[NTLK] OT: Edison and the Electric Chair

From: pjfraser_at_mac.com
Date: Tue May 06 2003 - 09:52:52 PDT


With Edison's blessing, the State of New York adopted death by =20
alternating current as its official method of execution. Edison's =20
attorney suggested that the new electric chair be called "The =20
Westinghouse." The first man condemned to die by electricity was a =20
twenty-eight-year-old murderer named William Kemmler. The world eagerly =20=

awaited his execution to find out if alternating current was as deadly =20=

as Edison claimed.

On the day of the execution, everyone was really very nervous. Kemmler =20=

himself was probably the most calm. By the time the signal was given to =20=

start the current, Kemmler received that current, his body stiffened =20
and for a moments he looked like a toy soldier almost. And then, after =20=

seventeen seconds, one of the doctors panicked because there was smoke =20=

coming from one of the electrodes, so he gave the order to shut off the =20=

electricity. Then they all started to congratulate themselves on a job =20=

well done.

Then someone cried, "But he moves, he's still alive." And his body went =20=

into spasms, and his fingers started to bleed, and blood came down =20
through his mask on his face. And then they gave the signal =96"Start it =
=20
up again, start it up again" =96and this time they left the current on =20=

for seventy-two seconds, in which case Kemmler's body began to smolder =20=

and burn. It took actually four minutes for his body to cool off enough =20=

so they could remove him from the chair. The publicity was enormously =20=

negative. Every single newspaper denounced it, both in America and =20
across the world.

also see

http://www.geocities.com/trctl11/chair.html

http://www.correctionhistory.org/auburn&osborne/miskell/html/=20
auburnchair_moran.html

>
>>>
>>> You are of course right. Electric chairs were not designed to kill. =20=

>>> :-/
>>
>> Indeed.
>> They were designed as a marketing tool by Edison to discourage people
>> from using his competitor's (i.e. Telsa's) alternating current and to
>> use his direct current instead.
>
> <http://www.skepticfiles.org/urban/electric.htm>
>

-- Peter
pjfraser_at_alamedanet.net

"I have not failed. I have simply discovered what does not work." - =20
Thomas Edison

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