Evening journal., 1889-07-24
MENLO'S WIZARD TALKS.
He Proves a Bad Witness For
Murderer Kemmler.
ELECTRICITY WILL KILL sURE

And. Furthermore. 1t WIN KIN Fustnntly
and without Pain--The Great EIectri-
CLANS Testimony Before Referee Baker
How Men Could BE Mummiaed.
NEW YoRK, July 24--The announcement
that Thomas A. Edison, the wizard Of Menlo
park, was 20 be the principal witness in what
is known as the Kemmler electrical execu-
ton case, had the effect Of attracting crowd
which filled Burke Cockran's Office In the
Equitable building 10 eifewing. With a
cheerful air, and apparently undaunted by
the sultry weather and the siege of question
ing which lay before the greatest electrical
ingenuity Of the age, he stepped forth and
camly settled himself into the ample chair
provided for witnesses In answer to the
usua, questions MIR. K iison stated that he was
an inventor, and had for thirty-siz years
studied eectricity A continuous current
was one that flowed like water through q
pipe; an alternating current was AZ i the
water running through the pipe we're sud
denly stopped and made to fow back again.
Ed.son's Practical Tests.
"What do you know about tine resistance
Of human oeingsln was asked Nj Edison.
81 have bsen present at my laboratory
when experiments have been made. Only
few days ago | experimental on over 20
men, and measured them with the Wheat
stone bridge The average resistance Wal
l,OOO ohins; the highest l,sU0 and the loves
go. The resistance Of the oody depends on
the perfect contact. My assistant has ex
| perimented with imperfect contacts, and h
found the resistances TO vary from 200JO t.
100000 onms.
lie says Electricity WIN kin.
Burning is due to bad contact and thu
| high electric pressure at the point of con
tact, and in case OF bad contact but little o
the current passes through the body tina
comes in contact. In my opinion "a curren
can De applied 10 the human body tnat shal
| In every case cause instantaneous and pain
less death. l would put the hands Of III
criminal IN a soiution OF potash and 90
volts would kill in every case, but woul
use an alternating current or very muc
| interrupted continuous one. In some e1
| pernnents made the men could hardly fee
eight TO ten volts OF a continuous current
| but could not stand more than three volts Q
the alternating The alternating curren
has "A tremendous effect ON the nerves.
Experiments with n troR.
"Some time ago Iiexperimented with a ga
vanoscopic frog-that is the hind legs OF
frog, prepared so as to expose the sclati
nerve--and l found that with currer
100000 Of an ampere got from one thir
TO one half an ounce OF work, raising 1t neal
ly one inch, showing the great effect tn
sight current had on the muscle or nerv'
The energy Of a current is measured by Il
work performed.n
1000 Volts wonid AHummify Man.
"In your opinion,n asked Mr.. Post, ''can
current be applied 10 the human being thu
can In every case cause instantaneous an
painless deathf
II believe SO, Eeplied Mr.. Edison. II
not know how high a voltage would be r
quired, but / should say 1000 volts would
certain TO XIII. and i would sooner use OF
dynamo than combine two. II man WI
under the influence Of current Of 1,0I
volts for twenty minutes he would certainl
be nummified; that is all the water IN
body would be evaporatedn