A product of humanism. How a compassionate dentist came up with the electric chair

More recently, in the United States, criminals on death row were sent to the electric chair. But in recent years, this "high-tech" method of execution has practically been abandoned. What is the reason?

Who invented the electric chair

Execution by electric chair began at the end of the 19th century. The "progressive" society decided that such types of executions as burning at the stake, hanging and beheading were inhumane. The offender should not additionally suffer during the execution process: after all, the most precious thing - his life - is already being taken away from him.

According to the official version, a certain incident in 1881 served as the impetus for this invention. Dentist Albert Southwick of Buffalo, New York, once witnessed an elderly man die by accidentally touching the contacts of an electric generator. It occurred to Southwick that such a death could be quick and painless. At first, he suggested using electricity to get rid of unwanted animals, such as kittens or puppies. This method of mortification seemed to him more humane than, say, the practice of drowning. The idea was also liked by the head of the Society for the Protection of Animals from Cruelty, Colonel Rockwell.

Southwick began conducting experiments on killing animals with electricity.

He published the results of his experiments in scientific journals, and then showed these articles to his friend - Senator David Macmillan. He turned to D.B. Hill, Governor of New York. In 1886, a special commission was formed to investigate the question "of the most humane and commendable way of carrying out death sentences." Southwick also joined the commission.

The official tests were undertaken by the inventor of electricity himself - the famous Thomas Edison. In West Orange, New Jersey, they conducted a demonstration experiment on cats and dogs. They were placed on a metal plate under a voltage of 1000 volts, as a result of which the animals died. In 1888, inventor Harold Brown and Columbia University employee Fred Peterson tested the appropriate equipment in Edison's laboratories, killing more than two dozen dogs with electric shock within a few months. On January 1, 1889, the previously passed Electric Execution Act was enacted in New York State.

The first functional electric chair was developed in 1890 by an ordinary electrician named Edwin Davis, a prison officer in the city of Auburn.

Operating principle

The essence of the execution is as follows. The convict is shaved baldly on the top of the head and the calf on one leg. Then the torso and arms are tied tightly with straps to a chair made of dielectric material with a high back and armrests. The legs are secured with special clips. At first, the criminals were blindfolded, then they began to put on a hood on their heads, and more recently - a special mask. One electrode is attached to the head, on which the helmet is worn, the other to the leg. The executioner turns on the button of the switch, which passes through the body an alternating current of up to 5 amperes and a voltage of 1700 to 2400 volts. Execution usually takes about two minutes. Two discharges are given, each turns on for one minute, the break between them is 10 seconds. The first shock destroys the brain and central nervous system, the second leads to complete cardiac arrest. Death is recorded without fail by a doctor.

Cruel and unusual punishment

Not everyone approved of the innovation. So, Edison's main competitor, George Westinghouse, who supplied consumers with electrical equipment, refused to supply electric power generators to prisons, considering this method of execution to be inhumane.

For the first time, William Kemmler, convicted of the murder of his mistress Tilly Seigler, was executed in the electric chair on August 6, 1890 at the Auburn prison in the American state of New York. Westinghouse tried to save this man, even hired lawyers for him, who demanded to appeal the sentence on the basis that execution by electric chair is a cruel and unusual punishment, therefore, should be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. But it did not help. The verdict was carried out. Tellingly, the executed did not die right away, the switch had to be turned on again. Westinghouse commented, "They would have done better with an ax."

Until now, more than four thousand people have been executed in the United States in this way. One of them was Leon Cholgosh, the assassin of American President McKinley. A similar type of execution was used in the Philippines.

The communist spouses Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, accused of working for Soviet intelligence and transferring American nuclear secrets to it, ended their lives in the electric chair. In particular, they allegedly gave the Soviets a blueprint for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Prominent public figures defended the Rosenberg family - among them the famous physicist Albert Einstein, the writer Thomas Mann and even Pope Pius XII. But all requests for clemency were rejected, and in 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the death sentence. To this day, there are people who express doubts about the guilt of the Rosenberg spouses: the evidence against them was allegedly fabricated by the CIA - possibly to gain an advantage over the USSR in the Cold War.

"Let me breathe!"

It was assumed that when an electric current is passed through the body, a person will die immediately. But this did not always happen. Often, eyewitnesses had to observe how people, put on the electric chair, fought in convulsions, bit their tongues, froth and blood came out of their mouths, their eyes crawled out of their sockets, involuntary emptying of the intestines and bladder occurred ... Some screamed during the execution. Almost always, after the discharge of a discharge from the skin and hair of the convict, a light smoke began to go. There were also recorded cases when a person sitting in an electric chair caught fire and exploded his head. Quite often, the burnt skin "stuck" to the seat belts and seat. The bodies of the executed turned out, as a rule, so hot that it was impossible to touch them, and then the smell of burnt meat lingered in the room for a long time.

One of the protocols describes an episode when a convict was exposed to a discharge of 2450 volts for 15 seconds, but a quarter of an hour after the procedure, he was still alive. As a result, the execution had to be repeated three times until the offender died.

In 1985, in Indiana, a certain William Vandivere was subjected to electric shocks as many as five times. It took 17 minutes to kill him.

According to experts, when exposed to such high voltage, the human body is literally roasted alive. Here are the recollections of one survivor: “There was a taste of cold peanut butter in my mouth. I felt my head and left leg burning, so I tried my best to get out of the bondage. " Willie Francis, 17, who got into the electric chair in 1947, shouted, “Shut it down! Let me breathe! "

Repeatedly the execution turned out to be painful as a result of various failures and malfunctions. So, on May 4, 1990, when the criminal Jesse D. Tafero was executed, the gasket under the helmet caught fire, the convict received third and fourth degree burns. In 1991, during the execution, one of the criminals kicked the chair so hard that he broke them.

The story of the murderer of the whole family, Allen Lee Davis, who, before the execution, had a leather tape taped not only to his mouth (instead of a gag), but also to his nose, caused a great resonance. As a result, he suffocated.

Electric chair or injection?

It soon became clear that "humane" execution often turns into torture, and its use was limited. True, some people believe that the whole point is not at all in humanity, but in the high cost of the procedure.

Currently, the electric chair is used in six American states - Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Moreover, the convict is offered a choice of an electric chair or a lethal injection. In some states, shooting, hanging, and gas chambers are also practiced as an alternative.

The last time he was electrocuted was on January 16, 2013 in Virginia. This measure was applied to Robert Gleeson, who, by the way, specially killed two inmates so that his life sentence was commuted to a death sentence.

The United States, a country of democratic freedoms and the world's main stronghold of human rights, has constantly sought to make life and death easier for its citizens. So, 115 years ago, a new type of killing of criminals appeared in this state - the electric chair.

"Humane" type of execution

No matter what the statistics say, there has always been a large percentage of especially dangerous criminals in the United States. Perhaps the fault is the contingent that has historically flooded new unexplored lands - adventurers, robbers and treasure hunters. Such people were rarely stopped by moral principles, and they were not frightened by the murder of their neighbor. Perhaps it was the knowledge of their history that made US senators so zealous to advocate the death penalty. Of course, there was a period in the history of the United States when a moratorium was imposed on the execution of criminals, but it did not last long - from 1972 to 1976. Today, execution in this country is allowed in 33 states, 7 of which still use the electric chair.

Before its invention, hanging was used in the USA. The prisoners were not always "lucky". If the cervical vertebrae broke, then death was relatively painless. Quite often, such a gift from fate did not occur, and the person died of suffocation, which was considered absolutely inhumane.

Albert Southwick and his "humanism"

Many ordinary people believe that this type of execution was invented by a madman, in fact it is not. The opinions of historians on this issue are ambiguous. Who Invented the Electric Chair? Edison, Brown or Southwick?

The idea of ​​electrocution belongs to the dentist Albert Southwick. One day he saw a drunkard stepping on bare wires and instantly died. It seemed to Mr. Southwick that the death of the man was instant and painless. He told the head of the Society for the Protection of Animals from Cruelty to Colonel Rockwell about his idea. The dentist suggested killing sick animals with electric current, rather than drowning them. Rockwell liked the idea, and the next month Southwick began experimenting on animals.

He published his observations in a scientific journal. After a certain number of experiments, he turned to his friend - Senator David Macmillan - with a proposal to use current as an instrument of capital punishment. Macmillan was a supporter of this procedure, and when he heard that the current was less painful, he unconditionally agreed to transfer the papers to the Senate in order to approve the procedure. In 1886, the law "On the Study of the Most Humane Kind of the Death Penalty" was passed. June 5, 1888 signed a document "On the introduction of a new humane form of execution in the state of New York."

Which current is more efficient?

Humanists were immediately faced with the question of how to design the ideal electric chair. The law was passed, but the apparatus was not ready. In addition, the researchers did not know what kind of current to use: direct or alternating.

Direct current was the brainchild of Thomas Edison, alternating current - Nikola Tesla. The battle of the titans began between scientists, or rather, between Edison and Westinghouse, the investor who bought the patents for Tesla's invention. Addison did not want his invention to become a symbol of the death penalty, so he made every effort to discredit Tesla's method and convince the commission that studied death from electricity that alternating current kills more painlessly and quickly than direct current.

Development of a device for execution

The issue was resolved, the alternating current defeated the lethal injection. Discussions began on how the procedure should proceed. After much debate, engineer Harold Brown suggested putting the prisoner on a chair and attaching electrodes to his body. It is to him that the electric chair owes its appearance. On January 1, 1889, the law on executions using such a device came into force. By the above date, the first electric chair was already ready.

Operating principle

The execution in the electric chair was supposed to reduce the torture of the criminal, reduce the pain. The developers of the apparatus made a massive wooden chair, brought electrodes to it. One of them at the end with a wet washcloth was attached to the prisoner's head, the other was planned to be brought to the spine. The electrodes were soaked in saline beforehand. The electric chair was 2,000 volts. The criminal's legs and arms had to be rigidly fixed with straps. The current was transmitted by the generator.

Later this technique was improved. Now the wires are connected to the ankles and to the head. The voltage is 2700 volts.

First execution

The first execution on the apparatus of Westinghouse, and this is what this device was called for some time, took place as scheduled - August 6, 1890. The first person to be deliberately electrocuted was a merchant from Buffalo, William Kemmler. In a fit of jealousy and drunken stupor, he hacked to death with an ax his wife. The candidate was excellent, and they decided to test the electric chair on him. The prison guard was visibly nervous and could not cope with the tremors in his hands, which made it impossible to properly fasten the belts. Kemmler was even indignant and asked the warden to calm down. Edwin Davis dropped the switch. If we talk about who invented the electric chair, in terms of who designed it, it was Mr. Davis. He was immediately given the nickname "state electrician."

Tension ran through the wires, all those gathered began to exclaim with enthusiasm that they had entered the era of humanity. But to the surprise of the witnesses, the perpetrator did not die. Then the current was given again, but the generators needed time to charge. All these few minutes, Kemmler groaned and gasped. The current was given again, the criminal's head began to smoke, and he finally gave up his last spirit. Someone present noted that an ax would be faster.

Opponents of the electric chair

After the first killing of a person with an electric shock, it became clear that the method was not only unfinished, it was atrocious and cruel. The first opponent of execution by electric shock was John Westinghouse, but he hardly thought about the humanity of the issue. The entrepreneur did not want alternating current to be used. Supporters of this type of execution immediately rushed to modify their device, and opponents began to sound the alarm. Did the developers of this murder weapon know that their apparatus would become the impetus for the emergence of human rights organizations and fighters for human rights? It was those executed in the electric chair that became the reason for the formation of a movement against killing in this way. In the 20th century, the abolitionist movement began in the United States, and the search for a humane instrument of the death penalty continues to this day.

Today, execution by electric chair is used only in Virginia, in another seven states this type of execution is allowed. Lethal injection supplanted this "humane" device over time.

On August 6, 1890, humanity has written a new page in its history. Scientific and technological progress has also reached such a specific type of activity as the execution of death sentences. The United States of America carried out the first death penalty in the electric chair.

The "electric chair" indirectly owes its appearance to the famous inventor Thomas Edison... In the 1880s, a "war of currents" broke out in the United States - a struggle between AC and DC power systems. Edison was an adept in direct current systems, and Nikola Tesla was an adept in alternating current systems.

Edison, trying to tip the scales in his direction, pointed out the extreme danger of AC systems. For clarity, the inventor sometimes demonstrated eerie experiments, killing animals with alternating current.

In the American society of the late 19th century, literally in love with electricity, the issue of humanizing the death penalty was simultaneously discussed. Many believed that hanging was too great an atrocity that should be replaced by a more humane method of killing.

Unsurprisingly, the idea of ​​the death penalty using electricity has become extremely popular.

Observational dentist

First, the idea of ​​an "electric death machine" came to mind of an American dentist Albert Southwick... Once, in front of his eyes, an elderly drunkard touched the contacts of an electric generator. The death of the unfortunate was instant.

Southwick, who witnessed this scene, shared the observation with his patient and friend. David McMillan.

Mr. Macmillan was a senator and, considering Southwick's proposal a good one, approached the New York State Legislature with an initiative to introduce a new, "progressive" method of execution.

Discussion of the initiative lasted for about two years, and the number of supporters of the new method of execution was constantly growing. Among those who were in favor of both hands was Thomas Edison.

In 1888, a series of additional experiments on killing animals was carried out in Edison's laboratories, after which the authorities received a positive opinion from experts about the possibility of using the "electric chair" for the death penalty. On January 1, 1889, the Electric Execution Act entered into force in New York State.

Supporters of the use of alternating current in everyday life opposed its use for murder in every possible way, but they were powerless.

In 1890, the electrician of the prison of the city of Auburn Edwin Davis built the first working model of the new "death machine".

Electrocution. The illustration was made after experiments on the feasibility of carrying out the death penalty in 1888. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Humane theory

The humanity of the execution, according to the supporters of the invention, was that the electric current rapidly destroys the brain and nervous system of the sentenced person, thereby saving him from suffering. The executed loses consciousness in thousandths of a second, and the pain simply does not have time to reach the brain during this time.

The “electric chair” itself is a chair made of dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps to rigidly fix the sentenced person. Hands are attached to the armrests, legs - in special clips of the chair legs. A special helmet is also attached to the chair. Electrical contacts are connected to the ankle attachment points and to the helmet. The current limiting system is designed so that the body of the condemned person does not catch fire during the execution.

After the sentenced person is seated on a chair and fixed, a helmet is put on his head. Before that, the hair on the crown is shaved off. The eyes are either sealed with a plaster, or simply put on a black hood over the head. A sponge soaked in saline is embedded in the helmet: this is done in order to ensure the minimum electrical resistance of contact in the helmet with the head and thus hasten death and alleviate the physical suffering of the person being executed.

Then the current is turned on, which is supplied twice for one minute with an interval of 10 seconds. It is believed that by the time the second minute has elapsed, the sentenced person must be dead.

Critics of the "electric chair" from the very beginning pointed out that all arguments about its humanity are purely theoretical, and in practice everything can turn out quite differently.

First "client"

There were two candidates to go down in history as the first victim of the electric chair - Joseph Chaplot who killed a neighbor, and William Kemmler who hacked his mistress with an ax.

As a result, Shaplo's lawyers achieved a pardon, and Kemmler got the "honor" to test the new invention on himself.

At the time of his execution, William Kemmler was 30 years old. His parents were immigrants from Germany, who did not build a new life in America, but simply drank themselves and died, leaving their son an orphan.

A difficult childhood also affected later life, which did not indulge Kemmler. In the spring of 1889, after a quarrel with his mistress Tilly Ziegler the man killed her with an ax blow.

The court sentenced Kemmler to death, which was to be carried out in the electric chair.

Lawyers, citing the US Constitution prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishment", tried to get the court's decision to be overturned, but their appeal was rejected.

On August 6, 1890, at 6 o'clock in the morning, in the prison in the city of Auburn, the first electric shock passed through the body of William Kemmler.

Fried facts

Things didn't go as the theorists had described. Kemmler's body was convulsing so violently that the prison doctor, confused by what he saw, gave the order to turn off the current in less than 20 seconds, and not after a minute, as planned. At first it seemed that Kemmler was dead, but then he began to make convulsive sighs and moan. It took a while to recharge the device for another attempt at killing. Finally, the current was given a second time, this time for one minute. Kemmler's body began to smoke, the smell of burnt meat spread through the room. After a minute, the physician stated that the convict was dead.

The opinion of the witnesses to the execution, who numbered more than twenty people, turned out to be extremely unanimous - the killing of Kemmler looked extremely disgusting. One of the reporters wrote that the sentenced person was literally “roasted to death”.

The external impression of the journalist was not so deceiving. Forensic doctors who worked with the bodies of those executed in the "electric chair" said that the brain, which is most strongly exposed to the current, is practically welded.

Despite the negative impressions of the witnesses to the execution of William Kemmler, the "electric chair" began to rapidly gain popularity. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, it had become the most popular method of capital punishment in the United States.

Executed at will

Abroad, however, this kind of execution is not widespread. And in the United States itself, in the 1970s, lethal injection gradually began to supplant the "electric chair".

In the entire history of the use of the "electric chair", more than 4,300 people have been executed on it.

Currently, the electrocution is officially retained in eight states. However, in practice, this execution is resorted to less and less, including due to technical difficulties. The newest "models" of these "death machines" today are more than thirty years old, and some are already more than 70 years old, so during executions they often fail.

In a number of US states, there is a rule according to which the offender himself can choose the method of execution. This is exactly what the 42-year-old who was executed in January 2013 in Virginia did. Robert Gleason... Convicted in 2007 to life imprisonment for the murder of an FBI agent Gleason in prison, dealt with two of his inmates, explaining his actions by the desire to get ... on the "electric chair". Moreover, the offender promised to continue killing inmates if he was not given such an opportunity. As a result, Robert Gleeson got his way, becoming perhaps one of the last "clients" in the history of the "electric chair".

And who invented this humane instrument of death

The electric chair was invented by Thomas Edison. He is the author of numerous important inventions: during Edison's life, the US Patent Office granted him 1,093 patents for such things as, for example, an electric electoral counter (1868), a carbon telephone membrane (1870), an incandescent lamp with a carbon filament (1879 ) etc. However, here we will talk about his electric chair, patented in 1890.

What is it? We have often seen American films where a prisoner is sentenced to death by electric chair, but have we ever thought about how this hellish machine works?

An electric chair is a chair made of dielectric (that is, non-conductive) material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps to rigidly restrain the sentenced person. The hands of the condemned are fastened on the armrests, the legs - in special clamps of the legs. A special helmet is also attached to the chair. Electrical contacts are connected to the ankle attachment points and to the helmet. The hardware includes a step-up transformer. During the execution of the execution, an alternating current with a voltage of about 2700 V is applied to the contacts.

The chair is equipped with two switches, which are turned on simultaneously by different executioners, and in reality, the current turns on only one of them. This procedure is used so that no one, including the executors themselves, could know who actually carried out the execution (apparently, this helped to save the executors of the sentence from remorse).

By the way, in some states there is a decree that if a person withstands three sessions of "electrotherapy" in a row, then he is released. Believe it or not, there were some, although, of course, the overwhelming majority of those sentenced died after the first activation.

The electric chair was introduced on August 6, 1890 as a humane means of execution, allowing a criminal to be put to death without causing him unnecessary suffering. Those who advocate this type of execution claim that it is painless, however, you must admit that it is difficult to verify this.

Currently, the electric chair is used in six states - Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia at the choice of the convict along with lethal injection.

Assassin of President McKinley. During the 20th century, it was used in 26 states, but in recent decades it has been actively supplanted by other forms of execution (for example, lethal injection) and is now used quite rarely. From 1952 to 1976, it was also used in the Philippines.

Currently it can be used in six states - in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia at the choice of the convict along with a lethal injection, and in Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, only those who committed a crime before a certain date have the right to choose to use the electric chair (in Kentucky - April 1, 1998, in Tennessee - January 1, 1999). In Tennessee and Virginia, the electric chair can also be used in the event that lethal injection components are not found. In Florida, the electric chair is used at the request of the convict, within 30 days of the approval of the death sentence by the Florida Supreme Court, lethal injection is used by default. The last execution in the electric chair in Florida was in 1999. In Nebraska, the electric chair was used as the only method of execution, but on February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled it was "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the constitution. In Arkansas and Oklahoma, it can only be used in strictly specified cases, for example, if all other methods of execution are found to be unconstitutional at the time of execution.

In the state of Alabama, since 2018, the procedure for using the methods of execution has been carried out according to the following regulations:

1. Lethal injection is routinely used
2. If it is "impossible to use the injection" or if it is declared unconstitutional, an execution with the use of pure nitrogen is applied (a new type of execution should probably be applied with the help of a special mask)
3. If injections and "execution by inhalation of nitrogen" are declared unconstitutional, or if both methods of execution cannot be applied, the electric chair is used.
4. If all three methods of execution are declared unconstitutional or the impossibility of their execution, execution is used.

During 2001, 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2014-2018, this method of execution was not used once, in all other years of the XXI century - once. In Kentucky and Nebraska, the electric chair was last used in 1997, in Georgia in 1998 (further use was prohibited by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2001), in Florida in 1999, in Alabama in 2002, in Tennessee - in 2007, in South Carolina - in 2008. In recent years, the electric chair has only been used in Virginia (between 2009 and 2013, three death row prisoners were electrocuted).

The last known case of using the electric chair was recorded on January 16, 2013, when Robert Gleeson, a prisoner who killed two inmates in order to receive a death sentence, was executed in Virginia.

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Device and principle of operation

The electric chair is a chair made of dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps to firmly secure the prisoner. Hands are attached to the armrests, legs - in special clips of the chair legs. A special helmet is also attached to the chair. Electrical contacts are connected to the ankle attachment points and to the helmet. The hardware includes a step-up transformer. During the execution of the execution, an alternating current with a voltage of the order of 2700 is supplied to the contacts, the current limiting system maintains a current through the body of the convict of order 5. Current and voltage are limited so that the convicted person does not catch fire during the execution.

The chair's power management system is protected against switching on, which must be deactivated immediately before the execution by the person in charge using a special key. According to one of the versions, the chair can have one or more control switches, pressing which turns on the current. In this case, they are turned on simultaneously by different executioners, and in reality, the current turns on only one of them. This order is used so that no one, including the performers themselves, could know who actually carried out the execution (by analogy with the well-known type of execution, when a part of the shooters is given a weapon loaded with blank cartridges).

Execution procedure

The sentenced person is seated in an electric chair, his hands are attached to the armrests, and his legs are attached to the foot contacts. Before putting on the helmet, a hood is put on the suicide bomber's head, or his eyes are glued. The helmet is put on the head of the convict, on which the hair on the crown of the head is shaved before execution. A sponge impregnated with a saline solution is embedded in the helmet to ensure minimal electrical resistance to contact with the head in the helmet and, thus, hasten death and alleviate the physical suffering of the convict. The body is secured with additional straps.

After turning off the protection system, the executioner turns on the current. The voltage is turned on twice, for one minute, with a break of 10 seconds (in different designs, the number of starts and time intervals may differ). After turning off the power, the doctor must make sure that the convicted person is dead. In some US states and states, if death does not occur, the operation may continue. William Wendiver was killed only after the fifth shock.

History

The creation of the electric chair is associated with the name of Thomas Edison. In the 1880s in the United States, Edison, who organized the first DC power supply system, actively competed with new AC power systems, which was called the war of currents. Edison convinced consumers of the shortcomings of competitors' systems, promoted the danger of such systems, including making public experiments on killing animals with alternating current.

These events coincided with the discussion that began in the country on the choice of a more humane method of the death penalty (until the 80s of the XIX century, mainly hanging was used in the USA. the executioner sometimes could not foresee the nuances, and death came not from a fracture of the vertebrae, as was supposed, but from strangulation, which is more painful.

The increasing use of electricity, naturally, was accompanied by periodic accidents, as a result of which people died. In 1881 in Buffalo, New York, dentist Albert Southwick accidentally witnessed the death of an elderly drunk who touched the contacts of an electric generator. Amazed at how quickly and outwardly painlessly died, Southwick approached a friend, Senator David Macmillan, with a proposal to replace the rope with wires. He asked the New York State Legislature to consider the prospects for using electricity under the death penalty in order to avoid hanging. In 1886, a commission was formed to investigate "the most humane and commendable way of carrying out death sentences." At this stage, the famous Thomas Edison was included in the history of the electric chair, and so tenaciously that this chair, by analogy with the guillotine, could be called "Edisonin" (although the prison population of America calls it "yellow mother" or "old smokehouse"). The inventor settled in West Orange (English)Russian(New Jersey) showcase experience: Several cats and dogs were lured onto a metal plate energized by 1000 VAC. In 1888, the New York State Legislature passed legislation establishing execution by electricity as the state's method of carrying out executions.

In the second half of 1888, inventor Harold Brown and Columbia University employee Fred Peterson conducted research in Edison's laboratories on the use of electricity for the death penalty. Within a few months, more than two dozen dogs were electrocuted, according to the results of experiments, on December 12, 1888, the group submitted a report to the New York State Forensic Society, in which it recommended the electric chair as an execution weapon (other options were considered, including a tank with water and a rubber-coated table). On January 1, 1889, the Electric Execution Act entered into force in New York State.

The opponent of the electric chair was George Westinghouse, who had previously developed a system for supplying consumers with AC electricity, Edison's main competitor. After the electrocution law was enacted, Westinghouse refused to supply alternators to prisons, which forced Edison and Brown to buy the generators in a roundabout way.

William Kemmler and Joseph Chaplo (the first for the murder of his mistress, the second for the murder of a neighbor) were the first convicted to be executed in the electric chair. Shaplo was pardoned and received a life sentence. Westinghouse tried to save Kemmler, for which he hired lawyers who demanded an appeal against the verdict on the basis that execution by electric chair fell within the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, but the appeals were rejected.

In 1890, Edwin Davis, an electrician at the Auburn prison, developed the first working electric chair. On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler was the first in the world to be electrocuted at Auburn Prison. Although one of the reporters said: "He did not hurt at all!" George Westinghouse commented on the execution with the words: "They would have done better with an ax" (Kemmler killed his mistress with an ax).

In 1896, the electric chair was introduced to Ohio, in 1898 in Massachusetts, in 1906 in New Jersey, in 1908 in Virginia, and in 1910 in North Carolina. Over the next ten years, it was legalized in more than ten states and became the most popular instrument of execution in America. In just over a hundred years of use, more than 4,300 people have been executed in the electric chair.

Conceived as a means of discrediting AC power supply systems, the electric chair could not fulfill just this function. Despite its appearance, the use of alternating current has expanded. Edison was later forced to admit that he had underestimated the benefits of alternating current. In 1912 Westinghouse was awarded the Edison Medal for advances in this technology.

Outside the USA

"Owner" Alexander Komin from Vyatskiye Polyany used a homemade electric chair to kill one of his prisoners.

High-profile people who were electrocuted

• William Kemmler (, New York) is the first man in the world to be electrocuted.
• Martha Place (New York) - The first woman to be electrocuted.
• Leon Cholgosh (, New York) - assassin of President McKinley.
• Chester Gillett (New York) is an assassin who became the prototype for a fictional character in Theodore Dreiser's novel American Tragedy.
• Charles Becker (English)Russian(, New York) - New York police officer, the first police officer in the United States to be sentenced to death for murder.
• Sacco and Vanzetti (Massachusetts) - Executed on trumped-up charges, became a textbook example of politically motivated persecution.
• Giuseppe Zangara (, Florida) - attempted on the life of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and assassinated the mayor of Chicago.
• Albert Fish (New York) - serial killer known as "Moon Maniac", "Gray Ghost", "Brooklyn Vampire", "Boogie Man", "Wisteria Werewolf".
• Bruno Richard Hauptmann (English)Russian(, New Jersey) - German criminal convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
• Anna Maria Khan (, Ohio
• Herman and Paul Petrillo (Pennsylvania) are the leaders of the Philadelphia poison ring.
• Herbert Haupt, Edward John Curling, Richard Quirin, Heinrich Harm Heink, Hermann Otto Neubauer, Werner Thiel (Washington) - German agents during World War II, participants in Operation Pastorius (English)Russian.
• Louis Lepke (, New York) - famous American gangster of the 1930s, the only mafia leader in the United States who was sentenced to death.
• Lena Baker () - African American who was executed for the murder of her employer.
• Willie Francis, Louisiana is a black juvenile convict on death row and twice electrocuted (see Francis v. Resweber).
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (, New York) - American communists accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
• Rhonda Bell Martin (Alabama) is an American serial killer.
• Charles Starkweather (Nebraska) is an American serial killer known as the "drunken killer."
• James French (English)Russian(, Oklahoma) - the last prisoner executed before the adoption of the moratorium on the death penalty in the United States in