Edison and the Electric Chair_ A Story of Light and Death - Mark Essig [51]
At the end of 1887, Edison agents from across the country sent panicked letters to the head office in New York, begging for a way to compete with Westinghouse in smaller towns and the outlying districts of cities. "There is an enormous pressure everywhere for a system to cover distances," one agent explained. An agent in Tacoma was more blunt: "Are we going to sit still and be called cold fashioned,' 'fossils,' &c, and let the other fellows get a lot of the very best paying business?"38
Edward Johnson told Edison in December that he was going to Chicago to talk to the agents there and "stiffen them up a bit—they have been completely demoralized by Westinghouse." Johnson also warned Edison that until they came up with a new system to compete with Westinghouse's, they would have to accept the fact that they would "do no small town business, or even much headway in cities of minor size."39
IN NOVEMBER 1887, at the height of the panic over the Westinghouse competition, Edison received a letter from Alfred Southwick concerning the work of the death penalty commission. Southwick asked Edison to name "the necessary strength of current to produce death with certainty in all cases," and also to specify the best equipment for the task.
In reply, Edison told Southwick that he was opposed to capital punishment and refused to offer any advice.
On December 5, Southwick wrote again. "The question does not arise do we as individuals believe in capital punishment," Southwick told Edison, because the practice "has existed by law in all ages and in all nations and perhaps will for all time to come." This being the case, Southwick continued, "it appears to me that science and civilization demands [sic] some more humane method than the rope. The rope is a relic of barbarism and should be relegated to the past." The dentist also admitted that he was seeking more than technical advice from Edison. "The reputation you have as an electrician," Southwick wrote, would be invaluable in persuading the legislature to abolish the gallows and substitute electricity. Southwick closed by begging Edison, "Change your mind on the subject and give us the benefit of your knowledge."
The plea worked. Edison wrote a letter to Southwick on December 19,1887.
Your points are well taken, and though I would join heartily in an effort to totally abolish capital punishment, I at the same time realize that while the system is recognized by the State, it is the duty of the latter to adopt the most humane method available for the purpose of disposing of criminals under sentence of death.
The best appliance in this connection is to my mind the one which will perform its work in the shortest space of time, and inflict the least amount of suffering upon its victim. This I believe can be accomplished by the use of electricity and the most suitable apparatus for the purpose is that class of dynamo-electric machine which employs intermittent currents.
The most effective of these are known as "alternating machines," manufactured principally in this country by Mr. Geo. Westinghouse, Pittsburgh.40
CHAPTER 10
The Electrical
Execution Law
EDISON'S LETTER convinced Elbridge Gerry that he should abandon his preference for morphine executions and throw his support behind electricity. The three commissioners, Southwick, Gerry, and Hale, added some final touches to the commission report—including an extract from Edison's letter—and delivered it to the New York State Legislature in January 1888. Gerry, who was experienced in legislative matters, drafted a new capital punishment bill and attached it to the end of the report.1
The commission's bill changed the method of execution