Associating AC and Westinghouse with the electric chair
Although New York had a criminal procedure code that specified electrocution via an electric chair, it did not specify the type of electricity, the amount of current, or its method of delivery, as these were still relatively unknown details at the time.[82] The New York Medico-Legal Society, an informal association of doctors and lawyers, was tasked with working out the details and from late 1888 to early 1889 conducted a series of animal experiments on voltage quantities, electrode design and placement, and skin conductivity. During this time they sought the advice of Harold Brown as a consultant. This ended up expanding the war of currents in the development of the chair and the general debate on capital punishment in the United States.[53].
After the Medicolegal Society formed its committee in September 1888, President Frederick Peterson"), who had been an assistant in Brown's public electrocution of dogs in July 1888 with AC at Columbia College,[83] had the results of those experiments presented to the committee. Claims that AC was more lethal than DC and that it was the best current to use, were questioned by some members of the committee, noting that Brown's experiments were not carried out. scientifically and that were carried out on animals smaller than a human being. At its November meeting, the committee recommended 3000 volts, although the type of electricity was not determined, whether direct current or alternating current[83].
To more conclusively demonstrate to the committee that AC was more lethal than DC, Brown contacted Edison Electric Light treasurer Francis S. Hastings to arrange use of the West Orange laboratory. There, on December 5, 1888, Brown set up an experiment in the presence of members of the press, members of the Medico-Legal Society, the chairman of the death penalty commission, and Thomas Edison. He used alternating current for all his tests on animals larger than a human, including 4 calves and a lame horse, all delivered with 750 volts AC.[84] Based on these results, the December meeting of the Medico-Legal Society recommended the use of 1000-1500 volts alternating current for executions, and newspapers reported that the AC used was half the voltage used in power lines on the streets of American cities.
Westinghouse criticized these tests as a biased and self-serving demonstration, designed to be a direct attack on alternating current.[85] On December 13, in a letter to The New York Times, Westinghouse explained how Brown's experiments were wrong, and again claimed that Brown was being employed by the Edison company. Brown's letter of December 18 refuted Westinghouse's accusations, and even challenged him to an electrical duel, with Brown agreeing to be subjected to increasing amounts of DC power if Westinghouse was subjected to the same amount of AC, so that the first to withdraw would lose the challenge.[85] Westinghouse rejected the offer.
In March 1889, when members of the Medico-Legal Society embarked on another series of tests to determine the details of the composition and placement of the electrodes, they turned to Brown for technical assistance. Hastings, Edison's treasurer, unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a Westinghouse AC generator for testing. They ended up using Edison's West Orange laboratory for animal testing.
Also in March, Prison Superintendent Austin Lathrop&action=edit&redlink=1 "Austin Lathrop (New York) (not yet redacted)") asked Brown if he could supply the equipment needed for the executions, as well as design the electric chair. Brown declined the job of designing the chair, but agreed to fulfill the contract to supply the necessary electrical equipment.[53] The state refused to pay upfront, and Brown apparently turned to Edison Electric as well as the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to help obtain the equipment. This turned into an underhanded move to acquire Westinghouse AC generators to power the electric chair, apparently with the help of the Edison company and Westinghouse's main AC rival, Thomson-Houston.[53][87] The latter company arranged the acquisition of three Westinghouse alternating current generators, replacing Thomson-Houston's own AC equipment. Edison Electric probably put up the money for Brown to purchase them. Thomson-Houston president Charles Coffin") had at least two reasons for obtaining the Westinghouse generators: he did not want his company's equipment to be associated with the death penalty; and he wanted to use one of these generators to prove that Westinghouse's business case (which claimed to make generators 50% more efficient than the competition) was false (by paying Brown to organize a public efficiency test).[88]
That spring, Brown published "The Comparative Danger to Life of Alternating and Direct Electric Current" detailing animal experiments conducted in Edison's laboratory, claiming that they demonstrated that AC was much more lethal than DC.[89] This professionally printed 61-page pamphlet (probably paid for by the Edison company) was sent to government officials, newspapers, and businessmen in towns with populations greater than 5,000.[69]
In May 1889, when New York had sentenced its first criminal to be executed by electric chair, a street merchant named William Kemmler, there was a great deal of discussion in the New York Times editorial column about what to call the then-new form of execution. The term "Westinghoused" and "Gerry-ado" (in reference to the head of the death penalty commission, Elbridge Gerry), and "Brown-ado" were introduced.[90] The Times hated the word that was eventually adopted, electrocution, describing it as being pushed by "pretentious ignoramuses" [91]. One of Edison's lawyers wrote to his colleague expressing his opinion that Edison's preference for "dynamodeath", "amperedeath", and electrodeath were not good terms, but they thought Westinghoused was the best option.[90]
William Kemmler was sentenced to die in the electric chair on June 24, 1889, but before the sentence could be carried out, an appeal was filed because it constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Constitution of the United States. It became obvious to the press and everyone involved that the expensive and politically connected lawyer who brought the appeal, William Bourke Cockran), had no connection to the case but did have a connection to the Westinghouse company, obviously paying for his services.[92]
During fact-finding hearings held across the state and beginning on July 9 in New York City, Cockran used his considerable skills as an interrogator and orator to attack Brown, Edison, and their followers. Their strategy was to demonstrate that Brown had falsified his evidence about the lethal power of AC, arguing instead that electricity would not cause certain death and would simply lead to torture of the condemned. Under cross-examination, he questioned Brown's lack of credentials in the electrical field and raised possible collusion between Brown and Edison, which Brown again denied. Many witnesses were called by both parties to give first-hand testimonies about encounters with electricity, with evidence received from medical professionals about the nervous system of the human body and the electrical conductivity of the skin. Brown was accused of falsifying his animal tests, hiding the fact that he was using DC lower than AC.[93] When the audience gathered one day at Edison's West Orange laboratory to witness demonstrations of skin resistance to electricity, Brown nearly got into a fight with a Westinghouse representative, accusing him of being in Edison's laboratory to conduct industrial espionage.[94] Newspapers noted that the often contradictory testimony raised public doubts about the electrocution law, but after Edison took the stand, many accepted the "Wizard of Menlo Park's" assurances that 1,000 volts of AC would easily kill any man.[95]
After the gathered testimony was presented and the two sides argued the case, Judge Edwin Day ruled against Kemmler's appeal on October 9, and the United States Supreme Court denied Kemmler's appeal on May 23, 1890.[96]
When the chair was first used on August 6, 1890, technicians miscalculated the voltage needed to kill William Kemmler. After the first jolt of electricity, Kemmler was still breathing. The procedure had to be repeated, and a reporter who was present described it as "a horrible sight, much worse than a hanging." George Westinghouse commented: "They would have done better using an axe."[97]
The "panic over power lines"
1889 saw another round of deaths attributed to alternating current, including an installer in Buffalo, New York; four others in New York City; and a fruit merchant also from New York who died when the display he was using came into contact with an airline. New York Mayor Hugh J. Grant, in a meeting with the Electrical Control Board and AC power companies, rejected claims that AC lines were perfectly safe, saying that "we hear from everyone who touches them at the coroner's office."[36] On October 11, 1889, John Feeks, a Western Union lineman, stood atop the tangle of electrical wires. As the crowd walked down the street at lunchtime, Feeks grabbed onto a nearby line that, unknown to him, had come into contact with a high-voltage AC line many blocks away. He died almost instantly. tangled in the tangle of cables, sparking, burning and smoking for nearly an hour, while a horrified crowd of thousands gathered below. The source of the discharge that killed Feeks could not be determined, even though the lines of the United States Illumination Company were nearby.[100]
Feek's public death sparked a new explosion of people fearing the power lines overhead, in what has been called the "Power Line Panic" [2]. The blame seemed to center on Westinghouse, since having purchased many of the lighting companies involved, people assumed that the worker's death was the fault of one of its subsidiary companies. Newspapers[2] joined the public outcry following Feeks' death, noting that men's lives "were cheaper than wire insulation" and calling on AC company executives to bear the blame for manslaughter. On October 13, 1889, the New Orleans "Times-Picayune" noted: "Death does not stop at the door, but comes right into the house, and perhaps when you close a door or turn on the gas they kill you." Harold Brown's reputation[101] was rehabilitated almost overnight. Newspapers and magazines sought his opinion, and reporters followed him around New York City, where he measured the number of current leaking from the AC power lines[102].
At the height of the current war, Edison himself joined the public debate for the first time, railing against alternating current in a November 1889 article in the "North American Review" titled: "The Dangers of Electric Lighting."
Edison proposed the idea that burying power lines was not a solution, and would simply move deaths underground and be a "constant threat" that could end the installation of other power lines that threaten people's homes and lives.[100][103] He declared that the only way to make AC safe would be to limit its voltage, and swore that Edison Electric would never adopt AC while he was at the helm.[100]
George Westinghouse was suddenly put in the role of a "villain" trying to defend pole-mounted AC installations that he knew were unsafe, and he attempted to dodge reporters' questions by trying to point out all the other things in a big city that were even more dangerous.[2][100] The following month he did one better in his response published in the , pointing out that his AC/transformer system actually used lower household voltages than Edison's DC system. It also noted 87 deaths in one year caused by cars on the streets and gas lighting compared to only 5 accidental electrocutions and no deaths in homes attributed to alternating current.[100]