WEBVTT - The Birth of the Electric Chair 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:14.400 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.479 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:23.400 our Heart Radio and I love all things tech. Once again, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.160 I have to to couch my loving of all things 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.520 tech because today's topic is a dark one that I 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.400 do not love. It's the electric chair, the method of 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.680 execution that has a history dating back more than a century. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:43.480 This is a particularly grim and grizzly topic and there 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:47.400 will be some discussion of pretty gruesome stuff in this episode, 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.560 So if you are sensitive to such things, I gently 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.680 suggest you stop listening now. I think this is an 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.080 important topic, but I also love you guys, and I 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.520 never want you to regret listening to one of my episodes. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.360 And I completely understand it if this really turns you 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.600 off and you think I can't listen to it. But 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:10.880 if you're fascinated by it and you want to learn 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.200 more about the history of the electric chair and how 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:17.479 it came to be, which has more to do with 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:22.720 politics and social morays than it does with technology, keep listening. 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.880 And before I dive into the history and talk about 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.120 the development of the electric chair and what goes on 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.800 with it. I wanted to address my own bias on 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:37.440 this matter because I'm very much against the death penalty. 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.360 I do not believe executions are effective as a deterrent 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.199 in a best case scenario. In my view, each execution 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.400 removes just one person from the possibility of ever doing 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.480 direct harm to someone else. That's the best case scenario, 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:58.680 and there are a lot of bad scenarios. Executions in 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:04.320 an electric chair or otherwise. They're expensive procedures, largely because 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.040 of the legal processes that typically exist to make sure 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:13.920 the execution is in fact approved and is the appropriate measure. 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.040 And most importantly for me, there remains the possibility that 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.359 the state could put someone to death who is innocent 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.400 of any crimes it has happened before. Our desire for 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:30.280 justice sometimes feeds bad decisions in which we need to 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.680 have someone to pend the blame on, even if that 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.360 someone isn't absolutely certain to be the one at fault. 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.959 And that means even if you view capital punishment as 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.360 being a just punishment, you could still end up with 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.280 a case of state sponsored murder of an innocent person. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:53.240 And because of those reasons, I'm anti death penalty. However, 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.240 I will do my best to cover this topic without 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.480 too much personal commentary for them that bias. I just 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.400 wanted to put it on the table right up front 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:08.119 and be transparent about it. All right, let's get started. 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:13.440 Although the word electrocution came into use specifically for the 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.840 description of being put to death via the electric chair, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.080 since that time, we've used it to describe any death 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.919 due to being exposed to an electric shock, and there 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.760 were plenty of cases of injury and death from electricity 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.040 before anyone thought of the electric chair. For one thing, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.800 lightning has been around longer than people have, so it 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:37.840 stands to reason that there have been deaths in the 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.800 past due to lightning strikes, either directly or indirectly, but 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.400 we're not going to focus on those. That really isn't 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.320 the realm of tech stuff. Now. While there was a 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:53.320 lot of experimentation with electricity in the nineteenth century, it 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.360 wasn't until the late eighteen seventies that we get what 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:01.240 might be the earliest electrocution due to an accidental exposure 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.960 to electricity. Now, this is likely in part because much 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.880 of the early work with electricity for many decades was 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:14.480 with electrostatic generators. Now, these can discharge very high voltage sparks, 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.640 but they tend to be of a low amperage, and 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:23.440 without it being a high voltage and uh sufficient average, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.320 you're not going to cause death or serious injury to somebody. Now, 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.480 if you listen to my previous episode about the basics 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.120 of electricity, you will remember that while both voltage and 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.560 amperage are important, most folks will say it's the amps 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.400 that will get you. But I have a bit more 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.320 to say about this. In a second, voltage is similar 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.599 to water pressure, right, It's how hard the electricity is 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.440 being pushed through a circuit, whereas amperage or current is 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.560 similar to the amount of water flowing past a specific 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.919 point within a given amount of time. It's the amount 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:02.760 of charge going through. It doesn't take much current to 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.760 pose a danger to humans. You can feel a shock 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.599 of current of just ten milli amps, So a milla 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.800 amp is one of an amp. So if you were 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.120 to grab a wire with a current between ten and 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.839 twenty mill amps running through it, of alternating current in particular, 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.960 you'd find yourself unable to let go as your muscles 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.760 seized up around that wire. The current would need to 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.880 be broken for you to regain control. If you encountered 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.440 between one hundred and two hundred milli amps, you're in 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:39.800 the fatal zone. At that amperage, the electric current causes 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.000 the heart to go into ventricular fibrillation, meaning the heart 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:49.599 begins to spasm irregularly. You get a rapid, irregular heartbeat. 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.760 Above two hundred million amps, you actually have a better 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:57.480 chance of survival, though you could suffer some pretty nasty injuries, 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:02.400 including burns and possibly image to internal organs. Why would 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.200 you survive at a higher current then? Why is one 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:10.480 to two hundred the deadly zone. Well above two hundred milliamps, 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.039 your heart tends to seize up, just as your hand 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.440 would have seized up around a wire with twenty amps 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.599 running through it. Miller apps, I should say apps would 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.040 be way too much, But Miller amps your hand would 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.640 just seize up around it. Your heart would do the 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.720 same and around above two hundred milli amps. Uh. This 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.080 means that you would not go into ventricular fibrillation. Your 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:35.920 heart would just stop. So if someone were to cut 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:37.960 off the current that was running through you and then 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:42.839 a minister resuscitation, you could recover, assuming you hadn't experienced 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:47.080 significant damage to other organs like your small intestine or 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.840 more uncommon, but it is possible something like your liver. 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.640 So does that mean voltage is not important at all? Well, no, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.560 that's not true either. You also remember from that previous 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.960 episode that I talked about the concepts conductivity and resistance. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.400 This describes the ease or the difficulty if you if 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.000 you prefer at which current can pass through a given substance. 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:18.840 So something that has got a high conductivity facilitates the 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:24.040 movement of electricity through that substance, something with high resistance doesn't. So, 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.880 assuming your skin is dry, your body's electrical resistance is 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.440 relatively high, which means there needs to be a sufficient 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.840 amount of voltage. You need to have a sufficient amount 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.080 of pressure to get the current to run through the 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:41.760 human body. Higher voltages have that pressure. So it's really 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.320 the combination of the proper voltage and current that leads 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:50.080 to a case of electrocution. Okay, so back to historical accounts. 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.320 One of the earliest types of electrical lights used ever 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.760 in the history of humans was the arc lamp. Now, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.000 these preceded the incandescent bulbs that were made famous by, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:08.280 but not invented by Thomas Edison's labs. In fact, they 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.040 preceded it by decades. They were first developed in the 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.400 early eighteen hundreds. However, it wasn't until the eighteen seventies 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.520 and the evolution of direct current dynamos that these arc 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:24.000 lamps became a practical technology for widespread use. The arc 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.080 lamp worked on a different principle from incandescent lamps. Actually, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:32.160 I should just say works, because there are still arc 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.880 lamps in use today for very specific applications. So incandescent 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.400 bulbs work by running a current through a very thin 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.160 wire and the thin wire heats up and it gives 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.920 off light. It literally it incandescence. The arc lamp generates 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.320 light in a different way. It creates a sustained spark 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.640 or arc between two carbon rods that are spaced apart 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.840 at a particular distance. Other materials besides carbon can be used, 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.640 but the early arc lamps were carbon arc lamps. The 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.040 gap between the rods is important. If the gap is 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.719 too wide, then the spark or the arc won't be 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.760 able to sustain itself. It would fire off and starts 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.679 and stops, so you would get a flickering light and 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.199 sort of a sputtering noise that would come along with it. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.560 If the rods are too close to each other, then 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.160 you would get a sustained spark, but you would get 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.280 a limited amount of light. You want to maximize the 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.840 light you get while minimizing the chance of the lamps sputtering. 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.559 So what's actually going on with these arc lamps. Well, 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.400 it gets a bit technical, and I don't want to 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.400 take too much time away from the actual focus of 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.120 this episode, but I'll give a very quick overview. The 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.959 rods act as electrodes and a voltage is applied between them. Now, 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.360 remember a voltage is a difference in electric potential between 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.960 two points. These two rods are then brought into contact 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.000 with one another. Typically they're inside a lamp bulb structure 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.520 that actually has air in it, so it's not a 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.800 vacuum bulb like an incandescent bulb would be, and this 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.200 causes current to flow between the two rods. Some of 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:18.400 the carbon atoms in the rods ionize, they become charged particles, 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.080 and some of these ionized carbon atoms vaporize off of 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.480 the tips of the rods. So you get this ionized 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.800 carbon vapor between the two rods and the vapor can 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.679 conduct electricity very much like a wire would, So an 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.400 electric current can flow from one electrode to another through 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.640 the air due to this carbon vapor, and you get 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.040 a very bright light as a result. In fact, it 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.560 was so bright that the lamps became popular for very 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.600 specific applications such as lighting up streets at night, rather 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.400 than using gas lamps. They were also used in theatrical 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.800 lighting for stages, and this leads us to the first 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.840 recorded case of a electrocution that I could discover. The 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.959 account is in a report titled Injury Mechanisms and Therapeutic 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.240 Advances in the Study of Electrical Shock that was written 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.080 by two members of the faculty at the University of Chicago. 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.160 In their report, they mentioned that the earliest recorded case 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:22.360 of artificial electrocution as opposed to electrocution by lightning, happened 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.480 in eighteen seventy nine. A carpenter working at a theater 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.200 touched a wire connected to a two hundred fifty voult generator, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:35.360 producing alternating current. Now, considering that work in electricity had 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:39.240 been going on for decades before that tragedy, I suspect 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.520 there may have been other cases, but this is the 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.959 earliest documented one that I could find. Arc lighting began 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.960 to replace gas lamps in many cities. It provided brighter light, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.199 and it was also less expensive to operate than gas lamps, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.360 which also depended upon stuff like oil from whales, and 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.679 that whales were being hunted to near extinction. So the 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:06.400 switch to electricity, pun intended, would mean whale hunting began 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.960 to decline and while populations began to recover. But it 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.760 also paved the way for more accidents with humans, of 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.640 which there were more than a few. The people who 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:22.120 died from electrocution appeared to do so nearly instantaneously, and 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.520 frequently they had no external signs of damage. And this 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.000 brings us up to eighteen eighty one in Buffalo, New 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.760 York and a man named Alfred P. Southwick d D 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.280 s yep. The story of the electric chair hinges upon 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.559 a dentist. And I could make a lot of jokes 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.760 about dentists here, including referencing the film and stage play 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.080 of Little Shop of Horrors, but those are easy jokes, 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.320 so I'll just acknowledge it and move on. Southwick witnessed 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.760 an accident in eighty one that led him to consider 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.080 the possibility of electrocution as a means to carry out 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.440 capital punish ment. He witnessed a man who was deep 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.040 in his cups that means he was drunk, and that 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:10.400 man touched a live generator terminal. He suffered a fatal 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.280 shock as a result. Now, Southwick's perception was that the 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.320 death was swift and apparently painless. Now, at the time, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.960 the typical method of carrying out capital punishment in the 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:27.400 United States was hanging. The nineteenth century had seen some 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.760 pretty dramatic changes in the US when it came to 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.560 capital punishment until the middle of the nineteenth century, so 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:39.520 the eighteen forties and fifties, public hangings were common, and 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.360 there was a long list of crimes for which capital 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.360 punishment could be brought to bear, and in many cases 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.840 it was a mandatory sentence. Now, these were holdovers from 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.000 the sixteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds, but there was a 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.680 growing concern about the ethics of the death penalty and 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.160 the effects it could have on a crowd. There had 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.120 actually been pets at a few of these public hangings, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.160 and that meant that many states had either moved to 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.720 private hangings out of the public view, or they were 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:14.160 abolishing the death penalty outright. Another perspective was that such 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.120 widespread application of the death penalty was acting as a 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.160 deterrent for juries to deliver a guilty verdict on a suspect. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.080 Juries were aware that if they gave a guilty verdict, 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.320 the sentence would lead to an execution. Therefore, many people 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.200 on a jury were reluctant to deliver a guilty verdict. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.640 They didn't want to be responsible for the death of 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.440 another person. So there were some people who wanted to 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.640 abolish the death penalty, not because they thought it was 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.960 inhumane or it was wrong, but because they felt that 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.280 guilty people were being set free because Juries were too 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.480 squeamish to condemn someone to death. So they said, well, 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.160 we should get rid of the death penalty so we 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.280 can lock these people up, because right now the options 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.320 are a mandatory death sentence or are letting them go free. 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.760 And then there was the curious case of John Babbacomb Lee, 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.360 a man accused of having murdered a woman by the 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:14.280 name of Emma Keys. Now, despite Lee's proclamations of innocence 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.880 and a lack of really compelling evidence, there was a 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.920 lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing that directly tied lead 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.600 to the murder. Lee was actually convicted of the crime 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.840 and he was sentenced to hang. But things did not 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.240 work out quite as planned. When it came time to 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:36.000 drop the trap door out from underneath Lee's feet, the 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:41.240 door remained in place and Lee did not budge. The executioner, 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.160 James Berry, reset the scaffold and attempted to hang Lee 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:51.160 three times. All three times the mechanism failed. The experience 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.800 must have been a pretty dramatic one. Lee's sentence was 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.720 then commuted to life imprisonment. He would eventually be released later. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.040 It appeared as though the scaffold had a misaligned bar 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.040 that was blocking the trap door, and then this probably 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.520 happened when it had been relocated from a different spot 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:14.160 not long before the scheduled execution. I can only imagine 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.520 what Lee must have gone through to believe, not once, 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.400 but three times his life was about to end, only 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.400 for nothing to happen. The psychological toll was another cruelty 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.320 cited by critics. Now, it doesn't take much imagination to 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:34.240 summon up how barbaric a hanging can be, particularly public hangings. 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.120 In some cases, the hanged would live for up to 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.920 half an hour before dying of asphyxiation. In other cases, 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.840 if the drop were long enough, the force of the 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.760 sudden stop coupled with the noose tightening could reportedly result 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:53.920 in a decapitation. Southwick apparently believed in the death penalty, 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.640 but also felt a more humane approach to ending a 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.000 life was called for, and he was not alone in 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:04.040 this belief. There were countless doctors, politicians, intellectuals, and others 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.920 who shared his beliefs. He thought electrocution could be that approach. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.240 He consulted with a friend of his, doctor George E. Fell, 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.680 and they began to look into the possibility of advocating 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:21.240 for electrocution over hanging Southwick published his argument in eighteen 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.679 eighty three and began to write articles about electrocution, and 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.359 they came to the attention of the Governor of New York, 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.119 David Bennett Hill, who had taken over for an outgoing 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.280 Grover Cleveland, who had recently been elected President of the 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.399 United States. One of Hill's acquaintances was Daniel H. Macmillan, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.280 a friend to Southwick and a New York senator. Macmillan 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:47.679 championed the death penalty, but the growing resistance from abolitionists 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.680 who wanted to outlaw hanging posed a challenge. Macmillan saw 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.400 Southwick's proposal as a possible way to sidestep that challenge. 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.320 If the abolitionists were arguing that hanging was in humane, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.160 if it was cruel and violent, well how about a clean, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:07.959 painless method of putting someone to death. Macmillan saw electrocution 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.760 as a possible way to preserve the death penalty and 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:15.840 overstep these objections. When we come back, I'll continue the 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.840 journey to the creation of Old Sparky, but first let's 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:32.320 take a quick break. So Southwick's work inspired a New 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.560 York senator named McMillan to advocate for electrocution as an 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.919 alternative to hanging, thus preserving the death penalty in the 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.800 state of New York. David Bennett Hill, the Governor of 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:45.720 New York, listen to McMillan's arguments, using Southwick's published works 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.000 as citations, and he became convinced that it was a 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.040 suitable alternative to hanging. In fact, he even made it 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.359 part of his eight State of the State speech, stating 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.440 the present mode of executing criminals by hanging hiss down 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.880 to us from the dark ages and it may well 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.359 be questioned whether the science of the present day cannot 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.960 provide a means for taking the life of such as 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.800 are condemned to die in a less barbarous manner. I 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:17.040 commend this suggestion to the consideration of the legislature. He 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.879 did not specifically bring up electrocution, but the implication was 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.320 pretty clear. Now this plays into a common belief in 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:28.040 the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution and the rise of 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:32.720 electricity brought with it an expectation that technological advancements were 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:37.440 going to improve absolutely everything about our lives. Technology would 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.000 provide a superior way to do all the tasks that 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.200 previously had to be done through manual labor. So if 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:49.480 technology could revolutionize manufacturing, why not executions. Macmillan and Hill 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.439 were unable to push legislation through in eive to support 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.120 electrocution as a new means to carry out death sentences. Instead, 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.200 in eighteen eighty six, Macmillan introduce a resolution to form 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.959 a committee that would explore alternatives to hanging, with the 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.120 goal of finding the most humane method to carry out 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.040 a death sentence. Macmillan named Southwick one of the members 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.680 of this committee, Knowing that Southwick was a fervent supporter 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:20.719 of electrocution. The other two members, Matthew Hale and Elbridge T. Jerry, 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.679 were from wealthy families, so is Southwick for that matter, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.680 and they had no firm stance on the matter. Southwick 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.640 was relied upon as the voice of science and medicine, 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.400 though he was a dentist and only an amateur electrician. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.760 The fact the commission didn't include a medical doctor or 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.800 an experienced electrician would mean that defending their stance would 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.480 become difficult. It also indirectly led to some of the 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:49.560 more horrific displays of electricity. Now this brings our story 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.280 in line with something else that was unfolding around the 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:56.200 same time, the so called War of the Currents. There 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.960 were two camps headed by two generals. On one side, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.480 you had Thomas Edison, heralded as a genius inventor and businessman, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.320 who advocated for direct current, which is the type of 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.840 current supplied by stuff like batteries. On the other side, 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.480 you had George Westinghouse, who was banking on alternating current, 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.639 saying it provided a much better means to distribute electricity 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:23.240 across longer distances. Now, I didn't include Nicola Tesla in 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.640 this description because he was more like a lieutenant serving 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.719 under Westinghouse, though he had originally worked as an employee 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:35.160 over at one of Edison's companies before getting seriously shafted 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.520 by Thomas Edison. The development of the electric chair and 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.760 the War of the Currents are linked together, and both 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:45.520 events were dependent upon leveraging public perceptions and making use 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.600 of propaganda in an effort to win people over to 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:53.000 a certain point of view. So this commission, which later 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.840 some would refer to as the Charming Electrical Death Commission, 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:02.240 produced an enormous report about the various means of execution 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.840 that people had been using since Biblical times. It included 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.800 not just methods like hanging and beheading, which was still 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.680 a practice in France, but also being stoned to death, 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:19.000 pressed by weights, burned alive at the stake, crucifixion, drawing 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:24.359 and quartering, and more. The grizzly encyclopedia of ways humans 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.919 have ended the lives of those condemned took up about 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:32.720 half of the report's pages. The point was clear execution 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:37.160 in its primitive forms was nearly always brutal and inhumane. 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.080 Another section of the report was largely dedicated to the 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:44.360 results of a survey the Commission sent out to various 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:52.080 authorities and doctors, so lawyers, judges, police officials, et cetera. 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:56.919 The survey just had five questions. The third question asked 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:00.120 if there might be a more humane alternative to hanging 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.440 and what that might be. The fourth question proposed four 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.840 alternatives and asked for the views of those taking the 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:10.160 survey on each of those alternatives. The four, in order 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:16.479 were electricity, poison, the guillotine, and the garote. The survey 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.400 excluded any suggestion that capital punshment should be abolished out right, 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.400 a telling omission, because that was certainly something that could 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.160 have been on the table, but was left out on purpose. 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:30.600 Now I say that a large part of the report 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:32.879 was dedicated to the results of this survey, but it 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.679 was more like it was dedicated to cherry picked results 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:40.800 from the survey. The full results showed that only a 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:45.520 small number of those questioned preferred electricity to hanging for 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:52.600 supported electricity and then said hanging is just fine. Seeing 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:55.640 as how the Commission was being guided by an advocate 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:59.240 for electrocution, it should come as no surprise that those 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.800 results were not laid out in full. Instead, the report 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:07.840 included choice quotes and tidbits from the survey. Some of 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:12.520 those responding to the survey voice concerns that electrocution might 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:16.480 cause harm to those carrying out the execution, a challenge 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:19.679 that was not easily dismissed by the committee because there 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:22.880 was just a lack of practical applications that they could 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:27.560 point to to test that idea. So now let's switch circuits, 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:31.400 so to speak to the War of the currents. Edison 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.520 and Westinghouse were fiercely battling over the which standard, whether 0:24:35.560 --> 0:24:39.000 it was direct or alternating current, would become the accepted 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:43.600 methodology for distributing power throughout the United States. Electric lights 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:48.080 could run on either. Early appliances mostly ran on direct current, 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:50.600 and direct current was pretty simple when you got down 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.480 to it. But the big issue with direct current is 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:57.520 that it would require very thick copper cables and a 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:00.639 lot of voltage to push beyond a certain stans, and 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:03.600 you quickly lost efficiency when you were trying to transmit 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:07.480 power over distance. So it wasn't a huge issue if 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:10.119 you located the power plant near the places where you 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:13.879 were delivering electricity, also known as the load. So if 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.320 the load was close to the power plant no problem. 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:19.240 Direct currents fine, but it got more problematic when you 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:23.040 wanted to send electricity to more remote locations. So it 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:25.800 was the kind of thing that could work in dense 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:28.920 populations if people didn't mind power plants right next door, 0:25:29.320 --> 0:25:32.119 but it would be harder to pull off outside of 0:25:32.160 --> 0:25:36.679 those dense environments. Alternating current could take advantage of stuff 0:25:36.720 --> 0:25:40.080 like transformers to step up or step down the voltage 0:25:40.119 --> 0:25:44.520 direct current can't. That meant that it could use those 0:25:44.560 --> 0:25:48.320 transformers to help distribute electricity over much greater distances from 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:51.639 the point of production. So Westinghouse was arguing that a 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:54.280