I am sure that you all used the phrase 'bell save' or maybe 'bell for saving'', or anythingt similar to that, while you were in school, but I am also sure that many of you do not know the real story behind this.
There was even a popular TV Series called 'Saved by the Bell'. It was very popular and I heard that there will be new episodes of it very soon. Story is following a group of children that are in the high school. Name of it is an allusion of the bell in schools at the end of a class, that sometimes is saving students from teachers. But, that is not the point of the story, I just wanted to mention that interesting fact.
This phrase has its roots in Victorian England and story behind of it is very morbid. During this period medicine was not on a high level, and many people were burried alive. People still did not know what clinical death is. When a person was not giving any sing of life, that was the end.
You must confess, that is very bizarre. So, they had to do something about it, they had to help to all the people, who were burried alive.
So, Michael Carnis invented a safety coffin. Point of it was to help people in case that they were burried alive.
Here is a photo of this coffin, so you can see it, and realize what it was supposed to do.
As you can see, it is bigger that ordinary coffin, so a person, who is inside of it has some space in case that he wakes up. And, there is this big pipe with a bell. The pipe stays outside of the grave. Pipe was not covered with a soil. And, on the top of the pipe there was a bell, and inside of the coffin there was a rope that was tied to the bell, so the person inside of it could pull it and someone who is near could hear that.
Also there was a spring inside of the coffin, you can also see it on the photo that I posted here. It was supposed to eject the person who is in the coffin out of the grave. This means that graves were not very deep in that period. Also, the pipe was outsiede of the grave, so when the corpse was disintegrating many bacteria, smells and insects could get out of the grave, also graves were not deep and that is another way for bacteria to get out, and also, many corpses pulled springs while they were falling apart.
That is why this trend was not popular for a long time.
In the USA, those were never used, and in France they were prohibited very soon after they arrived there.
That was a short story about bell save and about all those who were saved by the bell. I hope that it was interesting to you, and if it was, I can write about some more popular phrases, so let me know in the comments below if you like it.