The cremation of the dead: considered from an aesthetic, sanitary, religious, historical, medico-legal, and economical standpointErichsen, Hugo
Religion
The cremation of the dead: considered from an aesthetic, sanitary, religious, historical, medico-legal, and economical standpoint
Erichsen, Hugo
Cremation
Dr. Le Moyne favored placing the remains of the dead in a one-gallon
salt-mouthed druggist’s bottle, with a large ground stopper. After his
death, however, the bottle-urn idea proved impracticable, therefore the
ashes were generally placed in a sealed tin box.
The furnace erected at Lancaster, Pa., is on a new system, which was
devised by Dr. M. L. Davis. The cost of the crematorium was about $5000.
The building is beautifully located upon a bluff overlooking the
Conestoga River. The grounds occupy two and one-half acres. The
crematory is of gothic architecture, 48 × 32 feet, and contains four
rooms,—the audience room or chapel, toilet, reception, and furnace room.
The chapel is used for religious services, the toilet room for the
accommodation of relatives and friends accompanying the body, the
reception room to receive the body and prepare it for incineration; all
of the apparatus is located in the furnace room, except the retort
doors, which face the auditorium. The firing is done in the rear of the
furnace, where all tools and miscellaneous articles are kept. The floor
of the auditorium is made of Portland cement; the other parts of the
building are floored with brick. The audience room is furnished with
chairs and a table for the use of ministers or the officers of societies
having charge of the ceremonies at cremation; the walls are decorated
with pictures and urns of various designs. The waiting or toilet room is
provided with chairs, lounges, toilet-stand, etc., for the comfort of
the waiting friends. The grounds consist of a plot of two acres,
one-half of which is level—here the building is located; the other is a
hillside of solid limestone rock—here the society intends erecting
columbaria at an early day. The grounds around the building are
beautified by roadways, walks, trees, shrubbery, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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