Harold P. Brown

Harold P. Brown was the American inventor of the Electric chair. He was engaged by Thomas Edison to help with the design of the chair after he wrote a leading article in the describing New York Post how a young boy had been killed after having accidentally touched a telegraphic cable not sheathed using Alternative course.

At the time, Edison and its system of D.C. current were in competition with the company of electricity Westinghouse, which used the alternative course. the State of New York in 1886 set up a committee to find a new means, more human than the Pendaison, for the executions. Neither Edison nor Westinghouse wanted that their electric system is not chosen by fear which the customers do not want of the same type of electricity used to kill the criminals in their house.

In order to prove that the alternative course was better for the executions, Brown and Edison killed out of many animals, including a elephant of circus during the tests of their prototypes. They also made executions of animals for the press in order to make sure that the alternative course is associated with electrocution. It was at the time of these event that the term “electrocution” was invented. The majority of their experiments were carried out in the laboratory of Edison located at West Orange, New Jersey in 1888.

Although the countryside for délégitimiser the alternative course was a failure, the electric chair in alternative course was adopted by the committee in 1889.

External bonds

a chronology (in English) of the electric chair

Brown, Harold P.

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