From: Glen Shepherd (glensr_at_iprimus.com.au)
Date: Tue May 06 2003 - 23:36:55 PDT
Edision wanted them to use AC as he thought people would be terrified of
AC current, and use his own product: DC power, obviously, this plan
didn=92t work.
-----Original Message-----
From: newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net
[mailto:newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net] On Behalf Of pjfraser_at_mac.com
Sent: Wednesday, 7 May 2003 2:53 AM
To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
Subject: [NTLK] OT: Edison and the Electric Chair
With Edison's blessing, the State of New York adopted death by =3D20
alternating current as its official method of execution. Edison's =3D20
attorney suggested that the new electric chair be called "The =3D20
Westinghouse." The first man condemned to die by electricity was a =3D20
twenty-eight-year-old murderer named William Kemmler. The world eagerly
=3D20=3D
awaited his execution to find out if alternating current was as deadly
=3D20=3D
as Edison claimed.
On the day of the execution, everyone was really very nervous. Kemmler
=3D20=3D
himself was probably the most calm. By the time the signal was given to
=3D20=3D
start the current, Kemmler received that current, his body stiffened =
=3D20
and for a moments he looked like a toy soldier almost. And then, after
=3D20=3D
seventeen seconds, one of the doctors panicked because there was smoke
=3D20=3D
coming from one of the electrodes, so he gave the order to shut off the
=3D20=3D
electricity. Then they all started to congratulate themselves on a job
=3D20=3D
well done.
Then someone cried, "But he moves, he's still alive." And his body went
=3D20=3D
into spasms, and his fingers started to bleed, and blood came down =3D20
through his mask on his face. And then they gave the signal =3D96"Start =
it
=3D
=3D20
up again, start it up again" =3D96and this time they left the current on
=3D20=3D
for seventy-two seconds, in which case Kemmler's body began to smolder
=3D20=3D
and burn. It took actually four minutes for his body to cool off enough
=3D20=3D
so they could remove him from the chair. The publicity was enormously
=3D20=3D
negative. Every single newspaper denounced it, both in America and =3D20
across the world.
also see
http://www.geocities.com/trctl11/chair.html
http://www.correctionhistory.org/auburn&osborne/miskell/html/=3D20
auburnchair_moran.html
>
>>>
>>> You are of course right. Electric chairs were not designed to kill.
=3D20=3D
>>> :-/
>>
>> 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." - =
=3D20
Thomas Edison
--=20
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