Entitled: "Premature Burial and how it may be prevented. With special reference to trance, catalepsy, and other forms of suspended animation." Count Karnice-Karnicki's invention illustrated by William Tebb of apparatus connected to coffin, showing light and supply of oxygen being released into coffin. A safety coffin or security coffin is a coffin fitted with a mechanism to prevent premature burial or allow the occupant to signal that they have been buried alive. A large number of designs for safety coffins were patented during the 18th and 19th centuries and variations on the idea are still available today.