Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-06-19
As THE day draws near when Kemmler

As THE day draws near when Kemmler
is to be executed in New York by the use
of the alternating electrical current, the
interest in the experiment increases. The
electrical construction and light companies
are very bitterly opposed to the use of
electricity in executions, fearing that it
will tend to render electrical apparatus
unpopular In commercial and domestic
circles These companies are therefore
very actively engaged in endeayoring
to show that death is not an inevitable
result from assault by an alternating cur
rent They contend that a shock sutfi-
cient to make death a certainty, is revolt
ing in its results, because distorting, and
must cause intense pain. They have en-
ing to take a fee and their view of the
matter, and it is likely therefore that in
the next Legislature of New York we shall
have the fight all over again on the ques-
ti"n of executions by hanging or by elec-
tricity. One witness for the electric light
people, and whom they keep under con-
slant surveillance that he may not escape
them, is W. j. Bell, telegraph lineman.
While climbing telegraph pole to re-
pair broken line last year, he carried in
his hand the severed telegraph wire, which
reached to the pavement. As he assembled
he accidentally came into contact with an
electric light wire; the current was "on,"
and as the wire Bell bore in his hand con-
nected him with the ground, the current
on the electric light line took the shortest
direction and passed through Bells body,
on its way to the earth. 1t was of the
same strength and character as that
adopted in New York. Bell sustained the
shock for twenty seconds, when he fell to
the ground The wire he held in his
hand burned the flesh to the bone, and he
was rendered insensible for time. Then
he arose and ran several blocks and fell
again into insensibility. For months he
was partially paralyzed and suffered from
nervous disorders in variety. He is still
an invalid, and is likely to remain one for
life. One important fact is that while he
suffered the shock he experienced no pain
at all, only sense of fullnes and an
icy chill for an instant. But while
1t is true that the shock did
not kill Bell, it is also true that in the
same season two men were killed under not
dissimilar circumstances and by lesser shocks
of an alternating current. If Bells case
proves anything, therefore, it proves only
uncertainty as to death following such
shock as he received under similar con-
ditions. But the shock that is intended
to kill Kemmler viii be continued much
longer than twenty seconds. 1t will not
be passage Of the current through his
body and to the ground, but through his
brain and the chief of the nerve centers
and back to the dynamo The prisoner
will sit in an insulated chair, and the ex-
posure TO the current Will be the very best
and most effective known to electrical
science; whereas in the case of Bell the
connection was not perfect, and it is doubt
ful if the whole current went through
him. Experiments have been made by
the New York authorities upon animals
possessing greater vitality than man, and
they have been instantly and painlessly
killed by the alternating current in every
instance when of less force than that to be
used IN the case of Kemmler. The fears
Of the electrical companies are groundless.
People will no more refuse to use electricity
because under certain conditions it kills
than they refuse to use rope because it is
the instrument of death in hanging. If the
new method renders them more cautious
in the use of the currents, then electrical
application in executions will have good
effect. If, however, electricity fails as a
certain and reliable means of execution,
then some other must be devised as a sub
stitute for hanging, which is in every way
Objectionable, relic of ignorance, and it
self by no means certain, while it is often
made horrible by mismanagement and the
suffering that results to the victim.