Coffined

How long can a man live in a sealed coffin?

Rahman Bey, fakir, recently submerged himself for an hour, asserted that he owed his life to his ability to fall into a cataleptic trance. It was magic; until the trance was at an end he did not breathe. To Fakir Bey, Harry Houdini, trickster, gave the lie, donned blue trunks, a white shirt, a luminous wrist watch, entered an airtight tin coffin equipped with a telephone and electric pushbutton, was lowered to the depth of the Shelton Hotel Pool, Manhattan.

For one and one-half hours six strapping men stood on the coffin lid, held it at the bottom of the pool until Mr. Houdini telephoned that he was getting numb. Extricated, too weak to move, he explained that he had conserved his air supply by taking little breaths. His comparative conditions were as follows:

BEFORE AFTER GOING GOING DOWN DOWN

Pulse 84 142

Respiration 20 17

Temperature gg.g 99

Systolic Blood Pressure 141 162