As the royal undertakers themselves explained (article behind the Times paywall), the issue was more longer-term than just the lying-in-state and the funeral. The coffin had to be airtight because it was being interred in a vault, not buried in the ground. A sealed lead lining is the traditional solution. No need for anything more hi-tech. Especially if you’ve got a team of guardsmen on hand literally to do the heavy lifting.
BTW, when people talk about lead-lined coffins, why lead in particular, and not aluminum or stainless steel lining?
In other words, is it that it’s lead that’s important or that it’s in a sealed metal box?
I’m guessing that it was traditional. Because in ye olde days, lead was soft enough and easy enough to work to really seal it up. Whereas iron and steel and tin were too brittle to do that. And copper and gold too costly to bury in a coffin. Same reason that lead (and copper) was used in pipes.
Also, all this thinking about a body rotting and building up gas in a sealed coffin is grossing me out. I want to rot at peace, in something permeable that lets the worms crawl in and the gas ooze out.
You can also solder lead to itself using very low heat that (in bygone years) doesn’t risk setting the dearly departed on fire.
That was part of what I meant by “easy to work”. I think lead is one of the easiest metals to work with.
Ah, thank you. I was interpretting your use of “work” as in fold and bend, not as in heat. My error.
Though one can make a fairly liquid tight, and even low-pressure gas-tight, seal by folding & crimping layers of lead foil (or even thin lead sheet) over one another. It’s a really neat material once you get past the toxicity aspects.
It’s kind of funny that any metal amenable to manipulation by human strength at human-compatible temps & pressures is a bio-hazard. Lead, mercury, etc. Stuff like iron & copper are safe to handle precisely because we can’t really bust any of it loose at macro- or micro-scales.
There is a compost option now. It sounds really nice.
I bet the king would like that option. He can be part of the gardens he enjoys now.
I thought pure copper and gold are easily bendable by hand, and are quite safe to handle.
It’s a little-known fact that the Queen was highly radioactive.
Are you saying Marie Curie was Polish royalty, too?
Just found this, about the 2012 London Olympics:
The idea of the royal helicopter jump was first pitched by director Danny Boyle to Sebastian Coe, who loved it so much he took it to Edward Young, Private Secretary to the Queen, at Buckingham Palace in the summer of 2011. Young ‘listened sagely, laughed, and promised to ask the boss’. Word came back to Coe that the Queen would love to take part. Young, Boyle and Coe agreed to keep the plan secret so as not to spoil the surprise. On 19 September 2022, the morning of the Queen’s funeral, Coe told BBC News he originally took the concept to Princess Anne whose only question was “What kind of helicopter?”
From here: 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony - Wikipedia