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Edison and the Electric Chair_ A Story of Light and Death - Mark Essig [142]

By Root 1055 0
New York Herald, January 27, April 18, 26, 1888.

12. Quotations from Kemmler Hearings, 367; Elbridge Gerry, "Capital Punishment by Electricity," North American Review 149 (1889): 322; Park Benjamin, "The Infliction of the Death Penalty," Forum 3 (July 1887): 512. Also see Thomas D. Lock-wood, "Electrical Killing," Electrical Engineer 7 (March 1888): 89-90; New York Herald, January 27,1888.

13. Quotations from Scientific American 58 (June 30,1888): 407; New York Times, December 17,1887; New York Daily Tribune, June 11,1888. Also see New York Daily Tribune, December 23,1887; "Humanity in the Death Sentence,"JAMA 10 (January 28, 1888): 114-15; "Report of the Committee on Best Methods of Executing Criminals," Medico-Legal Journal 3 (1888): 442-44.

14. Quotation from Buffalo Express, June 5,1888. Also see Buffalo Express, December 24,1886.

15. George Fell, who conducted the experiments with Southwick, later admitted the shortcomings: "The report has been criticized as not covering electrical measurements. I was limited in apparatus and accomplished as much as was possible with the means at my command." George Fell, "The Influence of Electricity on Protoplasm, with Some Remarks on the Kemmler Execution," Physician and Surgeon 10 (October 1890): 441.

16. Quotation from Laws of New York (1888), 780.

17. Quotations from "The Death Penalty by Electricity," Medical Record 33 (January 21, 1888): 34; New York Herald, March 9,1888; New York Herald, June 24, 1888. Also see Medical Record 33 (February 11,1888): 158.

18. New York World, June 24,1888.

19. Israel, Edison, 244.

20. Quotations from Edison diary, July 12,1885 (TAEM 90:9).

21. Quotations from ibid., July 15,17, 20,1885 (TAEM 90:9).

22. Quotations from ibid., July 17,1885 (TAEM 90:9); Israel, Edison, 253.

23. See Larry Moore, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 149-55.

24. Quotations from Edison diary, July 12,1885 (TAEM 90:9); Israel, Edison, 247.

25. Edison to John and Theodore Miller, December 24,1885 (TAEM 77:480).

26. The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison, ed. Dagobert D. Runes (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 54-55; Israel, Edison, 247.

27. Fort Myers Notebook N-86-03-18, March 20, 1886 (TAEM 42:843); Israel, Edison, 250-51.

28. Israel, Edison, 248-49.

29. Tate, Edison's Open Door, 140.

30. Passer, Electrical Manufacturers, 118-23.

31. Quotations from Edison to Wright, draft letter, c. August 1887 (TAEM 98:671-72); Millard, Edison and the Business of Innovation, 15. Also see Horace Townsend, "Edison: His Work and His Work-Shop," Cosmopolitan Magazine (April 1889): 598-607; "Edison's New Laboratory," Scientific American 37 (September 18, 1887): 184; David Trumbull Marshall, Recollections of Edison (Boston: Christopher Publishing, 1931), 90; Reginald A. Fessenden, "The Inventions of Reginald A. Fessenden," Radio News 7 (August 1925): 156; Andre Millard, Duncan Hay, and Mary Grassick, Historic Furnishings Report. Edison Laboratory. Edison National Historic Site. West Orange, New Jersey, 2 vols. (Harpers Ferry Center: National Park Service, 1995), 1:26-28; Millard, Edison and the Business of Innovation, 10-15; Israel, Edison, 260-66.

32. Quotations from Marshall, Recollections of Edison, 60; Edison to Wright, draft letter, c. August 1887 (TAEM 98:671-72). Also see Millard, Edison and the Business of Innovation, 16.

33. Arthur Kennelly to Dr. Muirhead, December 26,1888 (TAEM 109:227). On Kennelly's career, see Vannevar Bush, "Biographical Memoir of Arthur Edwin Kennelly, 1861-1939," National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir 22 (1943): 83-119; C. M. Worthington, "Interview with Dr. A.E. Kennelly on May 19th, at his home," Kennelly folder, Edison Pioneers collection, ENHS; "Autobiographical Sketch of the Life and Work of Arthur Edwin Kennelly," unpublished manuscript, 1936, Harvard University Archives; Israel, Edison, 272, 305-20; Millard, Edison and the Business of Innovation, 88-110.

34. The account of this experiment, including all quotations, is taken from the

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