The Russellville Democrat., 1889-08-15
AN AWFUL TORTURE.
some of the Horrors Of Killing Criminals
 by Electricity.


 by Electricity
 The enforcement of the death pen alfy by means Of electric currents would not only be agoaizing beyond concep- t5on, but would also be barbarous in the extreme.H This is the deliberate opinion of Myron Law. superintendent of the electrical department of the Brush Electric Company Of this city.
 Mir Law proceeded to give some in- teresting facts 10 demonstrate the truth of the conclusion at which he had ar rived. Any person. said he. .'who is thoroughly acquainted with an elee- tric current could not possibly have any other idea than this. Il is absurd 10 claim that execution by electricity is less painful than hanging. that it would ba instantaneous in its effects. or that il would do away with any re- pugnanf feature Of our public execu- tions-
 'In the first place death by cleo triciiy is not painless Hanging, throat-cutting. the guillotine. shoot ing. burning to death in molten lead or in furnaces are painless execution $ when compared with that by elee- tricity. Let ne cite a few instances Of the pain felt by those who have re- ceired severe electric shocks. Six weeks ago one Of my men, named John Smith. cut an electric wire which he thought 10 be dead This was on Eighth street between Sansom aud Walnut Standing on the ladder. with one hand he grasped the ruptured wire, which fed forty-eight lamps and had a current of 2.909 volts passing through it With the other hand he held by means Of plyers the other end of inc wire Immediately he made the most heartreBdlng screams for help. His hands were riveted fast and his whole body was undergoing most ter rible eontortions
 '.The electric current Of 900 volts strength was passing through his body and pinned him to the spot We threw a rope over his hands and lerked him from his perilous position. Both Of his hands were burned terribly. and his whole system was shattered. When he had sufficiently recovered a few days later 10 be able to talk intel ligently he said that his su1Terings were terrible beyond description
 Another man in our employ once received the full force of a current of several hundred volts. h removing his hands from the wire one ot his fingers dropped of. having been burn ed almost to a crisp by the current During the accident his face showed in 8 frightful manner intense pain, and his body was in a constant tremor.
 "~)f course, electricity can instau- tsneouslv kin 6 person, but in that in dnitesimally small space Of time of the transition from life 10 death the person will suffer iuconceivabIe pain Although the speed of electricity is at the rate of 2o6, O09 miles per second. the killing can aof be so instauiane- oas as 10 preclude all pain. Every particle of the nervous tissue is pol .~ized. and polarization causes each particle Of matter % revDlve on its axis, which means tLe stretching of the nerves out of all proportion, and consequently the most intense pain. But the great fault with execution by electricity is that it is almost impossi- be 10 ascertain just how strong a cur rent win kill a man simultaneously and ye, not be a bGrharous mode of killing. II the current be but a few volts stronger than that required to iH- slautiy execute a certain person the conseq queucas rould be terrible Tt would dlsfTure the body beyond rec oenition, and would disintegrate every portion of the corpse
 Should the current be just a triae too weak to execute a person it wonld throw him into 8 trance so dcath-like thai lt is probable fhat the body would be buried alive. So. in order to reduce this new mode of execution to a prac- tical scientific working, the amount of in eneh body would have 10 be previously tested baf1re any sp- proximate idea could be reached as Co how strong g current woald surely Kill without dishguring or disintegrating the body, CT throwing the subject into @ trance. Bu even iI this dssiderafum is found there might be some hitch CT light tault in 3he electrical apparatus which would spoil every thing Phil adelphia Record