Buried Alive.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue IX, 31 August 1901, Page 413

Buried Alive.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE KARNICE APPARATUS.

Emile Camis has been buried alive, and is willing to be buried alive again. He says there is nothing dangerous in the experience, and wants to introduce the Karnice method of life preservation in cases of premature burial. To show his faith in the invention of his friend, he is anxious to be put in a coffin and lowered into a grave. Then he wants the clods to be piled in on top of the casket, his appliance put in place, and a thorough test of the efficacy of the invention made. In France 10.000 persons have asked that the Karnice apparatus be put over their graves when they die. With it in place it is absolutely impossible, according to M. Camis, for a person to die because he has been buried alive. The method has been tried with success in France. It was operated when it was in the formative stage, and now that it has been perfected its advocates assert that no one should be buried without it. Its compositions and results are as follows: An ordinary coffin is used. In that part of the lid just over the chest of the occupant a hole is cut, and on the chest a ball is placed. This is connected with a rod that goes up through a shaft to a box above the ground, in which burns a light, and to which is affixed a bell. At the first sign of returning life the chest stirs, and the ball, acting upward through the rod, gives the signal to the outer air. At night it discharges a rocket, and by day rings a bell for half an hour, and after that at intervals. These warnings, it is thought, would be noticed by persons in the cemetery, and rescue would be effected. Enough air is stored in the shaft

so that the person in the coffin could live two days upon it. When the time during which it is possible that he could come out of a trance elapses the appliance can be removed easily, and the grave will look like any grave over which there has been no Karnice apparatus. M. Camis is a friend of Count Karnice, who invented the appliance. He

lias helped him perfect some of the details, and he has just gone to the United States to do what be can towards introducing it there. He thinks that in time the Karnice method will be made a part of the knowledge of every undertaker, who will carry his apparatus in stock. The materials in it. are inexpensive. The whole outfit would cost hardly' more than £3, and

M. Camis thinks there will be no diffi culty in putting the article on the market.

At the Turin Exposition M. Camis consented to be buried alive to show that the invention of his friend was all he claimed for it, and at the end of two hours he was liberated from bis narrow prison. He says he could have remained underground for two days if necessary, and that if pro-

per facilities for making a test are accorded him he. w ill let himself be buried again and have the Karnice appliance put. over his grave. Through it he can signal to watchers above. He says there is not the slightest danger in the feat he is willing to attempt, and he scoffs at the notion that extraordinary courage is required in him to try it.