What if you could preserve your loved ones forever, suspended in a crystal-clear glass cube? That's what Russian inventor Joseph Karwowski proposed in 1903, patenting a method to encase corpses in transparent glass blocks for eternal display.
The process, as reported in Hyperallergic, aimed to keep bodies "in a perfect and lifelike condition" indefinitely.
The process involves first coating the corpse with sodium silicate (water-glass), letting it dry in a heated chamber, and then encasing it in molten glass which could be shaped into various forms like rectangles or cylinders. The inventor claimed this method would preserve bodies indefinitely by hermetically sealing them from air exposure, preventing decay while keeping the body visible through the transparent glass. The patent notes that this technique could be used for either entire bodies or just the head.
While the concept might seem sound – sodium silicate was already used as a preservative for eggs – glass artist Caitlin Hyde points out the practical flaws: "It's hard to imagine that, even if perfectly sealed, the clothed body would look at all natural after being coated in the wet sodium silicate and dried out, much less after being exposed to the elevated temperatures required to cast glass around it."
Karwowski's invention joined other ambitious attempts to prevent decay in the 19th and 20th centuries. The American Glass Casket Company produced actual glass coffins, though only two full-size versions survive today. The Fisk iron mummy coffin promised to be "airtight," while another inventor patented a method to electroplate corpses into statues. These preservation attempts often ignored basic biology — decomposition begins from within the body, and sealing in gases can have explosive consequences.
As Scientific American noted in 1910, Karwowski's glass-encased bodies "could be utilized as a lawn statue" while preserved heads "could be used as a heavy-weight paper weight or as a door stop."
Previously:
• Coffin-shaped office chairs 'cause work is killing you
• Marge Simpson is depicted on this 3,500-year-old Egyptian coffin
• Coffin sofa
• When you die, this sofa converts into your coffin
