Would a lead lined coffin float?

Tealeaf said:
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?
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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 ;)
 
Tealeaf said:
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.
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this is the story , it was bird flu , (not swine flu)

Body in lead coffin may hold key to fighting pandemic | Society | The Guardian
 
Tealeaf said:
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?
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I don't think you are allowed to smoke in coffins now for just that very reason.:hehetable
 
Tealeaf said:
My apologies, Gordon in getting you to do this simple mathematical exercise.
I’ve attached a little sketch comprising 2 end views, feet up .
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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!
 
The miners have other plans for her - miners carrying her to dustcart
 

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Gordon Booth said:
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!
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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?
 
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.
 
Tealeaf said:
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?
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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.
:)

walkinman221 said:
Is that less in those coffins?
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No I have my own filled with the soil from the place of my birth.
 
Less said:
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.
:)
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Yeah, but my question was whether or not the resultant gas expansion would be sufficient to explode the coffin.
 
Tealeaf said:
Yeah, but my question was whether or not the resultant gas expansion would be sufficient to explode the coffin.
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Perhaps if instead of quoting you, I had quoted Busman as I'd meant to, the post would have looked similar to this:-

Busman747 said:
If the coffin was actually air-tight, the body would surely become much, much lighter and the longer it decays and the various gasses given off from the corpse may have more boyancy than the original air that was in the coffin at the time of sealing the lid on..........?:confused:
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Less said:
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.
:)
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:s_aim1:
 
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?
 
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