Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1888 — Death by Electricity. [ARTICLE]

Death by Electricity.

Indianapolis News. Capital punishment by hanging ih New York State ends, according to law, on January 1, next, the mode of punishment to take its place being death by electricity. But the details were not prescribed. The Medico-Legal Society of New York City has in consequence been “trying it on the dogs,” as the best way to apply means of death. It has reported, “after mature deliberation” that the death current be administered in the following manner: A stout table covered with rubber cloth, and having holes along its borders for binding, or a strong chair, shoud be procured. - The prisoner, lying on his back or sitting, should be firmly bound upon this table or in the chair. One electrode should be so inserted into the table or into the back of the chair that it will implunge upon the spine, between the shoulders. The head should be secured by means of a sort of helmet fastened to the table or back of the chair, and to this helmet the other pole sho.uld be so joined as to press firmly with its end upon the top of the head. We think a chair is preferable to a table. The rheophores can be led off to the dynamo through the floors, dr to another room, and the instrument for closing the circuit can be attached to the wall, The electrodes should be of metal, not over one inch in diameter, somewhat ovoidal in shape, and covered with a thick layer ot sponge or chamois, skin. The poles and the skin and hair at the points of contact should be thoroughly wet with warm water. The hair should be cut short. A dynamo generating an electro motive force of at least 3,000 volts should be employed. Either a continuous or alternating current may be used, but preferably the latter. The current should be allowed to pass for thirty seconds. The rough statement of the thing for every day use is that the positive pole is placed on top of the head, the negative between the shoulders. The electric current flows from the positive to the negative and in its nature tends to expand in passing, so that it fills the whole diameter of the neck, which is about half way between the top of the head and the middle of the shoulders. In the neck center all the nerves, and consequently the electric current in passing severs them —the medulla oblongata—a part of the brain which is the most vital —together with all of the great nerves of the neck and the spinal cord, which exercises jurisdiction over the movement of the lungs and heart. The result is death absolute and instantaneous, realizing, in fact, the common saying that “he won’t know what hit him.”