Who invented the electric chair?

Question

Who invented the electric chair?

Answer 1

From wikipedia:



     Alfred P. Southwick developed the idea of using electric current as a method of execution when he saw an intoxicated man die after touching an exposed terminal on a live generator. As Southwick was a dentist accustomed to performing procedures on subjects in chairs, his electrical device appeared in the form of a chair.

In 1887, after a particularly gruesome and bloody hanging was reported, New York State established a committee to determine a new, more humane system of execution to replace hanging. Neither Edison nor Tesla as part of the War of Currents wanted their electrical system to be chosen because they feared that consumers would not want in their homes the same type of electricity used to kill criminals.

The first electric chair was made by Harold P. Brown. Brown was an employee of Thomas Edison, hired for the purpose of researching electrocution and for the development of the electric chair.

Answer 2

THE HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

Timeline:

1881 - Dr. Albert Southwick, a dentist and former steamboat engineer, sees elderly drunkard touch terminals of electrical generator in Buffalo, New York. He is amazed at how quickly and apparently painlessly the man is killed and describes episode to friend State Senator David McMillan.

1881 - McMillan speaks to Governor David B. Hill. Hill asks state legislature to consider how modern day electricity might replace hanging.

1882 - Thomas Edison was the first person to establish himself in electrical utility industry with DC service.

1886 - AC technology, developed by Westinghouse, was much more flexible and economic seriously threatens Edison's hold  on electrical utility market .

1886 - Legislature enacts Chapter 352  of the Laws of 1886 entitled "An act to authorize the appointment of a commission to investigate and report to the legislature the most humane and approved method of

carrying into effect the sentence of death in capital cases."

1887 - Copper prices skyrocket when French syndicate corners market. DC requires very thick copper cables. AC has a strong economic advantage. Edison realizes this and starts planning his attack on other that economic reasons.

1887 - Edison conducts demonstration in West Orange, New Jersey, in which he kills large numbers of cats and dogs by luring the animals onto a metal plate wired to a 1,000 volt AC generator. The press describes these proceedings in detail.

1887 - Edison publishes pamphlet A Warning, comparing AC and DC, including of AC victims.

1888- Elbridge T. Gerry (grandson of signer of Declaration of Independence), Dr. Southwick, and Matthew Hale, a judge from Albany,are appointed to commission created by 1886 law.. The Gerry report is a detailed analysis of execution methods.

June 4, 1888 - New York Legislature passes Chapter 489 of Laws of New York of 1888 establishing electrocution as the state's method of execution. Medico-Legal Society of New York is designated to recommend how to implement new law.

June 5, 1888 - Inventor Harold P. Brown writes a very compelling editorial letter to the New York Post,

describing the death of a boy who touched a straggling telegraph wire running on AC current. Brown recommends limiting AC transmissions to 300 volts, which negates

economic advantage.

July, 1888 - Brown goes to Edison's West Orange, New Jersey lab to do research.

July 30, 1888 - Brown  and his assistant Dr. Fred Peterson of Columbia show experimental results at the School of Mines at Columbia University by administering a series of DC shocks to a large Newfoundland mix dog. By 1,000 volts DC, the dog is agonized but not killed. Finally, Brown finishes the off with a charge of 330 volts AC. On a follow-up demonstration, SPCA steps in and second dog becomes first creature ever publicly reprieved from execution by electrocution (although it was later killed at another demonstration).

Fall, 1888 - Medico-Legal appoints Brown's assistant Dr. Peterson to carry out further research. Over the next few months, they electrocute two dozen dogs.

December 5, 1888 -  Brown and Peterson electrocute two calves and a 1,230-pound horse. The New York Times account ends with the observation that "alternating current will undoubtedly drive the hangmen out of business in this state." This PR is probably engineered by Brown or Edison.

December 12, 1888 - Peterson committee submits report to New York Meidco-Legal Society, recommending use of chair rather than tank of water or rubberized table.

December 13, 1888 - Westinghouse writes letter in NY Times accusing Brown of  acting "in the interest in and pay of the Edison Electric Light Company."

January 1, 1889 - World's first Electrical Execution Law goes into effect.

Answer 3

Harold Brown. i think that he also was killed by it, ironically enough.

Answer 4

Alfred P. Southwick developed the idea of using electric current as a method of execution when he saw an intoxicated man die after touching an exposed terminal on a live generator. As Southwick was a dentist accustomed to performing procedures on subjects in chairs, his electrical device appeared in the form of a chair.

The first electric chair was made by Harold P. Brown, an employee of Thomas Edison, hired for the purpose of researching electrocution and for the development of the electric chair.

Answer 5

i have not invented that thing.......

Answer 6

The electric chair was invented by a dentist. I forget the name!!!.

Answer 7

Harold Pitney Brown was the American inventor of the electric chair. He was hired by Thomas Edison to help develop the chair after he wrote an editorial to the New York Post describing how a young boy was killed after accidentally touching an exposed telegraph wire using alternating current.

At the time, Edison and his direct current system was competing with the Westinghouse electrical company, which used alternating current. New York State in 1886 established a committee to determine a new, more humane system of execution to replace hanging. Neither Edison nor Westinghouse wanted their electrical system to be chosen because they feared that consumers would not want the same type of electricity used to kill criminals in their homes.

In order to prove that AC electricity was better for executions, Brown and Edison killed many animals, including a circus elephant (Topsy), while testing their prototypes. They also held executions of animals for the press in order to ensure that AC current was associated with electrocution. It was at these events that the term electrocution was coined. Most of their experiments were conducted at Edison's West Orange, New Jersey laboratory in 1888.

Though the campaign to discredit the alternating current system failed, the AC electric chair was adopted by the committee in 1889.