I’d give one of these to a friend who has a funeral home, this way if anyone isn’t really dead but just gifted in the breath holding arts, he’ll know when they start moving. Like a LifeAlert, but literally.
That’s the purpose of a “wake”, to literally try to wake the dead, in case they’re not. For many years before modern medicine became able to definitively determine death, there were coffins with a cord leading down to the coffin from a bell aboveground in case the dearly departed woke from a coma. They were called “safety coffins”, and it’s thought to be the origin of the saying “saved by the bell”.
Saved by the bell is a late 19th century term from the world of boxing, where a beleaguered fighter being counted out would have his fate delayed by the ringing of the bell to signify the end of the round.
-Snopes.com
That’s the purpose of a “wake”, to literally try to wake the dead, in case they’re not. For many years before modern medicine became able to definitively determine death, there were coffins with a cord leading down to the coffin from a bell aboveground in case the dearly departed woke from a coma. They were called “safety coffins”, and it’s thought to be the origin of the saying “saved by the bell”.
Saved by the bell is a late 19th century term from the world of boxing, where a beleaguered fighter being counted out would have his fate delayed by the ringing of the bell to signify the end of the round.
-Snopes.com
@SpocKirk You are right. I picked up the “saved” thing from an article on safety coffins and missed where it said that was incorrect. Oops.
I always thought that was the purpose of embalming - to correct a possible mistaken pronouncement of death. Of course, cremation does that, too.