In the 1880's, two developments concurred to set the stage for
the invention of the electric chair. In 1886, the New York State
Government established a legislative commission to study humane
forms of capitol punishment. At that time hanging was the number
one method of carrying out the death penalty, even while considered
too slow and painful a method of execution.
The second development was a growing rivalry between the two giants
of the young electrical utility industry. Thomas Edison was the
first person to establish himself in the industry with DC service.
Westinghouse, developers of the newer AC technology, challenged
Edison's dominance of the utility industry. At the same time,
copper prices were beginning to rise and DC depended on thick
copper electrical cables. Rising copper prices made the DC service
more costly and DC had other disadvantages, it could not provide
services beyond a few miles of each generator.
Edison reacted to the competition by starting a smear campaign
against Westinghouse, claiming AC technology was unsafe to use. In
1887, Edison held a public demonstration in West Orange, New
Jersey, supporting his accusations. Edison set up a 1,000 volt
Westinghouse AC generator attached to a metal plate and executed a
dozen innocent animals. The press had a field day describing the
event and the new term " electrocution " was used to describe
execution by electricity.
On June 4, 1888, the New York Legislature passed a law establishing
electrocution as the state's method of execution, but since two
potential designs (AC and DC) of the electric chair existed, it was
left to a committee to decide which form was better. Edison
actively campaigned for the selection of the Westinghouse chair,
expecting that the consumer would not want the same type of
electrical service in their homes.
Later in 1888, the Edison research facility hired inventor Harold
P. Brown. Brown had recently written a letter to the New York Post
describing a fatal accident where a young boy died after touching
an exposed telegraph wire running on AC current. Brown and his
assistant Dr. Fred Peterson began designing an electric chair for
Edison. They conducted cruel experiments using dogs, horses and
cows to research AC electro-cution, publicly experimenting with DC
voltage to show that it left the poor lab animals tortured but not
dead, then testing AC voltage to demonstrate how AC killed
swiftly.
The press always invited to watch these experiments gave the
research much publicity. Dr. Peterson steered the government
committee that had to select the best electro-cution method.
Peterson was still on the payroll of the Edison Company, so it was
not surprising when the committee soon announced that the electric
chair with AC voltage was chosen for the State's prison
system.
On January 1, 1889, the world's first electrical execution law went
into full effect. Westinghouse protested and refused to sell any AC
generators directly to the New York State prison authorities.
Edison and Brown found a way around Westinghouse and provided the
AC generators needed for the first working electric chairs.
Westinghouse funded the appeals for those first few souls sentenced
to death by electrocution, the appeals were made on the grounds
that "electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment." Edison and
Brown both testified for the state that execution was a quick and
painless form of death. The State of New York won the appeals. For
many years people referred to the process of being electrocuted in
the chair as being "Westinghoused".
Edison's plan to bring on the demise of Westinghouse did not work,
on the contrary it soon became clear that the AC technology was
vastly superior to DC technology. Edison finally admitted years
later - that he had thought so himself all along.
