Edison and the Electric Chair_ A Story of Light and Death - Mark Essig [121]
Alternating current triumphed in the battle of the currents for the same reasons that attracted George Westinghouse to it in the first place. It could be produced at relatively low voltages, stepped up to higher voltages with transformers for economical transmission over long distances, and then stepped down to any voltage required. As electricity expanded into every aspect of life, alternating current offered a flexibility that direct current could not hope to match. By 1917 more than 95 percent of the electricity generated in the United States would be alternating current.21
CHAPTER 23
The Age of the
Electric Chair
GERMAN chancellor Otto von Bismarck wrote to his consul-general in New York in 1888 seeking information on electrocution, but German officials decided against adopting the method after learning of the problems with Kemmler's execution. American states were less cautious. Ohio adopted electrocution in 1896, and two men died in the chair the next year. In 1898 Massachusetts became the third state to adopt electrocution, and convicted murderer Luigi Storti became the state's first victim three years later.1
With electrocution protected by the courts, prison officials set out to refine execution techniques. Their task was made easier by rapid advances in the field of electrical engineering. The 1890s saw the first golden age of modern electrical theory, and the improved understanding of current also transformed the study of its effects on the human body. At the turn of the century two researchers at the University of Geneva conducted classic experiments in electrophysiology that confirmed the views of Edison, Kennelly, and other researchers: Alternating current was, in fact, more dangerous than direct. The researchers also distinguished between the physiological effects of high- and low-voltage currents. Low voltages (less than 120 volts) of alternating current killed by causing ventricular fibrillation. (This fact provided the clue that, half a century later, led to the invention of the cardiac defibrillator.) At higher voltages, alternating current damaged the central nervous system, causing loss of consciousness and respiratory failure. When the heavy current met the resistance of the body, electrical energy was transformed into heat, which destroyed the brain by cooking it.2
Arthur Kennelly left the Edison laboratory in 1894 to become an independent consultant, but his support for electrocution never wavered. In 1895 the eminent French physiologist Jacques d'Arsonval—who five years earlier had confirmed Edison's views of the greater dangers of alternating current—created a sensation by reviving the charge that the electric chair merely stunned its victims, who were then killed by autopsy. To refute the claim, Kennelly observed a Sing Sing execution in January 1895 and conducted more experiments on dogs. His report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded that "where electrocution is properly carried out, there is not even a remote possibility of subsequent resuscitation of the criminal."3
Edison backed up his former employee. D'Arsonval's statements were "nonsense," Edison told a reporter; "electricity in the death chair kills instantly beyond possibility of resuscitation."4
Another outspoken electrocution proponent was Dr. Edward A. Spitzka. A professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and a famous brain anatomist, Spitzka was the son of Dr. Edward C. Spitzka, who witnessed Kemmler's execution. The younger Spitzka served as official physician at several executions and had the honor of penning the "electrocution" article for the classic eleventh edition (1910) of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in which he assured general readers, "When properly performed the effect is painless and instantaneous death." Spitzka's