The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-21
ONE MAN HOLDS SECRET
IF yEW YORK'S ELECTRICIAN SHOULD DIE
Authorities Would Be PowerIeIs 10
 Impose Death Penalty.

neliuS V. Collins, has Just been con- fronted with the most amazing and | perplexing problem in his long official career.
 Upon his shoulders rests the respon- | sibility of carrying out the states pen atty for murder-death by electrocu- ton. State Electrician E. F. Davis, | who officiates at all the electrocutiOns, | owns, controls and carefully guards 1 nearly all the apparatus used. He has taken out patents on the helmet and leg electrode, and he also makes use of other apparatus, not patented, and which he permits no one to examine.
 MT. Davis is believed to be the only person in New York state who can con- duct an electrocution successfully. Past experiences have proved that. The state has offered him $10,0OO for his patents, but he has refused to &C., cept it.
 In case MT. Davis should fall i'll, or decline to serve, MT. Collins, the state superintendent of prisons, will be com peIled to face what he now most most dreads.
 Nobody can be found to take MT. Davis place because nobody knows anything about the state electricians secret method.
 | The problem confronts not only the state superintendent. Every convicted murderer awaiting death in the three state prisons where the death penalty is imposed, every warden and prison official looks toward the outcome with aprehension. And every private citizen, who dreads a repetition of the horrible Ihungling which characterized the first legal electrocution in New York state will do the same.
 "should State Electrician Davis die suddenly or any reason be rendered ln- 1 capable of officiating at an electrocu- tion. or should he refuse to do so, there is no one in the state of New York nualified to take his place" stated State Superintendent of Prisons Collins. "Any execution that occurs, therefore, must be largely experimental, ana pos- sibly attended with deplorable ana re- volting features"
 MT. Davis recently offered to reveal the secret of his patents and to divulge their nature and workings to anybody
 selected by the state for $1O,OOO.
 Recognizing the necessity of accept ing the offer Superintendent Collins
 placed the matter before the finance
 committee of the senate ways and
 means committee of the assembly at
 the last session of the legislature. Sen
 ator Higgins and Assemblyman Aids,
 chairmen of these committees made
 careful investigation, as result or
 which the following item was included in the supply bill signed by the gov
 ernor.
 ''For the superintendent of prisons for the purchase of all patents upon apparatus used or intended, designed
 or applicable to use for electrocution 1n the state prisons, the sum of S1OOOo; but to portion of said money shall be applicable to the purpose herein men, tioned until the superintendent of pris- |, ons shall have entered into a good and sufficient contract with the patentee , and owner of owners in form ap- proved by the attorney general. con- ditioned for the sale of all right, title
 and interest in and to said patents and
 rights and also further conditioned fol
 the complete instruction and thorough | education of such competent person ol persons as hall be designated by saic |, superintendent of prisons in the work | ing and application of said patented de- vices, together with a complete ex'
 planation of the method and principle
 employed in the application and use o , said devices, also the process ant method through and by which said in
 vention, discovery and device was orig :, mated and has been developed, togeth 7, CT with all the improvements by means !, of which said patent or any of the ap
 pliances. whether patented of unpat = ented, may have been used or modified o After the adjournment of the legisla q ture Superintendent Collins consulte'
 Attorney General Davies with viev
 to drawing up contract for the sal Il of the apparatus and the instruction o such assistants as the superintendent if should designate.
 q The contract was drawn up and Da - wis was sent for to sign 1t. He at one n objected to the form of the contract = According to <the provisions of tn ,- supply bill $1O,OOO is appropriated fo a the "sale of all right, title and interes q in and to such patents"
 Daiv claimed that his offer was sim a ply for the use of the apparatus a ~ natented and for the instruction of as
 sistants,
 ,s The legislature, having adjourned r there was no way of remedying tn ,. situation, and the state must risk tn ' chances of Davis living until such tim
 as another legislature can right the CT
 TOT.
 Meanwhile Superintendent Collir
 continues to chafe under the possibilit y of some mishap to MT. Davis. The stat
 electrician is man of many peculiar K ties. He has officiated at sixty electro W cutions, from the sensa ational killing l. William Kemmler the first victim ( " the chair, on August 6, 1890, down I' the last victim. Fred Krist. who WE shocked to death November 20 1901, { as Auburn prison.
 to MT. Davis talks but little. He wi r. not sit for photograph. He change
 his residence frequently, and it is ofte
 with difficulty that the prison off1cia .. succeed in locating him.
 M MT. Davis is at present at work on
 chair by which he expects to redut
 the time of executing criminal to or - minute. timed from the moment he
 taken from his cell until the physician
 pronounce him dead. The best recol