Electric Chair

Invented by : Harold Brown

Invented in year : 1888

Execution by electrocution (usually referred to as the electric chair or simply the chair after its method of implementation) is an execution method originating in the United States in which the person being put to death is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body. This execution method has been used only in the United States and, for a period of several decades, [1] in the Philippines (its first use there in 1924, last in 1976). The electric chair has become a symbol of the death penalty; however, its use is in decline. Historically, once the person was attached to the chair, various cycles (differing in voltage and duration) of alternating current would be passed through the condemned's body, in order to fatally damage the internal organs (including the brain). The first jolt of electrical current was designed to cause immediate unconsciousness and brain death; the second one was designed to cause fatal damage to the vital organs. Death was frequently caused by electrical overstimulation of the heart. Electrocution is currently an optional form of execution in the U.S. states of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia, though they allow the prisoner to choose lethal injection as an alternative method.

History of the Electric Chair

During the 1880's in United States, hanging was the number one method of carrying out the death penalty. It was too slow and painful method of execution. They also produced some of the most horrific scenes of slow strangling deaths and gruesome decapitations. In 1881, New York dentist Alfred P. Southwick, saw an old drunk accidentally electrocute himself on a power generator with no visible pain. He told a friend in the legislature and the idea of executing people using the modern marvel of electricity began to take hold. Beginning in 1886, the New York State Government established a legislative commission to study alternate forms of capitol punishment. Southwick was a part of this legislative panel. As Southwick was a dentist accustomed to performing procedures on subjects in chairs, his electrical device appeared in the form of a chair. It was also at this time that two giants of electrical service were at war with each other. The Edison General Electric Company founded by Thomas Edison, established DC (Direct Current) service. While Westinghouse Corporation founded by George Westinghouse, developed AC (Alternating Current) service. DC service relied on thick copper electrical cables and copper prices were rising at that time. Another limitation they had was that they were not able to supply customers who lived beyond a few miles of a DC generator. In order to combat the competition and defeat at the hands of it's rival, edison started a smear campaign against Westinghouse, claiming that AC technology was unsafe to use. In 1887, Edison held a public demonstration in West Orange, New Jersey, supporting his accusations by setting up a 1,000 volt Westinghouse AC generator attaching it to a metal plate and executing a dozen animals by placing them on the electrified metal plate. The press covered this day and described it as an Horrific Event and a new term Electrocution' was used to describe death by electricity.

On June 4, 1888, the New York Legislature passed a law establishing electrocution as the state's new official method of execution. However it was not decided as to which potential designs (AC and DC) of the electric chair were to be used. It was left to a committee to decide which form to choose. Edison saw it as an opportunity to promote DC electricity, he actively campaigned for the selection of the Westinghouse chair hoping that consumers would not want the same type of electrical service in their homes that was used for execution. Later on in 1888, the Edison research facility hired inventor Harold Brown to experiment with the idea using the AC current. Brown had recently written a letter to the New York Post describing a fatal accident where a young boy died after touching an exposed telegraph wire running on AC current. Brown and his assistant Doctor Fred Peterson began designing an electric chair for Edison, publicly experimenting with DC voltage to show that it left the poor lab animals tortured but not dead, then testing AC voltage to demonstrate how AC killed swiftly.

Doctor Peterson was the head of the government committee selecting the best design for an electric chair, while still on the payroll of the Edison Company. It was not surprising when the committee announced that the electric chair with AC voltage was chosen for the state wide prison system. On January 1, 1889, the world's first electrical execution law went into full effect. Westinghouse protested the decision and refused to sell any AC generators directly to prison authorities. Thomas Edison and Harold Brown provided the AC generators needed for the first working electric chairs. George Westinghouse funded the appeals for the first prisoners sentenced to death by electrocution, made on the grounds that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment. Edison and Brown both testified for the state that execution was a quick and painless form of death and the State of New York won the appeals. But Edison's plan to bring on the demise of Westinghouse failed as soon it became clear that AC technology was vastly superior to DC technology. Edison finally admitted years later that he had thought so himself all along. In March of 1889, William Kemmler murdered his lover Matilda Ziegler. He was the first person to sit on the chair at Auburn Prison. It took eight agonizing minutes to kill him but it did the job, and electrocution soon became the most widely used method of legal execution in the United States.

Role of Electric Chair in the Improvement Of Human Life

Electric Chair became a quick and painless or less painful form of execution for those who were given death penalty. Earlier methods were slow and torturous.

Electric Chair also proved the fact that AC technology is vastly superior to DC technology. AC can employ capacitors and inductors in electronic circuitry, allowing for a wide range of applications