EXECUTION BY ELECTRICITY.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 41, 9 August 1888, Page 2

EXECUTION BY ELECTRICITY.

MR. EDISON'S VIEWS. A reporter of the New York World has been interviewing Mr Edison on the subject of executing criminals by electricity. " How quick will electricity kill a man ?" Mr Edison was asked. "In an incalculable space of time," replied the wizard. "An electric light current will kill a regiment in the ten-thousandth part

of a second." " Of the various plans that have come out since the new law abolishing hanging was made, which .do you look upon as the best ?'" Mr Edison's reply was to pickup a piece of paper and quickly trace upon it two hands manacled, with a chain attached to each manacle. " The condemned could be handcuffed in his cell," said Mr Edison, "and walked out followed by the Sheriff and those persons that the law says shall witness the. execution. Attach each of these chains to the -respective poles of • the battery. When the time comes touch a button, close the circuit, and," snapping his finger, "it is over. The current, which should come from an alternating machine, a machine thr,t g'.-es a series of rapid shocks, p ses up one arm, through the heart aud lungs, as we'l as the base of the braim and out through the other arm about a. thousand times a minute. Death is instantaneous. The culprit will never know what has happened. Nothing could be surer than that way. The only disfigurement would be a white blister which would be burned in the wrists. One thousand volts would be enough, but two thousand volts would be sure beyond Tiny question." THE ECONOMIC VIEW. Dr Bleyer's suggestion to the Medico-Legal Society that the current used for purposes of exeoution bo obtained from the uncertainelectric light wires was improved upon by Electrician Kenally, who assuming the adoption of the handcuffing system, ' ' favoured the creation " of the current right where the execution was to take place. "An alternating ongine, capable of exerting an onergy of 2000 volts is probably worth 150d015.," said he. ."In nearly all large prisons there* is an engine used for some purpose or other. Less thw two horsepower would be required to run the dynamo. An electrician who understood his business thoroughly could, when the oocasions arose for using the machine, visit the prison and make the connections. Wires would be' run from the dynamo to a block of wood fastened in the wall and continued from the block for any j desired distance. When the Sheriff was ready all he would have to do would be to attach the wives ta the chains ruining. tQ the handcuffs.

No iriatter what position ; the : prisoner, took, nor how nation he twisted and turned, whether he Btopd or sat down,, he could not .escape the shock. In prisons where there was no steam engine, a small gas engine would ■ answer every purpose to drive the dynamo. • " The manacles appear to be the most practicable. If a man about . to be executed by any other method should take it into his head to resist — which the mystery of his;surroundings might induce-t-he; could prolong a very agonising scene. Unless bound down tightly, in ihe ' electrical chair,' he could prevent the completion of the circuit. To s,and him on a plate and' form the circuit by a band about the head or throat might be feasible if he stood still. Unless secured by some sort of harness he could step off the plate and refuse to return. It would hardly be safe to take hold of him. Tlie manacles ale the surest, and, with a dynamo of sufficient power, * appear to be the safest and most humane method of applying eleotricity as a means of capital punishment."