Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-01
KILLS WITHOUT PAIN.
What the Inventor of Electro
cution Has to Say.
A CURRENT MOVES so FAST
That the Man is Dead Before the
Nerves Have Time to Act
SOME CHATS WITH OTHER PEOPLE

Harold P. Brown, the New York
electrician who purchased Westinghouse
alternating machine for the State to kill
Kemmler the condemned murderer, was at
the Duquesne yesterday. Mr.. Brown is
still = young man, but the local concern
tackled fighter when they undertook to
down him, as it has discovered since. He
is the constructing engineer of the Pittsburg
and Birmingham road, and came on to see
what progress was being made with the
work. He returned to New York last even
ing.
Mr.. Brown, with the metropolitan re-
porters, has reputation for reticence, but
he talked very freely yesterday. Said he;
"They call me the e1ecutioner, but that
doesn't make any difference. am going
ahead with nv work as if nothing had hap
pened. This delay in the execution of
Kemmler, have no doubt, is the. work of
the Westinghouse people. They have
tried in various ways to have it stopped,
and so far have failed. L still claim that
the alternating system is the most deadly.
Only the other day little bootblack was
killed in New York by such a current by
coming in contact with an insulated wire,
and the insulation was not faulty either.
ABUSED FOR HIS WORK.
"I have been abused roundly by the local
people here for my connection with the
Kemmler affair. They tried to ruin my
business. had hard time of it getting a
machine. The company refused to sell one
when it knew what it was to be used for.
When the State committee came to me I
suggested that they buy one that l knew
had killed number of people by accident,
and after some maneuvering it was finally
obtained.
''Now, as to death by electricity, it is
absolutely painless 1 have experimental
with it enough to know, and had one per-
sonal experience that convinced me. When
the Chicago railway exhibition was held,
few years ago, 1 met with a painful acci-
dent. An electric shock threw me against
a revolving belt, and 1 was pretty badly
hurt, as l discovered afterward. / received
q powerful charge, and the current burned
the flesh on my hand and body. 1 was con-
scious through it all and felt no pain what
ever. In fact, ] didn't believe at first that
was injured. But for some years before
this event happened in my life, an Illinois
dentist was in the habit of administer
ing electricity instead OF ans anaesthetic
in pulling teeth. Re got the patient to hold
the handles of a common medical battery,
and while he was being gently shocked the
teeth were pulled, and he didn't know it.
The theory is that the electricity shocked
the nerves in the lower part of the body
and so occupied them that the sensation
produced by extracting the teeth did not
reach the brain at all.
DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HIT HIM.
"When a big machine is used, and a man
receives a full shock, be doesn't know what
hit him. The electricity travels so
much faster than nerve force that
the sensation of pain never gets to
the seat of consciousness. The victim
is dead before the pain begins, and
of course if there is no consciousness there
is no pain. One peculiar effect of elec-
tricity on the body is that it coagulates the
protoplasm. After a current passes through
a nerve it appears to be disintegrated and
broken up. The outer covering drops eff
come visible. This feature OF its ac-
ton L have often seen demonstrated
on the lower forms of life. If
you take an amolba, which is one
of the simplest of animals, nothing but
a mass of protoplasm without any apparent
organs, and put it into water, and pass a
current of electricity through the liquid you
can see the animal contract and draw itself
together, showing that it has this coagulating
effect that speak OF.
"Kemmler is satisfied to be killed in this
way, but then he is imbecile, almost a brute
The only objection people have to it is the
thought of being put out of existence bv
such forcible power, but If you get good
dose of electricity you won't know what
struck YOU.