Electric chair

An execution device that kills by passing electric current through a person’s body. It became a prominent method of capital punishment in the United States.

Alternating current: Electric current that periodically reverses direction. The chair’s early advocates promoted alternating current as especially lethal.
Alfred P. Southwick: A New York dentist who advocated electrocution as a method of capital punishment. His proposal helped inspire the state’s move toward an electrically powered execution method.
William Kemmler execution: The 1890 execution of William Kemmler, the first use of the electric chair. Its prolonged and visibly distressing procedure shaped early judgments of the chair.
Lethal injection: A method of execution in which drugs are administered to cause death. It displaced the electric chair as the standard method in most U.S. jurisdictions.
Electrocution: Injury or death caused by electric current passing through the body. The chair is a deliberate, controlled use of electrocution.
New York State Commission on Capital Punishment: A commission established in 1886 to investigate alternatives to hanging in New York. Its recommendations led New York to adopt electrocution.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: An American couple executed for espionage at Sing Sing Prison in 1953. Their executions are among the best-known uses of the electric chair.
Hanging: Execution by suspension of a person by the neck, usually causing death. It was the principal method the electric chair was intended to replace in New York.
Electrical resistance: The opposition of a material to electric current, measured in ohms. Contact quality and bodily conditions affect how current passes through the body.
Harold P. Brown: An electrical engineer involved in promoting alternating current for execution in the 1880s. He conducted demonstrations that shaped the public debate over the chair’s electrical system.

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