The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-06-08
ABSOLUTELY PAINLESS DEATH.
What Expert Brown Says of His System of
Electrocution.

Electrocution.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Harold ?. Brown, the New York electrician
who purchased a Westinghouse alternating ma
chine for the State to kill Kemmler, the con
demned murderer, was in town yesterday and
said to a reporter
'Now, as to death by electricity, il is abso-
lutely painless. | have experimental with it
enough to know, and had one personal expert
ence that convinced me. When the Chicago
railway exhibition was held n few years ago l
met with painful accident. An electric shock
threw me against revolving belt, and | was
pretty badly hurt, as l discovered afterward.
| received powerful charge and the current
burned the flesh on my hand and body. was
conscious through it all and felt no pain what
ever In fact, | didn't believe at first that
l was injured. But for some years before this
event happened in my life an Illinois dentist
was in the habit of administering electricity in
stead of an anasthetic in pulling teeth. He 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 extrcating the teeth did not reach
the brain at all.
''When big machine is used, and a man re-
ctlNeS Il Iull SHOCK, ue uOeSU'I KNOW Wllab nlU
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 electricity on the
body is that ii coagulates the protoplasm.
After current passes through a nerve it APP
pears to be disintegrated and broken up The
outer covering drops oil like sheath, and the
parts of the nerve become visible. This feature
of its action 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 il into water, and pass current
of electricity through the liquid you can see the
animal contract and draw itself together, show
ing 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 by such forcible
power but if you get a good dose of electricity
you won't know what struck you"
A Paste that Will Adhere to Anything.
From the jewelers. Weekly.
Professor Alex. Winchell is credited with the
invention of cement that will stick to any
thing, Take two ounces of clear gum arabic,
one and half ounce of fine starch, and one-half
ounce of white sugar. Pulverze the gum arabic
and dissolve it in as much water as the laun-
dress would use for the quantity of starch indi-
Gated. Dissolve the starch and sugar in the
gum solution. Then cook the mixture in a yes
sci suspended in boiling water until the starch
becomes clear. The cement should be as thick
as tar, and should be kept so. 1t can be kept
from spelling by dropping in lump of gum
cumphor, or little oil of cloves on sassafras.
This cement is very strong indeed and will stick
perfectly to glazed surfaces, and is good to re-
pair broken rocks, minerals, or fossils The adj
dition of a small amount of sulphate of alumi-
mum will increase the effectiveness of the paste,
besides helping to prevent decomposition.