The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-08
THU ELECTRIC CHAIR.
Continued from Page ~

would sit in that chair. A displacement
of wires, or of the harness, caused by the
struggle, might occur. The watchers
anxiously looked up at the pole on the
root to see the red flag announce to them
the death of Jugiro. TWAS long in COM
ing. The fact savored of struggle. 1t
was all over presently. The law had been
carried out to the letter, and the red flag
went up. The Jap died at 6 o'clock and
minutes. The entire time consumed in
executing the four men was an hour and
twenty-three and half minutes.
The mistakes of the electrical experts
which made the execution of Kemmler in
part failure were carefully avoided today.
The cause of accidents and delays at Au-
burn were known to the warden at Sing
Sing, and they had been anticipated in
the arrangements for the execution of the
four men who were to be put to death during
this week. The tested voltage of the dyna-
mos had been brought up to 5000, while
the estimated voltage which was turned
into Reminders bodyewas only $50. The
weakness of the current at the Kemmler
execution was chargeable in part to the
slipping of the belts on the dynamos,
and especial precaution had been taken
to avoid this today. The dynamo used
was Westinghouse, counterpart of the
style used at Auburn, but was supplement-
ed by stall dynamo intended to augment
the current. At today's execution the ex-
ecutioner was in a small closet with an
open top, through which he could hear
anything said to him by the warden or
any of his assistants, and the electricians
were in the execution chamber itself. Be-
sides, by an arrangement of switches, it
was made possible for the electrician him
self to turn the current into the execution
chair, or to turn it OFT in case the execu-
toner should become confused or fail to
respond to the warden's signals. With
these precautions it was thought that
every possible chance of failure was pro-
vided against.
The witnesses of the execution gathered
at the prison in response to the warden's
invitation half an hour or more before the
time fixed for the electrocution to take
place. The warden had invited the full
number of those whom the law authorized
twelve, and all were present. The crowd
outside the prison was composed almost
entirely of representatives of newspapers
and of two press associations. Warden
Brown declined to permit the represen-
access to the execution chamber, either as
assistants or as witnesses, and it was
known several days before the execution
took place that accounts which might be
published must be obtained from the
twelve citizens who were invited to be
present, if they could be persuaded to talk
about it, Extensive preparations had been
made to handle what news could be OBJ
place where the temporary execution room
was built was a small frame building of two
rooms. Special wires had been strung to
it, and operators sat with fingers on the
keys from midnight of Sunday, waiting for
the signal to send the news of the execu-
tons when they had taken place. The
Western Union Telegraph Company had
put extra operators in the Office at the
railroad station, further down the track,
to handle the reports of special correspond
entS.
The doctors took charge of the four
bodies Immediately after death and began
an autopsy to discover as far as possible,
how rapid had been the killing, and the
precise effects produced.
The prisoners had received some intima-
ton beforehand that the executions were
to take place this morning, and they were
prepared. They went to the execution
chair bravely and met their fate without a
struggle. The electrodes were not applied
as in the Kemmler case to the top of the
skull and base of the spine. but
were bound to the foreheads of
the condemned men and to
the calves of their legs. The
current was turned on in each case for
twenty seconds. The voltage was about
1,5O0 to / 800 in each case. There was an
parent evidence of revival, as in the
kemmler case, and the current was turned
on a second time for each man. Medical
men present agree that death came at the
first contact, and that the seeming revival
was merely a relax muscular action,