Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I only start a new thread on this in the hope that some younger(or older) brain more agile than mine will see it and check it out.
I loved the story(Heritage and History,John Kelly's album,post 193) about the coffin which floated its occupant 3,500 miles home.Tealeaf didn't think a leadlined coffin would float, I wasn't sure.So-
6ft man, say 10 stone=140 lb(he'd been ill)
Coffin 7ftx2ft 6"x1ft 6"(to leave room for his pillow, shoes and some breathing space!)
Coffin volume=26.25cu ft. If it just floated it would displace this amount of water,which weighs 1641lb(62.5lb/cu ft,salt water would weigh more!).
Lead lining for coffin requires 63.5 sq/ft of lead,1/16 inch thick=0.34 cu/ft lead.SG of lead =11.35 so lead weighs 240lb.
Man+lead= 380lb(ignore wood coffin,it floats anyway).
Water displaced can be up to 1641lb so the coffin would EASILY float and the soldered seams on the lead would make it watertight.
Three questions-1.Am I right?
2. Does anyone care?
3.Am I a boring old fart who should go back to sleep?
I hope I'm right, I love the story. Any more,Busman747?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Yep your correct, got a similar answer , remeber being taught this stuff (floatation and displacement) as a second or third year apprentice by Bill Cain (think he came from Ossy) up at the Sandy Lane tech in the 60s.

If you were really a boring old fart , you would also have told us the depth at which the coffin would have floated at (amount above and below the waterline ) ;)

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

3 :)

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Is that 3 yes's to my questions? I didn't really want a TOTALLY honest answer!
380 lb displaces 6.08cu ft water-i.e a quarter of the coffin volume.So the coffin floats with 4.2" in the water,1ft 1.8" out. It hardly gets wet-I'm surprised.
You're right, 3 yes's to my questions.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I imagine the porosity of the wood and any brass ornamentation would come into the equation, cant see it having a major effect on the outcome tho...3 by the way :)

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Yeah all this clever talk.. but I'd like to know if I shoved Bagpuss in a lead coffin would it sink?.. or a even in a black bin liner?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Great Gordon - or will be when I find he Aspirin;):D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Another question for you Gordon er whats the point in leaving breathing space in a lead lined coffin?:confused::D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Bill Cain certainly did come from Ossy, lived on Fielding Lane, his Daughter Barbara was a friend of mine, sadly he died about 2 years ago

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Quick on this morning mick, been sleeping in the knife box mate:D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Concrete boats float

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I did actually wonder that myself Mick........ but you got in there before me.
The story of my life :)

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

1. They might have got it wrong,if he came round it would give him time to shout.
2. It helped my calculations by giving me more volume! Why should't I tweek it a little, politicians do it all the time?
I thought it was a kind thought, would you like to be squeezed in a small box, just because you're dead?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

My apologies, Gordon in getting you to do this simple mathematical exercise. The problem was that I read the original exert and made the assumption that because the coffin would have been bashed around as it's granite mausoleum was destroyed it would no longer have been waterproof; in fact, I have made the assumption throughout that no coffin is 100% waterproof whatever the circumstances.

I accept that a partially lead lined coffin may well be capable of floating in the short term (depending upon volume displacement) but there is also a secondary problem arising from the effect of seawater salinity on lead - but anyway, I won't go into that now.

I really don't know 'owt about the techniques and procedures in lining a coffin with lead; I assume the objective is to slow the decomposition of the body, in which case it makes far more sense to wrap the corpse itself in lead sheeting rather than line the coffin itself and then solder the surrounds.

I’ve attached a little sketch comprising 2 end views, feet up from a body in a coffin, one with the body wrapped in lead sheet and the second one with the coffin lined with lead, soldered and with a lead lid as well – I just can’t see how the coffin can be waterproof and as such will, after time, invariably sink.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

It might but i would recommend a boat of some description for sailing or floating anywhere, everytime.:D Vikings used them in death and life so good enough for them good enough for anyone:D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Is that less in those coffins?:D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Think the whole idea of having a sealed lead coffin is to prevent decay , seem to remember reading something during the last swine flu 'epidemic' that the scientific boffins wanted to open a lead lined coffin from the 1918 flu epidemic that killed millions to check the DNA of the chap inside (who was listed as having died from the flu) to see if it was the same/similar virus

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Very hypothetical, Busman. You could also argue that if various gases were given off then the internal pressure would have been such so as to explode the coffin. Is there anyone here who does have knowledge of the rates of various gas discharges from a decomposing male body?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

There is a guy in Church Kirk graveyard who is a defo on the 1918/19 Spanish Flu outbreak; however, I'm pretty sure he's never been dug up. I think the characters you are referring to are soldiers who died in the White Russian war of 1919 and were buried in permafrost up by Archangel. But I dunno if they were in a lead coffin or not.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I know of a few town garbage/rubbish tips which have methane collection plants , catchs the gas produced by the buried rotting vegetation but never heard of it being a problem in a cemetry ;)

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

this is the story , it was bird flu , (not swine flu)

Body in lead coffin may hold key to fighting pandemic | Society | The Guardian

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Ok...that was one scource. I was going off memory; this is what wikipedia has to say:

Spanish flu research - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm right about the permafrost; I'm pretty sure about the Russian civil war stuff but at the moment I'm under the influence of a couple of bottles of claret and can't be bothered doing 'owt else (until tomorrow, that is).

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I don't think you are allowed to smoke in coffins now for just that very reason.:hehetable

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Tealeaf, believe me there's no such thing as a 'simple mathematical excercise' for me these days!I have the memory and attention span of a woodlouse.
I love the sketch but you can see why I left the extra air space-your little man is LOOKING OUT at us! He's still alive!
I lined the box because it made the calculations easier and helped my theory by giving more air space.I haven't a clue how they would do it and of course a wood coffin would never be watertight.But it would float for a while in its own right.
It's still a lovely story and I want to believe it so I won't try to work out what the answer would be if they just wrapped the body in lead-if you work it out and it wouldn't float don't tell me!

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

We coiud find out at the next State funeral.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I'll just go in my best suit then.Spend the money I save on the coffin for cigarettes for the afterlife
Pubs, clubs, now coffins-where will it end?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

There she goes, down the Thames!

Ooops.

No.

It's sunk.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

No, no, no, Garinda! I've just proved she'll float and come back on the rising tide to haunt you!

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Sooner rather n Later hopefully.:D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

The miners have other plans for her - miners carrying her to dustcart

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...ral-maggie.jpg

...thats better/bigger

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

If there is they're sick and we don't want to know.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I'm glad you liked my sketch, Gordon.

I'm thinking of submitting it into next year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The title will be "Man in Sinking Coffin, With Calculations By Gordon Booth".

Or I may entitle it " Artistic Contribution From Accy With No Cost To The Public Purse".

What do you think's best?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I think 'Man in Floating Coffin' would be better. Spare me the credits, I seek not fame.
Whatever, it's an improvement on crocheted sculpture.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

If a sealed balloon with some Liquid Nitrogen in it was placed on a scale and weighed say, 1g, although the Nitrogen would soon expand into a gas inflating the balloon, the scale would still register 1g.

So, as long as any gasses within the coffin didn't break the seal it too would still weigh the same.
:)

No I have my own filled with the soil from the place of my birth.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Yeah, but my question was whether or not the resultant gas expansion would be sufficient to explode the coffin.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Perhaps if instead of quoting you, I had quoted Busman as I'd meant to, the post would have looked similar to this:-

:s_aim1:

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Tealeaf, you're still trying to spoil it by being a realist! Is there no romance left in you?
Lead is very ductile so the gas pressure would stretch the lead slowly, thus creating MORE volume and the coffin would float even better! There!
I'll bet you don't even believe in fairies, do you?

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I am merely exploring every avenue, Gordon.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Actually I still think I could have got it wrong somewhere- I can't believe it would only displace 4.2 inches of water. I was hoping some of our young graduates would come on and prove or disprove it.Perhaps their degrees are not in this sort of subject?
BUT-Neill checked it and agreed, so that's two of us. I'll dream on.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

You sure you got the lead weight right? If you remember when the Queen of Tarts died back in '97, her coffin was lead lined and that apparently weighed 700lbs.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Would It still be 4.2 inches If It floated in the Dead Sea?:confused::confused:

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

The 4.2 inches was in fresh water.In salt water it would be even less, in the Dead Sea it would hardly get wet.

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

I'd check with Archimedes if I was you.
:)

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Is that the chap that wouldn't share a bath with Erica on principle?:confused::confused::D

Re: Would a lead lined coffin float?
 

Are we talking about the ones at the bottom of the garden ? :rolleyes: