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From: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: HELP!
Message-ID: <1991Jan25.164826.28371@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 25 Jan 91 16:48:26 GMT
References: <1991Jan19.052458.7449@wam.umd.edu> <17660144@hpfcdj.HP.COM>
Sender: amichiel@sunrise.acs.syr.edu
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Lines: 36

In article <17660144@hpfcdj.HP.COM> myers@hpfcdj.HP.COM (Bob Myers) writes:
>>The first electric chair was used in New York state. At the time there were
>>competeing electric distribution systems AC (George Westinghouse) and
>>DC (Thomas Edison). Neither company wanted to discredit their system

>and probably not exact).  Unfortunately, no details were provided beyond
>that, and when the "electric chair" system was built, the designers did NOT
>guarantee a sufficiently high current through the body to cause instantaneous
>death.  They had made sure that the "alternating currents" were applied, but
>through the use of a big DPDT switch!

>When it came time to dispose of said axe murderer, the flaw in the system
>was apparent: rather than simply zapping the criminal to the Great Beyond,
>he was slowly fried; execution took several minutes, as the horrified witness
   Historically, this was pretty good, but it went a little farther.  Edison
and others also had a great argument about HOW electricy would kill.  The
learned scientists were sure that the electricity would kill the brain and
wanted/lobbied/... for making the head one of the 2 contacts.  Edison and a few
others lobbied for either arm to arm or arms to legs (they were divided and
probably why they lost).  The brain guys were sure that if the brain were 
killed, that the brain would just start up the heart again, possibly after
burial and they raised the fear of zombies...   The heart guys were sure this
wasn't true but couldn't agree which was better arm to arm or arm to leg.
Anyway, the first guy, as I recall had just a steel skupp cap which burned
his hair up mighty bad.  The second guy (and a few others in several states)
then had they heads shaved with the same steel skull cap.  Either way, the
brain guys were finally proved wrong with field tests (8-}).  and the rest
is history ....
al



-- 
Al. Michielsen, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University
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