Edison and the Electric Chair_ A Story of Light and Death - Mark Essig [150]
My interpretation of the physiological experiments differs from those of Hughes ("Harold P. Brown and the Executioner's Current") and Reynolds and Bernstein ("Edison and 'The Chair'"), who consider Brown the lead investigator. My reading of the laboratory notebooks, combined with Kennelly's statements in letters from August and September that he conducted the experiments himself on orders from Edison, lead me to conclude that Brown's role was secondary.
19. Qtiotation from Frank Hastings to Charles Batchelor, July 20,1888 (TAEM 123:59-60). Also see Hastings to Alfred Tate, July 26,1888; Harold Brown to Arthur Kennelly, August 4, 1888; Kennelly to Hastings, August 8, 1888; Hastings to Kennelly, August 6, 8, 1888; Kennelly to Brown, August 9, 1888 (TAEM 123:62; 122:924; 109:121-22; 123:67-69; 109:123).
Brown may have been working for the Edison interests even in early June 1888, when he mounted his first public attack on alternating current, but there is no clear evidence to support this charge. Just as likely, Brown criticized alternating current out of personal conviction and thereby brought himself to the attention of the Edison interests, who realized that they could put him to use.
20. Quotation from Edward Johnson to Edison, September 18, 1888 (TAEM 122:933). Also see Alfred Tate to Johnson, September 18, 1888 (TAEM 122:565). Brown may have been the first to suggest the use of alternating current at the New York pound: see New York Herald, August 19, 1888. The city ultimately decided to use lethal gas instead of electricity: see Henry Bergh to Edison, July 28, 1888 (TAEM 122:918); American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Twenty-Third Annual Report for 1888 (New York, 1889), 12.
21. Quotation from Harold Brown to Arthur Kennelly, December 6, 1888 (TAEM 122:976). On arrangements for the December tests, see Frank Hastings to Kennelly, November 20, 24, 26, 28, 1888 (TAEM 122:955, 959> 960; 123:110); Kennelly to Hastings, November 21, 1888 (TAEM 109:196); Kennelly to Professor Marks, December 4,1888 (TAEM 109:196, 206). Edison also encouraged Scientific American to send an illustrator to the laboratory to make sketches of the equipment used in the tests: Alfred O. Tate to Scientific American, December 18, 1888 (TAEM 138:628).
Edison wanted his lobbying to remain secret. After the tests, Arthur Kennelly made some technical recommendations to the Medico-Legal Society that he believed were off the record. When he learned that the society was planning to include his statement in its official report, Kennelly begged Frederick Peterson to delete the comments: "Mr. Edison is desirous that no expression of opinion on this point should publicly emanate from the laboratory." Kennelly to Peterson, December 6,10,1888. Also see Kennelly to Brown, December 6,1888; Kennelly to Peterson, December 6, 1888; Peterson to Kennelly, December 10, 1888; Peterson to Hastings, December 13, 1888 (TAEM 109:209, 210, 215, 218; 122:979). F ° the aftermath of the December experiments, see Peterson to Edison, December 10, 11, 1888; Peterson to Kennelly, December 10, 26,1888; Kennelly to Peterson, December 19,1888; Peterson to Kennelly, December 26,1888; Clark Bell to Edison, December 26,1888; Clark Bell to Peterson, December 26,1888 (TAEM 122:978, 980, 988, 989; 109: 225).
In the spring and summer of 1889, both Edison and the officers of Edison Electric continued to work closely with Brown, arranging for him to borrow equipment and to carry out the March tests for the state electrocution commission. See Kennelly to Brown, May 16, 30, June 6, 1889 (TAEM 109:306, 309, 313); Hastings to Edison, March 8, 1889 (TAEM 126:34); Brown to Edison, March 12, 1889 (TAEM 126:35); Hastings to Kennelly, February 25, 1889 (TAEM 126:32); Kennelly to Hastings, February 25, 1889 (TAEM 109:285); Charles K. Baker to Brown, February 20, 1889 (TAEM 126:33); Hastings to Edison, January 21, 1889; Alfred Tate to Hastings, January 24,1889 (TAEM 126:11; 138:765).
22. Quotation from Kennelly to Charles Wirt, December 7,1888