thereto an undisturbed or natural appearance," was a difficult feat to perform in 1891 when J.M. Spear applied for a patent for his "Corpse Eye Closer."   Spear's contraption, a rounded piece of metal with sharp, angled teeth, is meant to be slipped between the eyeball and the eyelid of the deceased.

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patents

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Improvement in Combined Grave, Coffin and Monument: Leland M. Speers and Abraham Clark; July 6, 1875 Three for the price of one! Leland M. Speers and Abraham Clark sought to bring simplicity to the 19th-century burial -- and an added safety feature in case someone was buried alive. In the gentlemen's own words: "(T)he features of the dead can be viewed at any time without removing the cover. This enables friends of the deceased who may have been absent at the time of the death and funeral to view the said deceased at any time they may wish. This construction also enables the body to be watched for any desired length of time, in cases where there may be doubt as to whether the body may be dead or in a trance state, until it revives or all doubt is removed."

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patent

View Caption + #6: Buried Alive Prevention

Being buried alive might be less of a concern today, but it was a real possibility in the 19th century, as evidenced by various patents from the era. Many of these elaborate contraptions include all bells and whistles -- sometimes literally -- to prevent such mistakes. One even includes an air shaft to ensure proper breathing while the living soul awaits retrieval. Another is designed so that the mistakenly deceased must hit his or her head on the coffin to call for help.

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patents

View Caption + #7: Beheading Block and Ax: William Hanlon; Feb. 11, 1890

William Hanlon's patented Beheading Block and Ax is not nearly as deadly as it sounds. In fact, it's a turn-of-the-century magic trick. Hanlon writes: "The object of this invention is to produce upon the stage in the presence of an audience and under full light an illusive beheading so nearly realistic that as the victim's head lies upon the block the descending ax and block give forth the natural thud of a blow, and the blade appears to actually sever the neck of the victim, and after the seeming separation of the head from the body both simultaneously fall, the body to the floor and the head apparently through the block to an opening at the base thereof at a point removed from its natural position, both in distance and angle, and all this without the employment of reflectors, such as are commonly used for illusive acts of this general character."

U.S. Patent Office via Google Patents

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We humans have never been particularly comfortable with death. That's entirely understandable, of course. Death is permanent and largely unpleasant and we don't know what -- if anything -- is on the other side. For millennia, various cultural and religious rituals have helped us process our feelings about death, providing comfort when a loved one dies.

Is it evidence of an afterlife, or is something else going on?

DCI

But those rituals are fast disappearing in our increasingly secularized society -- and we actually really need them. That's the contention of author and professor Candi K. Cann in her forthcoming book, "Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the 21st Century." In her research, Cann identifies several emerging trends in modern culture that seem to suggest we're searching for new ways to live with death.

"We're seeing a disappearance of the rituals surrounding the dead," Cann said. "We're not really supposed to grieve out in public, at work, in front of people. So you see this dichotomy of what's almost an obsession with death -- all the vampire movies and zombie movies -- but at the same time there's a disappearance of grief and grieving."

Cann said that, for those people who don't participate in traditional or religious mourning rituals, there's a movement toward do-it-yourself memorializations. People are finding new and often technology-driven ways to honor the dead.

Cann cited the virtual memorials that have become so popular on social networking services like Facebook. Here, people can assemble photos, videos and written tributes for a memorial that can be visited remotely from anywhere in the world. Many traditional funeral homes now offer a private version of the online memorial, often called a virtual headstone option. Cann said that there are now more than 1 million Facebook pages for dead people.

Memorials sometimes go viral in an entirely different way. A recent worldwide pay-it-forward movement was triggered by the sudden and tragic death of a Pennsylvania teenager from epileptic seizure. The family of 18-year-old Alyssa J. O'Neill went to the local Starbucks and bought 40 pumpkin spice lattes -- Alyssa's favorite -- and gave them away to strangers with the hashtag #AJOwritten on the cup. The story, and the random act of kindness, went viral. The O'Neill's have received pictures of #AJO coffee cups from as far away as Sri Lanka.

Donald Joralemon, professor of anthropology at Smith College in Massachusetts, said these kinds of pay-it-forward tributes have been in the culture for centuries. "But it's like on steroids now," Joralemon said. "Because of the power of mass media and social networks, it just speeds it up and spreads it at a far, far more rapid pace."

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