Edison and the Electric Chair_ A Story of Light and Death - Mark Essig [149]
3. Brown to Edison, March 17, 1889; Edison to Brown, March 22, 1889, New York Sun, August 25,1889, letters #8, 9.
4. New York Sun, August 25,1889, letter #11. On the formation of Edison General, see Israel, Edison, 321-33. My interpretation of this "consolidation" differs from that of Reynolds and Bernstein ("Edison and 'The Chair,'" 28, n. 37), who suggest that it refers to merger talks between Thomson-Houston and Edison General. Although such discussions had taken place by this time, Edison was strongly opposed to such a move, and it therefore seems unlikely that Brown would have referred to it as "approaching." The merger with Thomson-Houston did not take place until 1892. On Edison's attitudes toward the possible merger with Thomson Houston, see Carlson, Innovation as a Social Process, 292-93.
5. Harold Brown to Edison, May 13,1889 (TAEM 126:45).
6. Quotation from Pittsburgh Post, May 23, 1889 (TAEM 89:235). Also see Harold Brown to Charles Coffin, April 23,1889, New York Sun, August 25,1889, letter #13.
7. Harold Brown to Thomson-Houston, March 14, 1889; Charles Coffin to Brown, May 4,1889, New York Sun, August 25,1889, letters #7, #18.
8. Harold Brown to Charles Coffin, May 13, 29,1889, New York Sun, August 25, 1889, letters #20, 25.
9. Harold Brown to Charles Coffin, May 13, 1889, New York Sun, August 25, 1889, letter #20.
10. Arthur Kennelly to Harold Brown, June 29,1889, New York Sun, August 25, 1889, letter #40. Brown thanked Kennelly for the "kind letter" and said he was prepared "to make the test suggested, or to offer to do so before the referee." Brown to Kennelly, July 9,1889, New York Sun, August 25,1889, letter #45.
11. See "Some Inside History," Electrical Engineer 8 (August 1889): 335. An anonymous satiric pamphlet, almost certainly published by the Edison interests, hints that the letter thief was John H. Noble, a Westinghouse employee: Dangers of Electric Lighting. A Reply to Mr. Edison, 3,18 (ENHS: D-89-33). On the theft of the letters, see New York Journal, September 4,1889; New York Tribune, September 5,1889.
12. Arthur Kennelly to Harold Brown, June 29,1889, New York Sun, August 25, 1889, letter #40; original in TAEM 109:323. The originals of Sun letters #8 and #9 (Brown to Edison, March 17,1889; Edison to Brown, March 22,1889) can be found in TAEM 126:39; 138:1089. Another letter in the Edison archives (Brown to Edison, March 23,1889, ENHS: D-89-33) is Brown's response to Edison's Sun letter #9. Previous scholars who have examined this episode also consider the letters to be authentic: Hughes, "Harold P. Brown and the Executioner's Current," 156 n. 55; Reynolds and Bernstein, "Edison and 'The Chair,'" 27-28, n. 36.
13. Elihu Thomson to Charles Coffin, May 16, 1889, 1889 folder, Series II, Thomson Papers.
14. Quotations from New York Sun, August 25, 28, 1889; Electrical World 14 (August 31,1889): 143; Electrician 23 (September 27,1889): 534.
15. New York Sun, August 25,1889; Electrical World 14 (August 31,1889): 143.
16. New York Journal, September 4,1889 (TAEM 146:452).
17. Notebooks N-88-06-06, pp. 69,74, 78-80, July 6,12,17,1888 (TAEM 102:516, 529, 540-43); N-88-06-10, pp. 58-59, 64, 68, 77, 89 (TAEM 102:607-8, 613, 619, 629, 642-43); Kemmler Hearings, 28, 668-70.
18. Quotations from Arthur Kennelly to Electrical Review, September 7, 1888 (TAEM 109:141); Kennelly to Frank Hastings, September 6,1888 (TAEM 109:138-39); Edison to Henry Bergh, July 13,1888 (TAEM 138:441). Also see Kennelly to W. H. Snell, September 24,1888 (TAEM 109:174). Kennelly explained that he conducted the experiments "because Mr. Edison told [him] to." Kemmler Hearings, 752.
As Kennelly experimented on dogs in the fall of 1888, Brown tested leakage from light wires in Manhattan using equipment that Frank Hastings arranged for him to borrow from the Edison laboratory. See Frank Hastings to Arthur Kennelly, September 18,1888 (TAEM 122:934); Hastings to Kennelly, October 8,12,1888 (TAEM 109:1039; 124:1041); Kennelly to Harold Brown, October 12,16,1888 (TAEM 109:186,189); Brown to Kennelly,