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Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org "The The Art of Sublime Killing by Electricity": and the Electric Chair Jiirgen Martschukat In July 1896, an articlein the ScientificAmericanpraised"The Progressof Invention during the Past Fifty Years."The author, EdwardW. Byrn, celebrated"a splendid, brilliantcampaignof brainsand energy,rising to the highest achievementamid the most fertileresources."New technologicaldevicesof incrediblerichnessand diversity had been invented, immense progressand marvelousgrowth had been achieved,and people felt overwhelmedby a "gigantictidal wave"or "flashingmeteors that burst upon our vision."Accordingto Byrn, the Westernworld had been createdanew by the modern, especiallythe American,man who had touched matter "withthe divine breathof thought"and had thus acquiredalmost supernaturalqualities.This technological enlightenmentinspired"emotionsof wonder and admirationat the resourceful and dominant spirit of man." Thus, according to Byrn, the man-made but neverthelesshardlycomprehensibleworld of technologicalwonder caused a sublime experienceamong late-nineteenth-centuryAmericans.' In the middle of this world of technologicalwonder stood the electricchair,which was developed for the execution of the death penalty in New YorkState during the 1880s. When electricity and capital punishment merged in the "deadlydynamo," death by electrocutionwas widely perceivedas an advanceof civilization.It was part of the remodeled, modern world describedin the ScientificAmericanand in many more magazinesand writings, and, as such, it was understoodto give society a sense of elevation. Though the electric chair was an incorporationof a still-mysterious power, it seemed to signify the human ability-or at least that of white educated males-to understandapparentlysupernaturalforces, to conquer them, and to use them for positive, culturallybeneficialeffects. Looking at the history of the electric chair through the lens of the sublime helps explain how the electrocution of four death row inmates on July 7, 1891, in Sing Sing state prison could have been celeThisessayreceivedthe David is professorof historyat the Universityof Hamburg,Germany. JiirgenMartschukat Das Erhabeneund der ThelenPrizefor2002. It firstappearedin Germanas "'TheArtof Killingby Electricity': ElektrischeStuhl"in Amerikastudien/American Studies,45 (Fall 2000). I wouldlike to thankNorbertFinzsch,AlfredHornung,JensJager,MichelleMart,AlexanderRichter,Olaf Stieglitz,DavidWalker,andthe membersof the ThelenPrizeCommitteefortheircommentson earlierdraftsof thisarticle. at <[email protected]>. ReadersmaycontactMartschukat 1EdwardW. Byrn,"TheProgress of Inventionduringthe PastFiftyYears," American, July25, 1896, Scientific pp. 82-83. 900 The Journalof AmericanHistory December 2002 The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 901 and as furtheradvancementin "theart of bratedas a "greatscientificexperiment" killingby electricity."2 of technology,conceptsof The followingarticleinvestigatesthe interrelationship progress,the sense of the sublime,and the death penaltyin nineteenth-century the sublimenot as confined America.I will tryto accomplishthisby conceptualizing to an aesthetictheory,but ratheras a well-established patternof discourseshaping mode of perception,thought,and action.I will then narrowthe the contemporary field to the perceptionof electricityand finallyto that of the electricchairand the firstelectricexecutionsin the early1890s. The Sublime With the Enlightenment,the humanabilityto subdueand controlnaturalpowers becamea crucialelementin the conceptof civilization.To the enlightenedcontemporariesof the eighteenthcentury,mankindwas continuallyimprovingits comprehensionandcontrolof naturalforcesby systematizing themandestablishing the laws of theiroperation.The systematicnatureof the world,not the incomprehensibility of manyof its phenomena,gavereasonto exaltthe Creator.The God-givenhuman werethefounabilityto reasonandthe corresponding potentialforself-development dationuponwhicha new culturalorderwouldbe created.Evenin the Age of Reason, however,therewas a widespreaddesireto confrontimpenetrable, mysterious a desireintenselydisphenomenaandto experiencefear,wonder,andbewilderment, cussedby numerouswriters.Manypeoplesoughtproximityto tragedy,horrifying naturalforcessuchas lightningandthunder.Encounters spectacles,andthreatening withdeathwereconsideredparticularly becausedeath experiences alluringborderline wasinevitableandunimaginable at the sametime,as ImmanuelKantmaintainedin an essayabout"theend of all existence."Confrontations with such overwhelming had to be indirect. The confrontation had to cause however, phenomena, generally realhorrorfor at leasta fractionof a second,but the observerhad to perceivethe incidentfroma positionof safetythatguaranteed his survival.Underthesecircumstances,a horrifyingconfrontationled to an extremelyintenseexistentialawareness 2 The phrase "theart of killing by electricity"comes from Alfred Southwick, quoted in New YorkTimes,July 8, 1891, p. 2. "Deadly dynamo" was a common synonym for the electric chair; see, for instance, New YorkTimes, April 30, 1890, p. 1. On the history of the electric chair with a focus on technological advancement, see Roger Neustadter, "The 'Deadly Current':The Death Penalty in the IndustrialAge,"Journal of American Culture, 12 9 (Spring (Fall 1989), 79-87; and James Penrose, "InventingElectrocution,"Heritageof Invention & Technology, 1994), 34-45. For questions of constitutionality, see Deborah W. Denno, "Is Electrocution an Unconstitutional Method of Execution?The Engineering of Death over the Century," William and Mary Law Review,35 (Spring 1994), 551-692. On the public, see Michael Madow, "ForbiddenSpectacle:Executions, the Public, and the Press in Nineteenth-Century New York,"BuffaloLaw Review,43 (Fall 1995), 461-562. On the meaning of pain and the medical discourse,see JiirgenMartschukat,"'The Death of Pain':Erorterungenzur Verflechtungvon Medizin und Strafrechtin den USAin der zweiten Hailftedes 19. Jahrhunderts"("The death of pain":On the interdependence of medicine and criminal law in nineteenth-centuryAmerica), in Geschichteschreibenmit Foucault(Writing history with Foucault), ed. JiirgenMartschukat(New York,2002), 126-48; Craig Brandon, TheElectricChair:An UnnaturalAmericanHistory(Jefferson,1999); Jiirgen Martschukat,Die Geschichteder Todesstrafe in Nordamerika (The history of capital punishment in North America) (Munich, 2002), 81-93; and Stuart Banner, The Death Penalty:An AmericanHistory(Cambridge, Mass., 2002), 169-96. I have translatedinto English quotations from and titles of German sources. 902 The Journalof AmericanHistory December2002 for the observer,and as such the frighteningexperiencewas at the same time joyful, pleasant,and desirable.3 The quest for "delightfulhorror"was based on pure sensualdesire,but those who were able intellectuallyto penetratetheir desireand who becameawareof their emotion and attraction elevated themselves to a higher intellectual and cultural level. They conquerednot only frighteningnaturalphenomena but also their own fear by means of a strong mind, education, and willpower.They transformednature into culture, elevated themselves above the outside world, enhanced the perfection of their individualas well as their collectiveself-controland intellect, and advancedcivilization as a result. In earliertimes, by contrast, confrontationwith expressionsof naturaland divine powershad causedamazement,horror,and fear,but within a civilized mind it createdan enhancing,sublime feeling. Thus, a supposedlysupernatural experiencewas transformedinto a sourceof individualand collectiveinspirationand development.4 A position of safety guaranteeingthe survivalof the observercould be createdby various means. Being under a shelter during a storm could make a sublime experience possible. The lightning rod, a technologicaldevelopment, functioned as a virtual shelter.It not only enabledpeople to observethunderstormsin closer proximity and thus more intensively,but it also made the observersfeel a superiorityover the initial incomprehensibilityand menace of the storm. The naturalspectaclestill had the abilityto causehorrorand fear,but they could be conqueredby means of human inventivenessand transformedinto a sublime sensationwithin the observers.5 3 Immanuel Kant, "Das Ende aller Dinge" (The end of all existence), in KantsgesammelteSchriften,1. Abt.: Werke,vol. 8: Abhandlungennach 1781 (Kant'scollected writings, part 1: Works, vol. 8: Elaborationsafter 1781), ed. K6nigl. Preug. Akad. der Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1912), 325-39. For a comment on Kant'sessay,see Florian R6tzer,"Zur Genese des Erhabenen"(On the genesis of the sublime), in Der Scheindes Schinen (On beauty), ed. Dietmar Kamper and Christoph Wulf (G6ttingen, 1989), 71-99. Another crucial text that before the Civil War went through at least ten editions in the United Statesis Edmund Burke,A PhilosophicalEnquiryInto the Originof Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757; London, 1767). David E. Nye, American TechnologicalSublime (Cambridge,Mass., 1994), 4. On the delightful horror,see Andrew Ashfield and Peter de Bolla, "Introduction," AestheticTheory,ed. Andrew Ashfield and Peter de Bolla in The Sublime:A Readerin BritishEighteenth-Century Grauen"'Literaturhistorische (New York, 1996), 1-16; CarstenZelle, 'Angenehmes BeitrdgezurAsthetikdes Schrecklichen im achtzehntenJahrhundert("Adelightful horror":A literaryhistory of the aesthetic of horror in the eighteenth century) (Hamburg, 1987); Winfried Wehle, "Das Erhabene:Aufkldrungdurch Aufregung"(The sublime: Enlightenment through excitement), in Das 18. Jahrhundert:Aufklirung (The 18th century: Enlightenment), ed. Paul Geyer (Regensburg,1995), 9-22. 4 See, from the large body of literatureon the "sublime,"Christine Pries,ed., Das Erhabene:ZwischenGrenzerfahrung und GrofJenwahn(The sublime: Between borderline experience and delusion of grandeur) (Weinheim, 1989); and Rob Wilson, AmericanSublime: The Genealogyof a Poetic Genre(Madison, 1991). Besides Burke's PhilosophicalInquiry Into .. . the Sublime and Beautiful and the writings compiled by Ashfield and de Bolla, another outstanding eighteenth-centurytext is Immanuel Kant, "Kritikder Urteilskraft"(Critique of judgment) (1790), in Kant'sgesammelteSchriften,1. Abt.: Werke,vol. 5 (Kant'scollected writings, part 1: Works, vol. 5) (Berlin, 1913), 165-485, esp. the chaptersfollowing p. 260. 5 Christine Pries, Ubergdngeohne Bricken: KantsErhabeneszwischenKritik und Metaphysik(Transferswithout bridges: Kant'ssublime between critique and metaphysics) (Berlin, 1995), 38-75. On the lightning rod and its paradigmaticmeaning for the technological sublime, see Christian Begemann, Furcht und Angst im Prozef der des 18. Jahrhunderts(Fearand the Enlightenment: On literaAufklirung:Zur Literaturund Bewuf'tseinsgeschichte ture and the history of consciousness in the 18th century) (Frankfurtam Main, 1987), 89-96; I. BernardCohen, Benjamin FranklinsScience(Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 66-109; and Willem Hackmann, "Lightning Rods and Model Experiments:Franklin'sScience Comes of Age," Studiesin Historyand Philosophyof Science,22 (Winter 1991), 679-84. The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 903 In the courseof the nineteenthcentury,the conceptof the sublimeshifted;manbecamethe majortriggersof the sublime.Technomadecreationsandachievements thequalitiesnecesand incorporated logicaldevices,machines, buildingsincreasingly Theywereso large,so complex,andso dynamic saryto createa sublimeexperience. thatthey seemedto be embodimentsof supernatural power;at the sametime, they werecreatedby mankind.Theysignifiedan almostsupernatural abilityto overcome the the forces of nature. and subjugate Moreover, technologicalworldwas understoodas the signof a divinemission,for God hadblessedoccidentalhumanitywith in the forcesof nature,to penetratethoserevethe abilityto recognizehis revelations take of them.6 and to lations, possession TheAmericancontinentofferedan idealterrainforthe creationof sublimeexperiencesin generaland specificallythe so-calledtechnologicalsublime.Fromthe very firstexplorations of the continent,descriptions andreportsshowedthatnowheredid natureseemmoreexcitingand at the sametime morefrighteningthanin the New World.Yet, until the late eighteenthcentury,only the educatedelite consciously with naturein orderto experiencethe sublime.Formen such soughtconfrontations as ThomasJeffersonorJohnQuincyAdams,the NaturalBridgein VirginiaandNiagaraFallswere wondersof natureembodyingdivine greatnessand signifyinga in his Noteson the uniquealliancebetweenAmericaandtheAlmighty.Nevertheless, Stateof Virginia,ThomasJeffersonexpressedastonishmentthat even peoplewho livednearthe NaturalBridgeneveror only rarelyvisitedit in orderto be awedby it. It was only in the nineteenthcenturythatthe Americanwondersof naturebecame to placessuchas the 215-foot-tallnatintenselyattractiveto manypeople.Traveling uralstonearchin Virginiaor to NiagaraFallsacquiredthe character of a pilgrimage.7 Fromthe 1820s on, the technologicalwondersof Americancivilizationsuch as canals,bridges,andtrainscausedwavesof excitement.To contemporaries theyrepresented the abilityof Americancultureto shape nature'sextraordinary power,to enablevastnumbersof peopleto travellong distances,andto speedup the advance of civilization.Eventhe lastremnantsof the staticawearousedby the sheeromnipotence of natureand the size and powerof its wondersgaveway to faithin human The Americanpoliticianand naturalexplorerGeorge intelligenceand achievement. PerkinsMarshstatedin 1860 in the ChristianExaminerthat the "sublimeconceptionsof extendedspace,of prolongedduration,of rapidmotion,of multipliednuminto a bers,and of earthlygrandeurand beautyand power"had been transformed of "our mental constitution" modern science and technolpermanentcomponent by dictatesis the law of all lower ogy. Marshcontendedthat "obedienceto [nature's] tribesof animatedbeing,[but]it is by rebellionagainsthercommandsandthe final of herforcesalonethatmancanachievethe noblerendsof his creation." subjugation In Marsh's of nature"wasthe decisivedifferencebetween"the eyes,this "subjugation 6 Klaus Bartels, "Oberdas Technisch-Erhabene"(On the technological sublime), in Erhabene,ed. Pries, 295Sublime. 316; Leo Marx, TheMachine in the Garden(New York, 1965), 197; Nye, AmericanTechnological 7 Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. Thomas P. Abernathy (1785; New York, 1964), 17; Howard Mumford Jones, O StrangeNew World(New York, 1967); Nye, AmericanTechnological Sublime,2-3, 1920, 24-43; ElizabethMcKinsey,NiagaraFalls:Icon of theAmericanSublime(New York, 1985), 30-32. 904 The Journalof AmericanHistory December2002 human and the brute creation... and the extent of [man's]victoriesover Nature is a measurenot only of his civilization,but of his progressin the highest walks of moral and intellectuallife." It was consideredan expressionof divine intentions, because the Lordhad blessedoccidentalman with the magnificentability to createa technologicallyperfectworld. Even at Niagara,in the middle of the nineteenth century,the fascinationshifted from the naturalspectacle to its technological appropriation,as shown by ElizabethMcKinseyin her study of Niagaraas the "icon of the American sublime."Approximatelysixty thousand visitors annually traveled to the falls by train; they were attractedno longer only by the incrediblewaterfallsbut also by a bridgeover the riverthat demonstratedthe triumph of the engineerover natureand provoked an almost greatersensation of the sublime than did the falls themselves. The bridgedemonstratedthat the power and largenessof naturein Americacould be overcomeand subduedbecausethere existeda "correspondinglargenessand generosity of the spirit of the citizen,"as Walt Whitman announced in the introduction to his 1855 Leaves of Grass.8 Electricityand the Sublime Electricitywas a centralagent in the field of naturalforcesdestinedfor subjugationby technologicalprogressand for the allegedperfectionof civilization.In the eighteenth centuryJohn Wesleyreferredto electricityas "thesoul of the universe"becauseit had a mysteriousstrengththat seemedto be an expressionof divine greatness.Membersof the internationalscientific community declared the eighteenth century to be the "electriccentury,"and researcherssuch as BenjaminFranklinand his colleagueswere fascinatedby the immense power of the "electricalfire"that could be artificiallyproduced by means of a Leydenjar or silently drawnout of a thundercloudwith a long pole or even a kite. Medical researchersrevitalizednumb limbs with the so-called electricbalm, and novelistsspeculatedabout the life-givingforce of electricity.Mary Shelley'sfamous scientist Victor Frankensteinignited "a sparkof being" in a previously lifeless body by means of the "glimmeringand seemingly ineffectuallight."A strokeof lightning gavehim the power to breakthroughthe bounds of life and death "andpour a torrentof light into our darkworld,"as Frankensteinphilosophized.9 8 George PerkinsMarsh, "The Study of Nature"(1860), in AmericanEnvironmentalism:TheFormativePeriod, 1860-1915, ed. Donald Worster (New York, 1973), 13-21, esp. 19, 14; Nye, American TechnologicalSublime, 33-34, 46-76. See also David E. Nye, "Republicanismand the ElectricalSublime,"ATQ, 4 (Sept. 1990), 185-99, esp. 187-90; McKinsey, Niagara Falls, 253-56. For the dynamic qualities of the concept, see Wilson, American Sublime, 5; and Walt Whitman, Leavesof Grass:AuthoritativeTexts-Whitman on His Art-Criticism, ed. Sculley Bradleyand Harold Blodgett (New York, 1973), 711-31, esp. 712. 9 John Wesley quoted in RichardRudolph and Scott Ridley, PowerStruggle:TheHundred-YearWaroverElectricity (New York, 1986), 23. On the early researchon electricity,see J. L . Heilbron, Electricityin the 17th and 18th Centuries:A StudyofEarlyModernPhysics(Berkeley,1979). "The electric century"is referredto in Johann G. Schaffer,"Die ElectrischeMedicin oder die Kraftund Wirkung der Electricitatin dem menschlichen Korperund dessen Krankheitenbesonders bey gelahmten Gliedern aus Vernunftgriindenerlautert und durch Erfahrungen bestatiget"(Electric medicine, or power and effect of electricity on the human body and its malfunctions, espeArzt: Textezur Medizin im 18. Jahrhundert(The symcially in the case of paralysis)(1752), in Der sympathetische pathetic physician:Writings on medicine in the 18th century), ed. Heinz Schott (Munich, 1998), 220. For the relation of electricityand medicine, see the whole compilation of contemporarytexts ibid., 219-41; and Margaret Rowbottom and Charles Susskind,Electricityand Medicine: TheHistoryof theirInteraction(San Francisco, 1984). The Sublime and the ElectricChair 905 Mary Shelley's novel was originally published in 1818, and electricity remained a mysterious force throughout the nineteenth century. In 1896, Harper' New Monthly Magazine published a long article on electricity; the very first sentence posed the question, "what is electricity?," and the response was, "that is a question no man can yet fully answer." Nevertheless, in the course of the nineteenth century, the rising control over this still inexplicable power was increasingly fascinating. In 1858 the British physicist and natural philosopher Michael Faraday stressed that the divine quality of electricity revealed itself in its following natural laws that had been established and put to use by man-which caused a very sublime sensation: Electricityis often calledwonderful,beautiful;but it is so only in common with the other forcesof nature.The beautyof electricityor of any other force is not that the power is mysterious,and unexpected,touching everysense at unawaresin turn, but that it is under law, and that the taught intellect can even now govern it largely. The human mind is placed above, and not beneath it, and it is in such a point of view that the mental education affordedby science is renderedsuper-eminentin dignity, in practicalapplicationand utility; for by enabling the mind to apply the naturalpower throughlaw, it conveys the gifts of God to man. In 1860 George Perkins Marsh maintained that a smart and courageous researcher such as Benjamin Franklin deserved more respect and praise than the powerful gods and heroes in Greek mythology: In the whole rangeof those mythologieswhich are built on the apotheosisof mortal heroes, or the deificationof the powersof spontaneousnature,in the cosmogonies of the ancient bards,in the warfareof Gods and the Titans, we find no such theme for ode or anthem as the recent history of scientific researchand triumph supplies in abundantprofusion. Which is fitter to be celebratedin immortalsong, the fiction of a Jupiterlaunchingthe forkedlightning to avengea slight offeredto a favoredmortal, or the true story of the sagephilosopher,who, by the aid of a child's toy, forged fettersto chain the thunderbolt?10 Faraday and Marsh emphasized electricity's potential to shape and improve human life. In the 1840s, the electromagnet, the telegraph, and the first electric engines were invented, ensuring a permanent role for electric current in daily life. Effective use of electricity increased in the 1870s, launching an epoch in which the historian Thomas P. Hughes locates "the American genesis." In this period, according to Edward Byrn's 1896 article, the United States was seized by a gigantic tidal wave of human ingenuity and resource,so stupendous in its magnitude, so complex in its diversity,so profound in its thought, so fruitful in its wealth, so beneficent in its resultsthat the mind is strainedand embarrassedin its effort to expandto a full appreciationof it. Benjamin Franklin, "Opinions and Conjectures, concerning the Propertiesand Effects of the electrical Matter, arising from Experimentsand Observations, made at Philadelphia"(1749), in BenjaminFranklinsExperiments:A New Edition of FranklinsExperimentsand Observationson Electricity,ed. I. Bernard Cohen (Cambridge, Mass., 1941), 213-40, esp. 221-22; Cohen, BenjaminFranklinsScience,66-109. Mary Shelley,Frankensteinor theModem Prometheus(1818; Cologne, 1995), 47-48. 10R. R. Bowker, "GreatAmerican Industries: Electricity,"HarpersNew MonthlyMagazine (Oct. 1896), 71039, esp. 710. Michael Faraday,"Notes for a FridayDiscourse at the Royal Institution"(1858), in BenjaminFranklins Experiments,ed. Cohen, epigraphfacing copyright page. Marsh, "Studyof Nature," 19. 906 The Journalof AmericanHistory December2002 As Byrn emphasized,"The old world of creationis, that God breathedinto the clay the breathof life. In the new world of invention mind has breathedinto matter,and a new and expanding creation unfolds itself. . .. He [man] has touched it [matter] with the divine breathof thought and made a new world."'1 In particularthe transformationof electricalenergy into light caused a sensation. Just like a thunderboltcoming from the clouds, an initially invisible electric power produced a clearlyvisible effect. The differencewas that electric light was made by and under the control of mankind. In the 1870s and 1880s, light shows fascinated the public. Enormousarclampsbathedthe centralsquaresof numerouscities in glaring light. In Wabash, Indiana, or Cleveland, Ohio, in Philadelphia,Boston, San Francisco,or New York, contemporaryreports of arc light demonstrationsdraw a uniform picture. When the large, strangelamps that seemed almost as powerful as the sun turned darknessinto bright and shining light, the spectatorswere overwhelmed with awe and fell on their knees; "manywere dumb with amazement,"as the WabashPlain Dealerdescribedsuch an event in 1880.12 It was no longer God alone who gave the world light; the awe and worship that had once been devoted exclusivelyto the deity and its representationin naturewere now given to man-made technology. In the following years, the electrificationof public spaces spoke of a city's prestige and status. Thomas Edison's 1879 filament light bulb played a crucialrole in the spreadingof the "electriclight" phenomenon. The opening of the first power station, on New York'sPearl Street, in September 1882 is considereda turningpoint in the historyof electricityand artificialillumination. Its steam-drivendynamosproduceddirectcurrent(DC). With the power station and the bulb, the lights were turned on in New Yorks financialdistrict, and by the middle of the decade electric streetlightswere commonplace in largerAmericancities. The alternatingcurrentpropagatedby GeorgeWestinghousemade the transferof high-voltageelectricityover long distancespossible and cost-effective,and the vision of the electrificationof Americacould become reality.In 1896, generatorsat Niagara Falls,using water power,began to produce the alternatingcurrent(Ac)that powered the lights in Buffalo and set the Buffalo Street Railwayin motion. In the following years, the corridorsand galleriesof the Niagara Falls Power Station became a more awe-inspiringattractionthan the bridgeover the riveror the falls themselves.Only in September 1907 did the naturalwonder of the waterfallsattractnational attention again-when they were illuminatedby artificiallights at night.13 The importanceof electricityproduction and use to the concept of an advanced, superiorsociety was manifestedby various exhibitions around the turn of the cen11 Byrn, "Progressof Invention during the Past Fifty Years,"82. Thomas P. Hughes, AmericanGenesis:A CenEnthusiasm,1870-1970 (New York, 1989). Hughes cites parts of Byrn'sarticle tury of Inventionand Technological Der technologische in the German edition of his book: Thomas P. Hughes, Die ErfindungAmerikas: Aufitiegder USA seit 1870 (Munich, 1991), 23. 12 The WabashPlain Dealer from Februaryand April 1880 is quoted in David E. Nye, ElectrifyingAmerica: Social Meanings of a New Technology,1880-1940 (Cambridge, Mass., 1991), 2-3; referencesto similar reports from other cities can be found in Rudolph and Ridley, PowerStruggle,24-27. 13 Nye, ElectrifjingAmerica, 58-59; Rudolph and Ridley, Power Struggle,28-29; Robert Friedel and Paul Israel, EdisonsElectricLight: Biographyof an Invention (New Brunswick, 1986). Concerning the relationship of direct and alternatingcurrent,see Andre Millard, "Thomas Edison, the Battle of the Systems, and the Persistence The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 907 tury.Electricityand in particularlight werestagedas visibleindicatorsof progress and an auspiciousfuture.At the 1893 World'sColumbianExpositionin Chicago, 90,000 lightbulbsand 5,000 arclampsilluminatedthe fairgrounds, poweredby the largestpowerstationin the world,whichitselfcouldbe admiredin the Machinery Hall of the exhibition.Ten thousandof thosebulbsflashedon the eighty-two-footthe biggestin the world,was the tall EdisonTowerof Light;a giganticsearchlight, Pan-American later at the of the tower. Expositionin BufEightyears crowningglory falo, 240,000 bulbswereturnedon at dusk in a crescendoof brightness,and the ElectricTowerroseto a heightof 391 feet.At the baseof the towerwasa modelof sixtyfeet high.A sublimevisionof Americawith elecNiagaraFallsapproximately tricityat its centerwaspresentedin Buffaloasit hadbeenin Chicago,andanelectric streetcarcarriedthe visitorsfromone attractionto the next.In Chicago'sElectricity of humancapabilitywereon display:electricheating,teleHall, true masterpieces andwashingmachines,to nameonly a for phones long-distancecalls,dishwashers, so-calledWhiteCity,"authentic" fewexamples.In contrastto the exhibition's villages from other cultureswerepresentedon its Midway,and they werechronologically arrangedto revealthe allegedsuperiorityof the "white"Americancivilizationdisyet skepticalHenry playedin theWhiteCity.In thismanner,observedan impressed Adams,the Chicagoworld'sfairseemedto marka leapin evolutionthatwouldhave startledCharlesDarwin.The ChicagoTribunesaw in the fair an opportunityto "descendthe spiralof evolution"and to trace"humanityin its highestphasesdown almostto its animalisticorigins."Electricityandthe sublimewerewoventightlyinto a discoursethatconstructeda beliefin racialandcivilizedsuperiority.14 The exhibitionspresentedmankind'sseeminglyboundlesspossibilities.Theypresentedelectriclight,machines,anddynamosas symbolsof science,civilization,and a "longseriesof benefiongoingprogress.They embodiedto theircontemporaries of life,as an articleon centtriumphs" of scienceovernatureandoverthe irregularity in the North American Review. The immeasurable and Life" maintained "Electricity in of "for of been the universe,waitthousands had hidden years strength electricity New Monthly man to literallyfind it out,"as Harper's ing for nineteenth-century in October 1896.15 Magazineproclaimed Althoughthis worldof machineswas createdby man, the apparentlyboundless couldalsocausea bewildertechnologicalpotentialand the varietyof achievements ing loss of orientationand intellectualconfusionamongcontemporaries. Up to this time, such a man as HenryAdamshad experiencedthat sort of confusiononly throughconfrontationwith metaphysicalphenomena,as he himselfstated. For of Direct Current,"MaterialHistoryReview(Ottawa), 36 (Fall 1991), 18-28. McKinsey,Niagara Falls, 257. 14Among the extensive literatureand referenceson the exhibitions, I referto Nye, 33-61; ElectrifyingAmerica, Gail Bederman,Manlinessand Civilization:A CulturalHistoryof Genderand Racein the UnitedStates,1880-1917 (Chicago, 1995), 31-41; Chicago Tribunecited ibid., 35; James Gilbert, PerfectCities: ChicagosUtopiasof 1893 (Chicago, 1991); Robert W. Rydell, All the Worldsa Fair: Visionsof Empireat AmericanInternationalExpositions, 1876-1916 (Chicago, 1984); John E. Findling, ed., HistoricalDictionary of WorldsFairs and Expositions,18511988 (Westport, 1990); and Henry Adams, TheEducationof HenryAdams (1907; New York, 1931), 331-45. 15 Edward P. Jackson, "Electricityand Life," North American Review, 153 (Sept. 1891), 378-79; Bowker, "GreatAmerican Industries,"710. The Journalof AmericanHistory 908 , \ :SE o c - December2002 - ,_LF - " i^611 4A *- ^ OPERXATINO-ROOMN, F.[DISON STATION, INE' YOR)K. trrl . ivlrlu. ult;t Ih,If.r?r.u: .I Tre:,ty.i~"rr)i|llq: w?. ilr,r, : ,r This Harpers New Monthly Magazine illustration features an enormously powerful generator unit of New York'sEdison Station. The unit lighted 25,000 electric lamps and was operated by a single man. The machine dwarfsthe operatorpictured in the foreground,transmittingthe idea of the technological sublime to the magazine'sreaders. Reprintedfrom Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Oct. 1896. Adams, however, the unbelievably fast, precise, and noiselessly working electric dynamo had metaphysicalqualitiesas well-it not only was a machine but appeared to be an occult mechanism.As the embodiment of infinite energy,in Adams'seyes, the dynamo was comparableto the Virgin Mary,whom he describedas the ultimate The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 909 symbolof reproductive energyin the historyof mankindup to thatmoment:"She wasgoddessbecauseof herforce;shewasanimateddynamo;shewasreproductionIn turn-of-the-century the greatestandmostmysteriousof allenergies."16 America,it thatwastheultimaterevelationof mystewasnot theVirginMary,butthegenerator, the fertilityof both riousenergy,as Adamsemphasized.The dynamorepresented their effects on human life. and naturaland supernatural Thus, the dynamo power was the archetypeof the technologicalsublime:it remainedincomprehensible and but it wasthe embodimentof the domesticated naturalpowerthatelemetaphysical, vatedhumanexistenceto a higherlevel. The ElectricChair At the end of the nineteenthcentury,electricityseemedto be underhumancontrol. It producedclearlyvisibleandnoticeableeffectsandpromisedan inexorable upswing in the spiralof civilization.By meansof electricity, mankindhadsucceededin bringing light into darkness,in producingheat throughpushinga button,in smoothly crossingvastspaces,in multiplyingindustrialproduction,and in curing,regenerating, andstimulatinghumanbodies.Eventhe bodyitselfwasunderstoodanddefined accordingto the latestparadigmsof researchin electricityand medicine.Whereas researchers hadenthusedaboutlivingin an electriccentury,coneighteenth-century at the turn of the nineteenthto the twentiethcenturiesphilosophized temporaries about an approaching"electricalmillennium."Partof this electricworld-manat the sametime-was the deadlydynamo.Amongthe elecmadeandoverpowering tricalwonderson displayat the Chicagoworld'sfair,for instance,was an original electricchairthat had previouslydone its mortalworkin Sing Singstateprisonin New York.Visitorscouldadmireit in the midstof the sublimetechnological presentationof the WhiteCity,whereasa guillotinewaspresentedon the Midway,among otherhistoricalcuriositiesthathelpedvisitorsgraspthe evolutionary historyof mankind.17 Formorethana century,the lethaleffectsof electriccurrenthad beenextraordihad narilyfascinatingfor researchers. BenjaminFranklinand his contemporaries debatedthe possiblyfatalconsequences of an electricshock,andtheyhadtestedthe destructivepowerof electricityon animals.How greata shocka man couldendure was a questionof burninginterest,and it was temptingto increasethe powerof a batteryor to pool the powerof numerousbatteriesto find the answer.Researchers reportedhavingexperiencedelectricshocksthemselvesas suddenand painlessand not causingany visible sign of bodily harm or mutilation.BenjaminFranklin knockeddownsix menwith the powerof two Leydenjars,andhis conclusionmust 16Adams, Educationof HenryAdams, 339-42, 381-83, esp. 388. On electricity and concepts of the body, see Martschukat,"'Death of Pain"';Tim Armstrong, Modernism, and the Body:A CulturalStudy(Cambridge, Mass., 1998), 13-41; Rowbottom and Susskind,ElectricTechnology, ity and Medicine, 163; Nye, ElectrifyingAmerica,153-64, 66; and, for the referenceto A. Sullivan, "ElectricalMillennium," Collier'sMagazine, Dec. 2, 1916, p. 44, see ibid. On the electric chair and the guillotine in Chicago, see Gilbert, PerfectCities, 114, 119. 17 910 The Journalof AmericanHistory December2002 be regardedas almost visionary:"Toogreata chargemight, indeed, kill a man.... It would certainly,as you observe,be the easiestof all deaths."'8 In Franklin'sdays, "theeasiestof all deaths"was a highly debatedtopic, especially in the discourses of medicine and law-two fields that in the following decades would play a major role in the shaping of the concept of civilization. The age of rationality, empathy, and civilization beginning in the late eighteenth century spurredcallsfor a changein the executionof the death penalty.The performanceof a slow and agonizing"riteof execution"on the scaffolddid not seem appropriatefor an enlightenedsociety that understooditself as being rationaland humanistic.Nonetheless, only a few political theoristsand law expertsin North Americaor Europewere of the opinion that the death penalty should be totally abolished.The new cultural and political paradigmsrequireda transformationof the execution procedure,however; the defendant'slife should be taken as quickly and as painlesslyand even as invisibly as possible. On the west Europeancontinent, this change of concepts was embodied in the swift mechanizedbeheadingof the guillotine. In England and the United States, hanging remainedthe preferredmeans of execution, but the performance at the gallowswas more and more de-ritualized.19 The debate about the most appropriatemeans and ritual of execution never ceased. Startingin the mid-1830s, Pennsylvania,New York,and the New England states moved execution sites behind prison walls. In the late 1860s, criticismof executions increasedagain, focusing now on the physical suffering of the defendants. Bodily pain was consideredthe worst evil, and a civilized society had to combat it; the North AmericanReviewmaintained in 1849 that "the man who maintains that pain is no evil, is regardedsimply as a madman."In 1846, etherhad been introduced into surgeryas an anesthetic.20 Referringto the death penalty in 1869, the writer Edmund Clarence Stedman emphasizedthat death alone, and not physical torment, had to be the punishment and that any prolongationof the throesof death should be deemed cruel and unnecessary.Accordingto Stedman,a slow execution did not comport with the tenets of a 18 Benjamin Franklin,"LetterXVII" (1755), in BenjaminFranklinsExperiments,ed. Cohen, 331-38, esp. 336; see also the appendix to Benjamin Franklin,"ElectricalExperimentswith an Attempt to Account for their Several Phaenomena"(1753), ibid., 300-301; and Benjamin Franklin,"LetterIII" (1747), ibid., 181. On self and animal experiments, see Franklin, "Opinions and Conjectures, concerning the Propertiesand Effects of the electrical Matter,"222. A cat killed in an electric experiment did not revealany mutilations of the body apart from minor burns at the point of contact, accordingto Joseph Priestley,"Geschichteund gegenwartigerZustand der Elektricitit, nebst eigenthiimlichenVersuchen,"translatedinto German 1772 ("The History and PresentState of ElectricArzt, ed. Schott, 225-26. ity, with Original Experiments,"original English edition 1767), in Sympathetische 19On the United States, see Louis P. Masur, Rites Execution: of of CapitalPunishmentand the Transformation in Nordamerika,11AmericanCulture,1776-1865 (New York, 1991); and Martschukat,Geschichteder Todesstrafe 65. On England, see, for example, V. A. C. Gatrell, The Hanging Tree:Executionand the EnglishPeople, 17701868 (New York, 1994), 45-55. On continental Europe, see Michel Foucault, Disciplineand Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York, 1977); Jiirgen Martschukat,InszeniertesToten:Eine Geschichteder vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert(Performancesof execution:A history of capital punishment from the Todesstrafe 17th to the 19th centuries) (Cologne, 2000); and Richard Evans, Rituals of Retribution:Capital Punishmentin Germany,1600-1987 (New York, 1996). 20 See the review of A Treatiseon Etherizationin Childbirthby Walter Channing, North AmericanReview,68 (April 1849), 300-314, esp. 300. On the age of anesthesia,see David B. Morris, The Cultureof Pain (Berkeley, and Anesthesiain Nineteenth-Cen1993), 57-78; Martin S. Pernick,A Calculusof Suffering:Pain, Professionalism, turyAmerica(New York, 1985); and Martschukat,"'Death of Pain."' The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 911 civilizedsocietyand-combined with changingperceptionsof painandsufferingseemedto contradictthe EighthAmendmentof the Constitution,which forbids Muchtoo often,an instantandpainlessdeathat the cruelandunusualpunishments. rope causedby a quick breakof the neck remainedwishful thinking.Stedman stressedthatin morethanhalfthe casesdeathoccurredonly aftera long struggleby slowsuffocation.Furthermore, sometimesthe lengthof the ropeandthusthe height of the fallwerenot correctlycalculatedaccordingto thedefendant's bodyweight,and the headwastornoff duringthe execution.Suchtormentsandunsightlysceneswere advancedsociety, incompatiblewith the self-imageof a civilizedandtechnologically andtheywerean obstacleto culturalperfection.A solutionhadto be foundto represent the adequateprogressin civilization,and in PutnamsMagazineStedman with new scientificknowledge,a painlessmode expressedthe visionthat"doubtless, of killingmaybe discovered,-asby an electricshockor somedeadlyanaesthetic."21 In the 1870sandthe 1880s,thepressofferedmoregruesomeanddetaileddescriptionsof hangingsthanever,andit alsodemandeda searchfornewmethodsof execution thatwouldcausea quick,clean,andnon-disfiguring death.At the sametime,a new type of accidentprovedthatsuch a deathcouldobviouslybe achieved.Power stationsandpowerlineshadmultiplied,andthe numberof fatalaccidents-particuIn two years larlyin the urbancentersof the Northeast-had increasedaccordingly. in New YorkStatealone,overninetydeathsfromdirectcontactwithelectricalinstallationswere reported.The suddennessand the apparentpainlessnessof dying by electricitymadean impression.Death as such had lost none of its fascinatingand but electricitypromgruesomequalities,for it stillmeant"theend of all existence," isedto reducethe momentof dyingto a splitsecondandto stripdeathof its supposIn the guiseof electrifiedcivilization,deathcouldoccur edlyarchaiccharacteristics. withoutbeingassociated withstruggle,sorrow,andbodilydestruction,as ElbridgeT. a New York and majorproponentof electricexecuGerry, lawyer,philanthropist, tions, emphasizedin 1889 in the NorthAmericanReview.Commentingon the he noted: increasingaccidentalelectrocutions, In everycasethe actionof the currentwasso instantaneous as to leavenot the of a doubtthatdeathwasliterally shadow thanthought. Thebodywasnot quicker therewereno indications of anydeath-struggle; noneof physical mutilated; pain.22 The advancedtechnologicalcapabilityof civilizedmankindseemedto open up a path towardthe perfectionof the deathpenalty.In an age of seeminglylimitless humaningenuityand invention,the taskof constructinga reliableelectricmachine for the allegedlyperfectandpainlessexecutionof the deathpenaltywasconsidered an execution simpleandeasyto solve.Technological progresspromisedto transform 21 Edmund ClarenceStedman, "The Gallows in America"(1869), in VoicesagainstDeath:AmericanOpposition to Capital Punishment,1787-1975, ed. Philip E. Mackey (New York, 1976), 131-40, esp. 139; see also Gilroy Keating, "CapitalPunishment,"NorthAmericanReview,147 (Aug. 1888), 235-36; and ElbridgeT. Gerry,"Capital Punishment by Electricity,"NorthAmericanReview,149 (Sept. 1889), 321-25. 22 On the press reports,see Madow, "ForbiddenSpectacle,"487, 529-30; and Brandon, ElectricChair,25-46. Gerry,"CapitalPunishment by Electricity,"324; see also Thomas A. Edison, "The Dangers of ElectricLightning," NorthAmericanReview,149 (Nov. 1889), 625-34. On Gerry,see Brandon,ElectricChair,52-53. TheJournalof AmericanHistory 912 December2002 froma representation of an archaicdesireandlongingforviolenceandcrueltyinto a performancesignifyingadvancement,perfection,and sublimity.An artificially induceddeaththatoccurredquickerthanthoughtandcausedneitherpainnormutiIn contemporary lation-that wasthe promiseof electricity. perception,suchan executionwouldenhancehumancivilization,andthus,evenas a destructive anddeadly force,electricitywouldfurtherunfoldits constructive potential.23 Expertson electricityfostereda politicaldebateon the use of electriccurrentfor executionsin the stateof New York.The electricians' explanationseven impressed New YorkgovernorDavidB. Hill who in his annualmessagein January1885 called for a commissionof expertsto scrutinizethe best meansof execution.Established the commissionconsistedof ElbridgeT. Gerry,a lawexpertnamed shortlythereafter, MatthewHale,and a dentistnamedAlfredP.Southwick.Afterthreeyearsof work and consultationwith morethan two hundredexpertsespeciallyin medicineand presentedthe hundred-page technology,the commissioners Reportof theCommission Methodof Carrying intoEffect toInvestigate andReporttheMostHumaneandPractical in The New York Death Cases. reacted to theSentence enthusiastically press of Capital to the to and "the electric the publicationof the commission's analysis proposal put bolt in placeof the rope."In the eyesof the New YorkTimescommentator, electricity executionsinto anesthetic,painlessactsof mercy,furtherincreasing wouldtransform betweencivilizationandbarbarism. Therewaseventalkabout"euthathe separation Execution becausedeathwouldbe "certain,swiftandpainless." nasiaby electricity" for the as and was solemnity impressiveness by electrocution perceived awe-inspiring and not for its barbarous of its performance, cruelty.Accordingto the Times,New Yorkwouldbe creditedfor beingthe firstcommunityin the world"tosubstitutea methodof inflictingcapitalpunishment,andto set an examcivilizedfora barbarous ple which is sureof beingfollowedthroughoutthe world."The novelistand critic WilliamDeanHowellscommentedon the electricexecutionfrenzyin January1888 the collectivelyconstructive andindividin a letterto Harper's byjuxtaposing Weekly of as follows: effects destructive electricity ually Thereis apparently no reasonwhythismysterious agentwhichnowunitesthe whichilluminates wholecivilized worldbynervesof keenintelligence, everyenterto heatthem,which trainsof carsandpromises propels prisingcity,whichalready to shouldnotalsobeemployed inexhaustible hasaddedto lifeinapparently variety, take it away.24 andpainlessdeath"as a synThe commission's reportpresentedan "instantaneous an of and as civilization for and expression the scientificapproachof a onym progress 23 Gerryelaborateson how easilyan electrickilling machine could be constructed:Gerry,"CapitalPunishment by Electricity,"325. On the ambivalent conceptualizationof a humanitariansociety and the longing for the perception of violence, see Karen Halttunen, "Humanitarianismand the Pornographyof Pain in Anglo-American Culture,"AmericanHistoricalReview, 100 (June 1995), 303-34; and Karen Halttunen, MurderMost Foul: The Killerand theAmericanGothicImagination(Cambridge,Mass., 1998), 60-90. 24 ElbridgeT. Gerry,Matthew Hale, and Alfred P. Southwick, Reportof the Commissionto Investigateand Report the MostHumaneand PracticalMethodof Carryinginto Effectthe Sentenceof Death in CapitalCases(Albany,1888). New YorkTimes,Dec. 17, 1887, pp. 3, 4. William D. Howells, "Executionby Electricity,"Harpers WeeklyJan. 14, 1888, p. 23. The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 913 modernandadvancedsociety.Sincethe publicationof the report,this typeof "state to quotea sarcasticnote by WilliamDean Howells,this "killingby manslaughter," electricity[that]was almostthe sameas not killingat all"was calledfor in almost everycommentand statementon the executionof the death penalty,and most expertsagreedthat only an electricjolt could immediatelyand painlesslykill. As statedin the commission's report,electricitywasconsidered"themostpotentagent knownfor the destructionof humanlife,"andthiscapacitywasprimarilyattributed to the rapidityof its transmission. Accordingto the commission,the guillotineand the gunalsokilledquickly(thoughnot nearlyas quicklyaselectricity),yet thevisible destructionof the bodiesand"theprofuseeffusionof bloodwhichit involves" signified an archaicdesirefor violenceand cruelty,makingexecutionsby shootingand The only alternative methodto causedeathwithparticularly beheadingintolerable. out bloodshedandmutilationwaslethalinjection,whichwasopposedby the medicalprofessionbecauseof its closeassociationwith the practiceof medicine.25 Possiblythe only seriousalternativeto the electriccurrentwas still the rope, becauseit was institutionallyand historicallyembeddedin Americancultureand society.But the commissioners' analysisof the gallowsas a primitiveinstrumentof executionresembleda long anddetaileddiatribeagainstthe brutalandbarbaric rituals of prehistorictimes.Accordingto the report,"suspending the criminalby a cord aroundhis neckfroma branchof a tree"wasthemostarchaicformof execution,and the gallowswasdescribedas "theonlypieceof machinerythathasstoodstock-stillin this eraof progress.Thereit stands,the sameclumsy,inefficient,inhumanthingit waswhenit firstliftedits ghastlyframework into the airof the darkages."It wasnot that the described accounts of variousshockingscenesat the "many surprising report which established "a widely gallows," stronggeneralprejudiceamongculturaland high-mindedpersons."The technologicallyadvancedand enhancedexecutionby electricitywas consideredas a sharpcontrastto the rope.Accordingto the report, mancouldovercomethe traditional andalmostanthropologically throughelectricity, embedded"passionate desireto inflictphysicalpainand suffering,eventhe utmost on his enemies.Thatdesirecharacterized "almostallprimitiveforms agonypossible," of capitalpunishment,indeedthe remarkis trueof allearlyformsof punishments."26 It is particularly noteworthythat the medicaland technologicalexpertswho had beeninterviewedby the deathpenaltycommissionreactedto the deadlydynamoas HenryAdamsreactedto the electricaldisplaysat the Columbianand otherexhibitionsaroundthe turnof the century.Amazedby humancapabilityandcaptivated by a technologically sublimesensation,the expertspraisedthe powerof nature,which was thoughtto havebeen absorbedand takenundercontrol,even thoughnone of themknewexactlyhowelectricitykilled.Theywerecaptivated by the "silentandinfinite force"of the dynamo.Thatwasevidentfromthe experts'elaborations on death, and the of the electric transmission. One for pain, rapidity expertexplained, instance, that "anelectricdischargeoccursin one hundredthousandthof a second,or ten 25 William D. Howells, "StateManslaughter"(1904), in VoicesagainstDeath, ed. Mackey, 150-55, esp. 151. Gerry,Hale, and Southwick, Reportof the Commission,75, 49. 26 Gerry,Hale, and Southwick, Reportof the Commission,33, 35, 55, 13. The Journalof AmericanHistory 914 December2002 thousand times more rapidly than nerve transmission."The paralysisof the brain would actuallyoccur in the very same moment as the electricshockwas initiated,and the human being was expected to be "deadbefore the nerves can communicateany sense of shock."As stated in the report,"anelectricshock of sufficientforce to produce death cannot in fact producea sensationwhich can be recognized"-it was considered impossible that pain could be felt. Moreover,the major criterion for the significanceof a forcewas the influenceit exertedon human life-whether that force was representedby the dynamo or the Virgin Mary.After all, the deadly dynamo exerteda two-wayeffect on human existence:first,with incomprehensiblebut neverthelessmeasurableand human-generatedpower,the dynamocould take an individual from life to death. Second, such an advancedexecution elevatedsociety to a higher stateof civilization.Thus, the electricchairpromisedthat an advanceto a higherlevel of technologicaland culturalperfectionon the evolutionaryspiralwould be achieved at the moment of execution. Effortsto achievethis climb were consideredan obligation; the executioncommission maintained,"It is the duty of society to utilize for its benefit the advantagesand facilitieswhich science has uncoveredto its view."27 As New York'sgovernorHill legalizedexecutionby electrocutionon June 4, 1888, the enlightenedpublic celebrateda significantstep in the history of humanity.It was said that the state of New Yorkwas the spearheadof civilizationand had left its mark in the annals of humanity. One of the leading figuresin the technical implementation of the execution law was Harold P. Brown. He was working with Thomas Edison and had been in the electricitybusinesssince the first arc lights had been put up in the 1870s. Brown published a hymn of praisefor electric execution in the North AmericanReview.In his presentation,the electricalapparatusappearedas an occult mechanismwhose infalliblydeadlypower unfolds at the push of a button and is displayed by magic instruments.Brown praisedthe incomprehensiblespeed as well as the painlessnessand silence of the new method, even before it had been used for the first time: is in perfectorderand indicatethatallthe apparatus Dialsof electricalinstruments closesthe switch.Respiraat everymoment.The deputy-sheriff recordthe pressure witha velocityequalingthatof tion andheart-action instantlycease,andelectricity, a life at before nerve-sensation, speed of only one hundredand light, destroys is a stiffeningof the muscles, reach the brain. There can feet second, per eighty relaxafterfivesecondshavepassed;butthereis no struggleandno whichgradually sound.The majestyof the lawhasbeenvindicated,but no physicalpainhasbeen caused.-Suchis electricalexecution.28 From the summer of 1888 on, the press regularlypublished detailed reports on experimentson animals that were sacrificed"on the altar of science."Readerswere informedabout the exact type, size, and weight of the animals,the specific resistance of their skin, and the strength and length of the electric shock to which they were Adams, EducationofHenry Adams,381; Gerry,Hale, and Southwick, Reportof the Commission,75, 75, 75. Harold P. Brown, "The New Instrument of Execution,"NorthAmericanReview,149 (Nov. 1889), 586-93, esp. 593; see also New YorkTimes,June 5, 1888, pp. 2, 4. The text of the law is in Gerry, Hale, and Southwick, Reportof the Commission,91-95. See also Howells, "Executionby Electricity,"23. 27 28 The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 915 exposed.It was specificallyemphasizedthat afterthe execution-apartfrom being lifeless-their bodieswerein perfectcondition.Therewas no doubt that in these the "fatalcurrent" provedto be the mostpotentforceknownto modern experiments to exhibit"superior science;Westinghouse's alternatingcurrentseemedparticularly andwouldbe usedforthe firstexecution.The optimismwas deathdealingqualities" almostboundless,andhardlyanyonedoubtedthata man'slifewouldend by electrocutionat highvoltageafterfifteensecondsat most. Severalstatesconsideredfollowing New Yorksexampleby introducingnewexecutionlawsof theirown.29 "Kemmler the First:Sentencedto Be Executedby Electricity" wasthe headlineof the New YorkTimeson May 15, 1889. Massiveenthusiasmspreadwhenthe twentyeight-year-old vegetablepeddlerWilliamKemmlerfrom Buffalowas sentencedto deathby electricshock,becausehe hadmurderedhis lover,TellieZiegler,with an ax. behalf.George Only the WestinghouseCompanytriedto interveneon Kemmler's the chief was the advocate forAC,which, investor, Westinghouse, company's leading in contrastto ThomasEdison'sdirectcurrent,wasmoreefficientandlessexpensive but at thesametimewassaidto be moredangerousthanDC.Edison'slobbyhaddone its best,andACwaschosenas the lethalweaponagainstcrimebecauseof its reputation asmorepowerful;it wasthusstigmatized as too dangerous forregularuse.Westand thereforeorganizedandpaidfor inghousesawhis businessinterestsendangered the bestdefenseteamKemmlercouldget. Kemmler's lawyerscontendedthatelectric executionwaspossiblycruelanddefinitelyunusual,andthereforeit wasunconstitutional.They even carriedthe caseto the SupremeCourt,and in the hearingsthey claimedthatthe fataleffectof an electricshockwasnot certainat all.30 The pressaccusedthe Westinghouse Company,Kemmler's lawyer(BourkeCockand his witnesses of of out economic self-interest and of hinderingthe ran), acting of use of progress civilizationand humanity.The contentionthat a knowledgeable electricity,"properly appliedfor the purposeof producingdeath,"did not leadto an instantaneousand painless death was dismissedas devoid of all reason and ridiculous" froma scientificpointof view.To substantiate thatclaimand "supremely underlinethe powerof electricity, the concertedforceof naturewascalledupon,and electriccurrentwasexplicitlydescribedas a formof lightningcontrolledby manthat paralyzesthe brainbeforeit can feel any pain at all. Therefore,deathby electricity was called100 percentpainless,and in the courtsnumerousexpertsconfirmedthe statementin the commission's report:"Thebrainhasabsolutelyno time to appreciate a senseof pain."CompetentWestinghouse witnessesobjectedthat modernscience still knewtoo little aboutelectricityto makedefinitestatementsof thatkind; finally,howelectricitykillswasstillunknown,a factthatevenThomasEdisonhadto admit in the end. Still, the objectionwas dismissedas unpersuasive and was not 29New YorkTimes, July 31, 1888, p. 8; ibid., March 9, 1889, p. 5; see also ibid., Aug. 4, 1888, p. 8; ibid., Dec. 6, 1888, p. 5; ibid., Jan. 7, 1889, p. 5; ibid., Feb. 3, 1889, p. 3; and ibid., May 8, 1889, p. 4. 30 New YorkTimes,May 15, 1889, p. 3; ibid., July 12, 1889, p. 8. "In reKemmler,136 U.S. 436 (1890)," FindLaw <http:/laws.findlaw.com/us/136/436.html> (April27, 2001). For the conflict between Edison and Westinghouse, see Brandon, Electric Chair, 67-88; Millard, "Thomas Edison, the Battle of the Systems, and the Persistenceof Direct Current";and Neustadter, "'Deadly Current,"'82-83. On the Supreme Court, see Denno, "Is Electrocution an Unconstitutional Method of Execution?,"566-94. 916 The Journalof AmericanHistory December2002 allowed to stand in the way of civilization and progress.Even if everybodyhad to admit that "anymode of executionis liable to misadventures,[and] there is necessarily something experimentalin the first trial of a new mode of execution,"the probability of a failure of this experiment with William Kemmler was considered "infinitesimal."A New YorkTimeseditorialremarkedon July 13, 1889: "In fact, the whole contention seems too fantasticand unsubstantialto deserveserious consideration. Everybodyknows that electric currentsless powerful than it is proposed to employ do kill men instantaneouslyand without pain."The courts agreed"thatit is within easy reachof electricalscience at this day to so generateand apply to the person of the convict a currentof electricityof such known and sufficient force as certainly to produceinstantaneous,and thereforepainless,death."31 The defendant'slawyersfailed sufficientlyto deconstructthe belief in a sublime perfection of mankind by a technologically progressive execution. After all, as Schuyler S. Wheeler, an expert on electricitywho was also involved in the animal testing, contended in Harper'sWeekly,electricity was still considered "mysterious, but at the same time "thescienceborn a short time ago has furalmost supernatural," nished the possibilities for the arts of applied electricityat once so potent and so novel that the world is carriedawaywith them."Wheeler emphasizedthat machines poweredby electricityproduced"resultsstrangelyunlike everythingpreviouslyseen," and thus they appeared"almostmagical."Like Henry Adams, Wheeler showed his fascinationwith the seeminglyboundlesspotential of the electricmotor. He stressed that the dynamo provideda preciselydispensable,absolutelysilent, and clean power suitablefor such diverseinstrumentsas sewing machines,trains,fire brigades,medical instruments,variousforms of illumination,and an execution machine.Alongside descriptionsand sketchesof a jumbo magnet, an electric locomotive, and a motorized sewing machine, Wheeler's article included a detailed description and clear sketch of the killing apparatus.Thus, Wheeler and Harper'sWeeklyexplicitlyembedded the electricchairin the spectrumof technologicalwondersthat enhancedhuman existence. Moreover,that development was understood as an expressionof a transcendentalpower.32 Within this context, William Kemmler'simminent executionwas portrayedas the most important experimentin the history of both electricityand the death penalty, and Kemmlerhimselfwas considereda pioneer of science. The pressreportedmeticulously about the installationof electric chairs in the newly created death rows in Sing Sing and Auburnprisons;Kemmlerwas to be executedat Auburn State Prison. During the tests of the execution machine, light bulbs were arrangedon boardsthat would control and display the force of the electric current.Furthermore,when the lights "glowedbrilliantly"and "burnedbrightly,"they visualizedand aestheticizedthe 31 New York Times,July 10, 1889, p. 4; ibid., Feb. 15, 1890, p. 3; ibid., July 13, 1889, p. 4; ibid., July 19, 1889, p. 4; ibid., July 13, 1889, p. 4; "In re Kemmler,136 U.S. 436 (1890)," FindLaw.See also New YorkTimes, March 22, 1890, p. 4; ibid., July 11, 1889, p. 8; ibid., July 12, 1889, p. 8; ibid., July 16, 1889, p. 8; ibid., July 17, 1889, p. 8; ibid., July 25, 1889, p. 8; and ibid., July 26, 1889, p. 4. For furtherdetails, see Denno, "Is Electrocution an Unconstitutional Method of Execution?,"578-94. 32 Schuyler S. Wheeler, "Recent Developments of Electricity as an IndustrialArt," Harper'sWeekly,Feb. 25, 1888, pp. 141-44. For Wheeler'sparticipationin the tests, see New YorkTimes,Aug. 4, 1888, p. 8. The Sublimeand the ElectricChair 917 Like various other inventions powered by electricity, such as a motor-run sewing machine, a fire engine, or medical instruments, the execution machine picturedhere was supposed to illustratethe advanced technology of the late nineteenth century. Reprinted fiom Harper'sWeekly,Feb.25, 1888. mysteriouspowerof the electricmachine.The brightlight emanatingfrom the andthe public,becauseit sigtwenty-fourbulbssatisfiedthe executionprofessionals naledthatthe machinewas "readyto receivethe murderer"-themarchof progress andthe triumphalprocessionof the electricchairseemedunstoppable.33 Finally,on the eveningof August5, 1890, morethantwentyexpertsin the fields of medicine,technology,and law gatheredin the Auburnprisonto see William Kemmlerdie. At the gatesof the prison,an ever-increasing massof peopleflocked in order to be as close as to William Kemmler's deathand to "the possible together climaxof thelongcontestthathasbeengoingon overthe beginningof electricalexecution."The crowddid not yell andmob the site, as theyhaddoneat publicexecutionson the gallows;rather,accordingto pressreports,theyremained"silent" and"in awe,"mirroringthe crowds'behaviorat the firstdisplaysof illumination:"Therewas no noise.Therewas no loud talking,"recordeda journalist:"Everybody spokein a subduedwayas thougha feelingof awehadsettleduponthem."In the prison,each of the expertswassurethatthe machinewouldmorethansatisfactorily completeits workand,moreover,thatKemmler's would be to the annals of mediadded autopsy calhistory.It wassaidthatthe wholeworldhadits eyeson Auburn,andhardlyanyone doubtedthat the triumphof electrocutionwould occur on the morningof 33On the lamps, see New YorkTimes,Dec. 29, 1889, p. 12; ibid., Dec. 31, 1889, p. 4; ibid., Aug. 2, 1890, p. 2; and ibid., Jan. 1, 1890, p. 5. For a clinically detailed reporton the setting up of the electric chairs,see ibid., Feb. 12, 1890, p. 9; ibid., Feb. 15, 1890, p. 3; and ibid., April 29, 1890, p. 8. 918 TheJournalof AmericanHistory December2002 August 6. The vision of a clean use of violence in the name of the people was finally expected to come true: "Death will take the place of life under conditions which famous men of science have devised"-and what could possiblygo wrong?34 On August 7, readersmust have been stunned by the headline of the New York Times:"FarWorse than Hanging: Kemmler'sDeath Proves an Awful Spectacle." Terms such as "horror,""suffering,""disgust,"and "disgraceto civilization"dominated the first columns of the report on William Kemmler'sexecution. Against all contemporaryreasonableexpectations,the fatal current,which had been praisedso much, had to be turned on twice to accomplishKemmler'sdeath, and, accordingto the press,the execution "wasso terriblethat the word fails to convey the idea."35 In the beginning, the procedurehad obviously gone accordingto plan. The witnessesawaitedthe imminent revelationin the executionchamber.Kemmleraccepted his fate with stoic calmness,allowingthe preparationsto be completed,until he sat in the chair in front of a semicircle of witnesses, "with the light from the window streamingfull on his face,"to quote from the descriptionof the New YorkTimes.At 6:42 A.M. the electricitywas turned on for seventeenseconds, and afterwardsno one doubted the death of the experimentalobject. But Kemmlerhad not died. The current had to be switchedon again;the carefullycontrolledsituationgaveway to chaos. Kemmler'sdying did not contributeto a sublime sensationat all but invoked instead the archaicfascinationwith horrifyingexperiences;accordingto the press, the witnesses, "horrifiedby the ghastlysight,"could not turn their eyes from the obviously sufferingman in the agony of death. In the end, no one could tell for how many seconds or even minutes Kemmlerhad remaineda part of the electricalcircuit, since no one had been able carefullyto control the procedureany more. The electricityflowed, Kemmler'sblood vessels began to burst, the hair and skin under the electrodes burned, "the stench was unbearable,"and people collapsed. "Kemmlerwas literally roasted to death"-the demonstrationof humanitarianprogress,technologicalperfection, and an advancein civilizationseemed to have ended in shameand disgrace.36 On another,more analyticallevel of the reports,however,a differentpicturewas presented.The evils of Kemmler'selectrocutionwere reduced to the visible part of the performance.Experts of medicine and technology agreed that Kemmler must have lost consciousnessalmost in the very moment when the button was pushedonly a hundredthof a second was said to have separatedthe final push and the end of all sensation. Within that logic, though Kemmler had obviously been alive for a while, he had felt no pain. If his body had shown signs of pain and suffering,it was the sort of pain that could not be felt. The almost unbearableslowness and the torturous sight of his dying was explained away by the excitement and organizational glitches of the event and by technicalproblemswith the machinery,including insufficient contact of the electrodesto the body and voltage that was much lower than 34New YorkTimes, Aug. 6, 1890, p. 1; ibid., April 29, 1890, p. 8; ibid., Aug. 5, 1890, p. 1. For the gathering of the crowd, see ibid., Aug. 7, 1890, pp. 1-2. 35Ibid., Aug. 7, 1890, p. 1. 36Ibid. Reportershad to rely on witnesses and on their imagination because the presswas excluded except for two members of news agencies:see Madow, "ForbiddenSpectacle,"538-55. New YorkTimes,Aug. 7, 1890, p. 2. The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 919 planned.The intentionof avoidingthe associationof violence,cruelty,and barbarismwith the deathpenaltyin orderto ensureand performthe progressof civilization had not been fulfilled,but proponentsof electricexecutioninsistedthat the victimhad not sufferedat all. The secretaryof the StateBoardof Healthof New York,Dr. LouisBalch,wasone of numerousexpertswho assuredthat"fromthe first shockthe prisonerwasvirtuallydead,sufferedno pain,and had no returnto consciousness."37 Somedetailsof the executionby electricityneededrefinement; the validityof the been was said to have confirmed. Under bettercircumhowever, different, principle, in life be taken a flash. the in the could doubtless commentator stances, Moreover, New YorkTimesconjecturedthat,with a sufficientlyhighvoltage,Kemmler's execution shouldhavebeendeclareda "wonderful success." To demandthe abandoningof electricexecutionsand the returnto the gallowsas a consequenceof this eventwas In a morecautiouscomment,the New YorkTridismissedas "absurd" and"puerile." bunestatedthat"theresultof the executionin referenceto the greatlyagitatedquestion as to the superiorhumanityof the newmethodoverhanging,is not conclusive." Butskepticalinterpretations of thissortwererarelygivenandwereoftencounterbalancedby the commentators themselves.Dr. E. C. Spitzka,for example,an expertin forensicmedicineandone of the physicianswho wereresponsible for the execution, at firstmaintainedthat "thedeathchairwill yet be the pulpitfromwhichthe doctrineof the abolitionof capitalpunishmentwill be preached." he then Nevertheless, that the "emotional side of our nature" was arousedby William emphasized Kemmler's execution,but froma rationalpoint of view,accordingto Spitzka,"the heavingof [his]chestand abdomenareexplainedby the relaxationof the muscles, and the consequentexpulsionof the air.It is absurdto say that he was not dead [immediately].... The executionat Auburnaccomplishedits object."Still, most commentators weremoreemphaticandagreedwithAlfredSouthwick,a memberof the executioncommission,who evennamedWilliamKemmler's death"thegreatest successof the age."Southwickemphasizedthat electricexecution"isa grandthing anddestinedto becomethe systemof legaldeaththroughouttheworld."Thus,New Yorkseemedto be aheadof the restof mankindandto havetakena largesteptoward a perfectsociety.38 Elevenmonthslater,the pressannouncedthe approachof "thesecondexperiment"in electricexecution.This time, all safetymeasuresappearedto have been of a state-ordered deathpromisedto be "aperfectsuctaken,and the performance cess."The arrangements in generalandthe electricchairin particular weredescribed as a "perfectexecutionplant"thatwasunder"absolute control."Therefore,the executionwould be carriedout with an "accuracy" thatwas describedas "wonderful." The beliefin the perfectedandprecisetechnologywasso boundlessthatin the early 37 Louis Balch quoted in 38 Ibid.; New York New YorkTimes,Aug. 7, 1890, pp. 1-2, 4. Tribune,Aug. 7, 1890, p. 1; E. C. Spitzka quoted ibid., Aug. 8, 1890; Alfred Southwick quoted in New YorkTimes,Aug. 7, 1890, pp. 1-2, 4. For referencesto similar reports in other newspapersand magazines,see Neustadter, "'Deadly Current,"'84-85. The official report on the execution confirmed the idea of William Kemmler'spainless death: New YorkTimes,Oct. 9, 1890, p. 4. 920 TheJournalof AmericanHistory December2002 morning of July 7, 1891, four men were destined to die in Sing Sing state prison's electricchair.This time the pressrejoicedafterwards;"theKemmlerbutchery"would probablyremainthe only partial"failure"of the new method, and yesterday'sundertaking had been "entirely,emphaticallysuccessful"and "eminentlysatisfactory."The immediatedeathsof the four men signifiedhuman control over the power of nature. Eachwas "stonedead as quick as lightning,"one of the obviouslyimpressedwitnesses remarkedbefore he left for a hearty breakfastwith a healthy appetite, accordingto press reports.The execution of the four men had not only been the most humane executionof all times but also the least gruesome.The new method, stressedthe physician Alphonse Rockwell,one of the most knowledgeableexpertson electricityand its effectson the human body, "meetsall the requirementsfor killing decently,a man sentencedto death."In the contemporaryperception,the fourfoldexecution in Sing Sing marked a great step forwardin the history of mankind, and it illustratedthe progress"in the art of killing by electricity,"as stated by Rockwell'scolleague,Alfred Southwick.39 "Electricexecutionhas come to stay"was a majorprophecyof the following days. In October 1891 the official reporton the executionsin Sing Sing indicated that in at least two of the four cases signs of life had been registeredafter the first electric shocks had been applied, but no generaldoubts about the complete success of the project were raised. The immediate unconsciousnessof the four electrocutedmen was naturallyassumed. Furthermore,electrocutionwas not at all discreditedin the state of New Yorkwhen in December 1891 "scenesof horror"occurredduring the next experimentin Sing Sing'sexecution chamber.In orderto kill the murdererMartin D. Loppy, the currenthad to be turned on four times. According to witnesses' reports,Loppy convulsed heavily,the flesh under the electrodesburned, and one of his eyeballs burst. The medical experts testified again, however, that the man had been instantaneouslyunconsciousand thereforehad died painlessly.40 The culturalconfigurationof the eradid not give room for a fundamentallydifferent interpretation.41The ability to channel the forces of nature and to transform them into controlledenergywas consideredthe engine of civilizationand progressas well as a sign of divine blessing. In particular,electricitywas the promise of the age; electric light and dynamos had the aura of the supernatural,and at the same time they signified the boundlessgenius of man. The electricchairwas deeply woven into this understanding,and it promised a quick, painless, and ultimately immaculate execution that would causea sublime effect on society.The moment of state-ordered 39 New YorkTimes, Nov. 28, 1890, p. 2; ibid., April 19, 1891, p. 3; ibid., July 8, 1891, pp. 1, 4; Alphonse Rockwell and Southwick quoted ibid. Alphonse Rockwell was a professorof electrotherapyin New Yorkand was the coauthor of an important study on the use of electricity in medical therapy:George M. Beard and Alphonse D. Rockwell, On the Medicaland SurgicalUsesof Electricity(New York, 1871). 40 New YorkTimes,July 10, 1891, p. 2; ibid., Oct. 2, 1891, p. 4; ibid., Dec. 8, 1891, p. 1; ibid., Dec. 17, 1891, p. 4; ibid., Dec. 25, 1891, p. 8. For another criticalcase in August 1893, see Denno, "IsElectrocutionan Unconstitutional Method of Execution?,"606; and Brandon, ElectricChair,211-12. 41 Neustadter refersto a "technologicalimperative":Neustadter,"'Deadly Current,"'82. The Sublimeandthe ElectricChair 921 deathwasto be associatednot withviolenceor cruelty,butwithan ordered,civilized, andenhancedsociety. This conceptionwasconveyedwithinthe contextof LeonE Czolgosz's execution in 1901. The deathof PresidentWilliamMcKinley's assassinwasreenactedin a film Inc. film Thomas A. The Edison, producedby beginswith a panoramicview of AuburnStatePrisonto providean authenticsetting,and the executionsceneopens with a shotof the chair.It showshow the powerof the dynamois testedwith a lamp board,thus referringto the enlighteningand enhancingeffectsof electricityunder humancontrol.Then, Czolgoszis strappedinto the chairto be executedin a cliniwithinless thana minute,threeshortelectricshocksstream callysterileprocedure: his There areno tracesof violenceinscribedonto his body;thereis no through body. burningflesh, no stench,no horrifyingprocedureportrayed.Finally,two doctors coollyconfirmhis death,whichis announcedby the warden.In this shortfilm, the executionof a capitalpunishmentunfoldsa doublesublimityof deathand human inventiveness. deathis reproduced on celluloid,whichwasceleFirst,an individual's bratedas a new technologythatwouldreproducelife. Second,in the film, a clean, almostsupernatural deathcausedby the dynamo,the embodimentof the infinite of nature that is now channeledby the handsof man, is revealedto a larger power public.42Such an executionby electricitysignifiedculturalperfection;therefore,even in the momentof the infinitedestructionof humanlife, electricityexerteda constructiveenergy.In the reformeraof progressivism in turn-of-the-century America, the electricchairbecamethe prevalentmethodof execution,and numerousU.S. stateswereto followNew Yorksexamplein the earlytwentiethcentury.43 Executionof Czolgoszwith PanoramaofAuburn Prison (Thomas A. Edison, Inc., 1901), film, in Libraryof Congress, AmericanMemory<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/mckhome.html>(April 20, 2001); for a discussion of the film see in particularJonathanAuerbach,"McKinleyat Home: How EarlyAmerican Cinema Made News," American Quarterly,51 (Dec. 1999), 797-832, esp. 822-25; Charles Musser, Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porterand the EdisonManufacturingCompany(Berkeley,1991), 187-90; and Miriam Hansen, Babeland Babylon:Spectatorshipin AmericanSilent Film (Cambridge,Mass., 1991), 47. 43 The reform movement against the death penalty gained momentum and widespread success in the early twentieth century; see John F Galliher, Gregory Ray, and Brent Cook, "Abolitionand Reinstatement of Capital Punishment during the ProgressiveEra and Early 20th Century,"Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,83 in Nordamerika,94-115. (Fall 1992), 538-76; and Martschukat,Geschichteder Todesstrafe 42