CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BY ELECTRICITY. A Description of New York's Death Cap.'

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 400, 7 September 1889, Page 3

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BY ELECTRICITY. A Description of New York's Death Cap.'

Tjie preparations for the killing of Joseph Kcmmlor at Auburn are progressing favourably. The apparatus by means of which the murderer is to be put to death is nearly 'completed, and the other details for the carrying out for the first time of a law roquiring the execution of tho death penalty by electricity are rapidly being arranged by the warden of the prison upon whom the law imposes tho duty of supei intending the execution. The principal parts of the apparatus, tho machines for the generation ot the current, were secured a good while ago, and ha»e been laid away waiting for tho timo to come to use them. They are ordinary Westinghouso dynamos for the generation of the alternating currents which experiments) upon dogs and other animals haveshown to be peculiarly deadly in their cftcct. Probably if the dynamo's had not been secured a good while ago there would have beon somo difficulty about getting them at all, for the Wesfcinghoiue Company that makes them is bitterly opposed to their boing used tor such a purposo, and said, wheti it was hrst announced that the alternating current; had been decided upon for use in executions, that it would sell no machines to tho Stato. But tho dynamos had already been secured.

I The Last Horus ok xiik Condemned. The proceedings on tho day of putting Kcnvnler to death will, we Icam from an Amorican contemporary, bo as follows : - On whatever morning shall be decided upon in tho week of the execution the prisoner will be notified, and whatever opportunity he desires for religious consolation and farewell words will be giren him. These over, ju&t before the hour fixed upon for the execution, the officers will on tor his cell and the death warrant will be read. His shoes will then be removed, and a pair rosombling regular army brogans will bo substituted. In tho sole of these thevo will have been inserted a metal plate covering tho whole sole, and connecting with wires passing out tlirough the heels. While one officer is making this change of shoes, another will fasten the prisoner's hands together in front, and will place around his body, just beneath his armpits, a stout leather strap, with a buckle fastening it in front, and maphooks projecting from each side at the back. Another oificer will place upon the back of the prisoner's head a peculiar closefitting cap, apparently of black rubber, made around a small mecal piece iti the centre. It will look somewhat as if made by taking a rubber football, and with a metal cap at the hole for a centre, cutting oIF the end of the ball into a sort of hood. The cap will fit over almost tho whole of the head, from the base of tho brain to well 1 toward the foiehead. In&ide of it, in the centre about the metal piece, will be a spiral arrangement of copper wire, about i\vo inches in diameter, and made to fit clown over the part ot the head that it will cover. Tho wires, just beforo the cap is placed on the prisoner's head, will be covered with sponge, saturated with salt water.

Thk Tr.vr iok Death. While the«e arrangements are being put on, the prisoner will be sitting on a chaii in his cell. The chair, not diflering apparently from an ordinary one, bub which is being made especially for the purpose, will be connected with wires leading to anobhor room, and the prisoner, sitting in the chair, will, without knowing it, be subjected to a current of electricity too light to be felt, but heavy enough to give an expert electrician in the other room an exact measurement, by tho use of what is known as the " Whetstone bridge," of electrical resistance of the man. This will take only an infant, and will be done befoie the officers have the prisoner ready to leave the cell. From the cell the procession will be much as now to the execution room, wheie the deputies and other persons permitted by law to witness the execution will be waiting. Near the centre of tho room, laisedupona small plattorm about eight inches above the lloor, will be a chair, made somewhat like a large leclining chair. Tho long, straight frame that forms tho slanting back will be of hard wood pieces, three inches squaie, and will be long enough so that if a .seven-foot man should lie in the chair hi^ head would re«t upon the back, The teat and arms will be of plain wood and without any peculiarities. The upper part of the back frame on each side will be fitted with a -slot, in which will slide back and forth a small arrangement with a ring at the top and a thumbscrew beneath. The rings are to receise the hooks in tho back of the belt about the man's body, and the screws are to fasten the arrangement in place at tho spot where the rings will meet the hooks, which will vary according to the height of tho prisoner. In front ot the chair will bo a foot-rest, something like those in a barber's shop, except that the top portion, instead of being fixed, will bo balanced upon a pivot to permit it to dip front or back, so that the feet will lie firmly upon it. This whole foot-rest will be arranged to slide backward and forward and to be secured with a screw at the point where the prisoner's feet will rest upon it.

The Electric Dial. From the ceiling over the back of tho chair and o\er the foot-rest will dangle two flexible wires, like those from which small electiic lights swing 1 . On the wall atone side will be a small round dial attached to a braes instrument.. A hand upon the dial will indicate the intensity of the current that will pass over the wives. Near it on tho wall will be a small double-pole switch, a brass instrument similar to the familiar switches used to shut off or let on the current wherever electricity is used, but designed especially to show at a glance whether the current is off or on, in order to prevent accidents which carelessness in handling the apparatus might bring about. This will be all of the apparatus apparent in the room.

Painj^kss asv Instant Dicath. The prisoner immediately upon entering the room will be led to the chair and in a moment' will be pushed back into it, the hooks in the belt about his body slipped into the rings in the chair and there fastened in place by the turn of the screws. At tho same moment his feet will be raised, the foot rest slipped under them and fastened by a turn of the screw, and a strap on top of the rest will be buckled tightly over his ankles. In another moment the two dandling wires will be fastened, one to the metal at the centre of the back of the cap, and the other to the metal connection on the heel of each' shoe. A black cloth will' be pulled over the face of the prisoner, the officers will stand well back from the chair, and at a signal the executioner at the switch will turn on tho current, the volume of which has previously been adjusted to > suit the resistance of the prisoner, as shown • bv the t"e&t in the cell. Only the experience of Joseph Kemmler can certainly tell what will 1 happen then, but if the confidence of those in charge,- or the efficiency of the ' apparatus, is wellfounded, at the instant that the switch is touched there will be a little stiHening oi the prisonor s body, a litt 1 quivering of the

I limbs, life will flutter for a baro instant, like the needle that will bp, dancing, upon the dial on tho wall, and then it will all be over. There will be no pain, no convulsion, scarcely a movement to mark the passage from lite to death, but the victim will- bo hopelessly and unmistakably dead. — ' Pall Mall Budget.'