The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-07-01
ELECTRIC DEATH.
The New Method of Killing
Criminals at Fault.
NO EXPERT EXECUTIONERS.
Many Ways In Which Wary Accom-
plices Can Help the noomed
Man.

The unmixed Joy with which philan-
thropists and other more or less rationa
persons have hailed the law ordaining
that in future condemned criminals
shall be killed by electricity instead oil
by hanging seems to many electricians
to be somewhat senseless if not, indeed
very idiotic.
Champions of the new law claim that
by it the sufferings of the doomed men
are minimized. Electricians conoede
that the law may have this effect, but
they refuse to admit that it must nee
essarily have this effect. Scientists as
they are, they refuse to give play to
their Imagination and insist that no
authoritative verdict can be passed IN
til the law has been fairly tried. Ex-
cellent as it is in theory, it may in their
opinion prove less satisfactory when it
is put in practice.
EXPERT EXECUTIoNERS NECESSARY.
Their attitude in the matter is easily
explained, it is that of agnostics. The
wilful infiction on a human being of
death by electricity is an experiment
which they have never tried and of
which science possesses no record.
Hence their unWillingness to eulogiZe
the new law,
ALL of them admit that under certain
conditions death can be most effectively
dealt by electricity. Given a perfect
| death-1ealiDg instrument and an ex-
pert executioner and they will willingly
grant that the toughest criminal under
the sun can be deprived of life in the
twinkling of an eye. But they say that
they have no proof of the existence of
such perfect instruments or of the in
tention of the State to employ such ex-
ecutioners, and consequently they de-
cline at present to give the new law
their unqualified sanction.
HINTS FOR THE AUTHORITIES.
Among those who have given good
deal OF time to the study of this sub
ject is Mr.. E. P. Thompson, a promi-
nent electrician at No. 5 Beekman
Street, and Herald reporter learned
several facts from him yesterday which
will be of interest not only to the
general public, but also to those who
have condemned criminals in their
charge, and whose duty it is to see that
they be removed from among the
living in as painless and expeditions a
manner as possible.
I'VE must have perfect executioners
and a perfect dey ice for execution by
electricity" said Mr.. Thompson,
"otherwise serious accidents may occur
at any moment. At first sight it may
appear that such devices are unneces.
sary and would only prove profitable to
their inventor, but this is an Illusion,
as will be admitted by all who know
how difficult it has always been to
invent suitable devices for making an
electric contact between two points.
Contact between metallic conductors is
rendered very difficult by reason of
rust, dust oil and other insulating
substances, and, in addition to
these, dryness of the skin renders
contact with the human body
difficult. That such dryness of the
skin or some equivalent difficulty does
exist is proved by the fact that some
persons who have touched wires have
escaped uninjured, while others, who
have touched the same wires under
seemingly similar circumstances, have
been killed instantaneously. Again it is
well known that perspiring and nerv-
Gus person, when in contact with a
medical electrical appliance, expert
ences a more peculiar feeling than does
person of peaceable temperament,
the medical device, thereby generating
avonfIu tho Honon 10
clear that the success of any device for
execution by electricity depends upon
the nature of the contact between the
human body and the terminals of the
electrical machine.
HOW TO AVOID BUNGLING.
ITO seat condemned criminal in
chair and kill him by electricity is not
such an easy task as is imagined. Den
lists chairs were ordinary chairs at
first, but now their construction invoi-
yes scores of patents. In like manner
medical electric chairs, whereby electric |
currents are conveyed to patients, are
protected by scores of patents. I my
self, though | know something about |
electricity, would not undertake to kill |
man by this new method unless had |
prepared myself thoroughly for the |
work. 1 would be afraid of killing my
self accidentally. The current, you see,
must be passed through the criminals |
body with absolutely certainty, and
care must be taken that his head and |
feet are moistened and that the metallic |
terminals are properly arranged. The |
chair, too, might be provided with
clasps, which prevent him from moving |
his hands and feet. AS for the electric |
force, it could be supplied from the