Ceremonial burial of the dead is one of the oldest features of humanity. In fact, it likely pre-dates the emergence of modern humans and was certainly performed by Neanderthals. Possibly the central concept connecting burial through the ages is that of peace or rest. If one extrapolates from the fact that the sleeping enjoy undisturbed rest, then dead uncle Ug might prefer it if a Hyena doesn't run off with his femur.
Through human history the basic concept of burial has developed to remarkable levels of sophistication. For millennia the tallest, probably largest and most sophisticated human structure was the Great Pyramid. Ultimately, this is nothing but a great big artificial hill designed to give Khufu (assumed deceased) & his shinier belongings some long term peace & quiet.
To achieve this, the great pyramid, and other ancient tombs employed a variety of tactics. The great pyramid has real entrances, false entrances - all hidden, many passages & chambers. It was also sealed up with several sophisticated sliding blocks. On top of it all, it was generally made of massive blocks of stone which are difficult to move in general, and impossible to move stealthily. All that and it still didn't work*. What we need is some new thinking.
The M18 Claymore mine <link> is a simple device. It's essentially a tough back plate, a layer of plastic explosive then a layer of encased ball bearings. The whole thing is constructed as to form a shaped-charge, when triggered, the explosive drives the ball bearings forwards in a ~60 degree arc. It's in that 60 degree arc that you do not want to be standing. For this reason, and because simplicity is always best when dealing with grunts, the mine is clearly marked with the text "FRONT TOWARD ENEMY". It's this I'll be copying for the Anti-Tamper Coffin.
So, we have a shaped, sturdy steel bottom to the coffin, either stainless, or treated to prevent corrosion. On top of this is our high explosive layer. Then, we lay to rest the honored individual who will be carefully prepared with great dignity by a trained undertaker/munitions expert.
This preparation will involve one last posthumous meal, of 1/8"** steel balls. An infusion of preserving fluid, complete with 1/8" steel balls. A last breath, of 1/8" steel balls, before being dressed in their finest clothes with a full complement of 1/8" steel balls sewn strategically wherever they fit. Once laid on the explosive coated back plate, the sides & ends are added. Then any remaining volume is filled with epoxy resin and a few 1000 extra 1/8" steel balls. The lid is added onto the wet resin ensuring that once cured, the coffin will constitute a bonded & sturdy coffin.
For the burial, the departed will be lowered carefully*** into the bottom of the grave before the device is armed and a series of pressure triggers connected. The hole is filled, and appropriate warnings posted on the grave.
Now, if anyone is unwise enough to attempt disturbance of the departed, they will dig down. As they uncover the coffin, pressure release switches will activate a simple mechanical delay. This will leave enough time for the robber to read the iconic "FRONT TOWARD ENEMY" on the coffin lid before they are ejected from the grave as a fine red mist. The tagline will be drawn from none other than Churchill: "You can always take one with you" <link>.
*possibly, we have some empty chambers and an empty sarcophagus that looks very much pre-robbed. Is that real? or a decoy? Multiple reports suggest additional hidden chambers, but they're just weight-relieving chambers... maybe.
**3.175mm balls are available with a small surcharge for European customers.
***and possibly hydraulically, given the mass of 1/8" steel balls we added.-- bs0u0155, Mar 16 2021 M18 Claymore https://en.wikipedi...i/M18_Claymore_mine [bs0u0155, Mar 16 2021] You can always take one with you https://winstonchur...ith%20you.%E2%80%9D [bs0u0155, Mar 16 2021] Mine Effects https://www.gichd.o..._study_chapter5.pdf [bs0u0155, Mar 22 2021] Finally, a burial regimen fit for a borg.-- Loris, Mar 16 2021 Have you considered the possibilities inherent in reusing an abandoned mineshaft? At the very least, rifling.
If you wanted to have capacity for the entire family, this would be the way to go. In operation Plumbbob, an underground nuclear test, the shaft was sealed with a 900- kilogram (2,000 lb) steel plate cap. In the explosion, this was observed in a single frame of a high-speed (frame per millisecond) camera, indicating that it achieved escape velocity. I think 8th of 7 would have liked that, because then his final resting place could be the sky.-- Loris, Mar 16 2021 8th is still alive! He hacked into bs0's account! [+]
But seriously, I too vow to do my best to suggest more fun explosivy things in 8th's honor.-- doctorremulac3, Mar 17 2021 Problem with this is that it is single use.
More sustainable long-term to have an automated turret-mounted machine gun on the top. Then it can continue to snipe at passers by for quite a while.-- pocmloc, Mar 17 2021 + wow.-- xandram, Mar 17 2021 Well if maximizing death is your goal you could instead be buried in prions.-- Voice, Mar 17 2021 //buried in prions.//
Do they kill much? Remember when we were all going to get CJD from British beef, then not much happened? If you had a load of prions buried underground, various forms of microbiology would literally have a feast and you'd have no prions left.-- bs0u0155, Mar 18 2021 Would the metabolising of each prion by a slightly more complex entity count as a death?-- pertinax, Mar 18 2021 Only if you think prions are alive, which they aren't.-- bs0u0155, Mar 18 2021 I can see this would be good for {8th of 7] but personally I would like this idea reversed. A way of making a cone of fertilizer out of my left body when someone has the emotional energy to dance on the grave*. Correct explosive included.
*a grave, so common place. Have to rethink.-- wjt, Mar 18 2021 //which they aren't//
That's fine - in which case, we just need to identify the smallest, simplest life form which we will allow as being alive and susceptible to death, and then use a vast number of those for our funerary hecatomb.-- pertinax, Mar 18 2021 //cone of fertilizer out of my left body//
"Fertilizer" and "bomb" are, to an extent, synonyms. An awful lot of explosives contain oxidized nitrogen, nitrates of some form. Adding a human simply helps. Plants are typically limited by NPK, that is nitrogen (in oxidized form, preferably) phosphorus and potassium. The human body is a perfectly serviceable source of the phosphorous and potassium. It all works out very nicely.-- bs0u0155, Mar 18 2021 Oh look.... clear away some more dirt. I think I can see a number and some letters 8....t....h-- xenzag, Mar 18 2021 Might I suggest something other than steel?
Otherwise, your fantastic explosion might end up being a gigantic puffball of ferrous oxide, after no more than a few years.-- UnaBubba, Mar 18 2021 //something other than steel?//
For the balls? It's interesting they use steel rather than lead. My guess would be because high explosives detonate and expand at MUCH higher velocities, 8500 m/s for the RDX in C4. Lead in a bullet is pushed by a relatively gentle ~1500 m/s. My guess is that lead would deform. Plus, the whole Claymore is sealed/potted in some plastic compound, I'm not sure exactly what, but epoxy resin is a good bet. That's why I went for an epoxy fill for the coffin, everything will be sealed as a big, oxygen/water proof plastic block, essentially corrosion proof just like the Claymore.-- bs0u0155, Mar 18 2021 why not copper for a million little shaped charges?-- Voice, Mar 18 2021 // fine red mist //
[8th] would be proud.
[+]-- whatrock, Mar 19 2021 //why not copper for a million little shaped charges?//
In the absence of a proper explosives expert/enthusiast/obsessive, I did a little reading on shaped charges. The Claymore Coffin is a shaped charge, it has a specific shape and is directional. But, what it isn't, or doesn't feature, is an explosively-formed penetrator. Those are often copper and what I think you're getting at. It's difficult to get that to work in a coffin shaped form factor. To form a penetrator, you need the sort of dual cone arrangement with a void, with the explosive formed around/behind it. I'm not sure you could miniaturize and multiplex a lot of those to work well in parallel without interfering with each other. There are double shaped charges in Hellfire missiles, but it seems getting just two to work together was quite tricky.-- bs0u0155, Mar 19 2021 Well, if it's any comfort, you can turn a gently dished copper sheet into an explosively formed penetrator. With a little bit of care, one could convert a coffin lid into a MEFP.-- Loris, Mar 19 2021 //With a little bit of care, one could convert a coffin lid into a MEFP.//
That's all well and good, but you need MEFP as a specific attack against armor. How many tanks are expected to go grave robbing?
Anyhow, in terms of anti-vehicle effectiveness, I think we're covered. Here's my thinking: a standard anti-tank mine, something like a Soviet TM-46 has 6.3 kg of TNT inside as the main charge. Let's say that is satisfactory for mid 20th century purposes. How does the Anti-Tamper Coffin compare? Well, I consider it essentially scaled up regular Claymore. These are 8" x 3", with 1.5lb of C4. So, we scale that to 80" x 30" we will have 150lb of C4 which is 1.4 x as powerful as TNT. So compared to that anti tank mine the Anti-Tamper Coffin is 95 FOLD more powerful. Now, I know things have moved on in terms of tank armor, but have they moved on 95 fold?-- bs0u0155, Mar 19 2021 OTOH, the energy of the proposed device is shared out between thousands of very small steel balls which, between them, might leave the tank's bottom impressively dimpled rather than actually destroyed. I'll grant you the tracks and wheels will probably need replacing.-- pertinax, Mar 20 2021 When my grandmother's grave was dug next to my grandfather, his coffin was disturbed enough to open and his skeleton partially fell out and had to be pushed back in. A bit disturbing to my father to see his dad's skull to say the least.
I'd have hated to have the cemetery plot blow up in the process.-- RayfordSteele, Mar 20 2021 //the energy of the proposed device is shared out between thousands of very small steel balls which, between them, might leave the tank's bottom impressively dimpled rather than actually destroyed.//
The balls won't really influence the explosion with reference to an armored target. Having read through a few things like <link> it seems that a few things are in play. If we want to form a armor-penetrating slug, it can be done, a dished plate in the middle might be the way to go, but buried mines often feature a smaller charge on top to move the soil out of the way. If we don't bother with explosively formed penetrators, I think we will still get a very good probability of a mobility kill simply as a function of the amount of explosive. Similarly, an armored hull might survive, but 150lb C4 will accelerate the hull upward and likely bulge the lower surface. This leads to damage to anything not firmly anchored, e.g. engine mounts, humans.-- bs0u0155, Mar 22 2021 If the body has to make it back into the full cycle for the egress of the mind's ineffable parts, a coffin would be purgatory. O, like anything involving fire, ashing would be nature cut short.
But then again, time scale probably won't count.-- wjt, Mar 23 2021 If the body has to make it back into the full cycle for the egress of the mind's ineffable parts, a coffin would be purgatory. On the other hand, like anything involving fire, ashing would be nature cut short.
But then again, time scale probably won't count. Well, I hope not.-- wjt, Mar 23 2021 random, halfbakery