Execution by Electricity.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 229, 19 November 1887, Page 2

Execution by Electricity.

Ax electrician ot Now York— at present a visitor in thoFicucb capital— recommends to the attention ot f>«n*ilive Frenchmen thiee sy-tem^ for putting condemned cri-niim^ (o death which are bcin# studied in hi « own country, and ono of which, he belicvo, will fhorCy bo selected for carrying outthode-iih ,-cnteiKe. The first consists of a copper '•,>M'lngo placed round the criminal's head in <«uch a manner that a magnetic pole pres-cs « losely on the nape of the neck. The "patient ' .^tvUhk-. on a large zinc platform : his hanrl/s bomj? tiort behind his back. A second note is attached to this species of p]a(f'oi..i. U the right moment the sitrtal i-. The discharge takes place ; dc/uh i- instantaneous. JablochkofF hd-, inventor a more "comfortable" plan ; his notion being 1 to place the condemned man in an eas>y chair, with his hands o>. the iv:w.s of the fauicuit, and hi 5 fret touching the fine platfoim. A stop i.-> pressed ; the electric current li -c\/i^ l'ic man by the tv.-o elbows, and by Jp's feet ;" ond in half a second all is over. A tliuv- ->3ffccm his been devised by anQtoer elcgtiMftn, which differs in no uuiteriat way fiwin tic iir.st mentioned; and eenain Aiacd^ar. le^i.-lators fire, it appeai ■?, carefully cxai-nining the thvee, with tlie object of deciding in favour of chab which "will i'lSt. Ie the quickest and most painless death.