Research Catalog
Edison & the electric chair : a story of light and death
- Title
- Edison & the electric chair : a story of light and death / Mark Essig.
- Author
- Essig, Mark, 1969-
- Publication
- New York : Walker & Company, [2003], ©2003.
- Supplementary Content
- Book review (H-Net)
Items in the Library & Off-site
Filter by
1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | HV8696 .E87 2003 | Off-site |
Holdings
Details
- Description
- 358 pages : illustrations; 22 cm
- Summary
- "Thomas Edison stunned America in 1879 by unveiling a world-changing invention - the lightbulb - and the launching the electrification of America's cities. A decade later, despite being an avowed opponent of the death penalty, Edison threw his laboratory resources and reputation behind the creation of a very different sort of device - the electric chair. Deftly exploring this chapter in American history, Edison & the Electric Chair delivers both a portrait of a nation on the cusp of modernity and a new examination of Edison himself." "Was Edison genuinely concerned about the suffering of the condemned? Was he warning the public of real dangers posed by the high-voltage alternating wires that looped above hundreds of America's streets? Or was he waging a campaign to smear alternating current and boost his own system? Plumbing the history of electricity, Mark Essig explores America's love of technology and its fascination with violent death, capturing an era when the public was mesmerized and terrified by an invisible force that produced blazing light, powered streetcars, carried telephone conversations - and killed."--BOOK JACKET.
- Alternative Title
- Edison and the electric chair
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-340) and index.
- Contents
- Prologue: Edison on the Witness Stand -- Ch. 1. Early Sparks -- Ch. 2. The Inventor -- Ch. 3. Light -- Ch. 4. Electricity and Life -- Ch. 5. "Down to the Last Penny" -- Ch. 6. Wiring New York -- Ch. 7. The Hanging Ritual -- Ch. 8. The Death Penalty Commission -- Ch. 9. George Westinghouse and the Rise of Alternating Current -- Ch. 10. The Electrical Execution Law -- Ch. 11. "A Desperate Fight" -- Ch. 12. "Criminal Economy" -- Ch. 13. Condemned -- Ch. 14. Showdown -- Ch. 15. The Unmasking of Harold Brown -- Ch. 16. Pride and Reputation -- Ch. 17. The Electric Wire Panic -- Ch. 18. Designing the Electric Chair -- Ch. 19. The Conversion of William Kemmler -- Ch. 20. The First Experiment -- Ch. 21. Alter Kemmler -- Ch. 22. The End of the Battle of the Currents -- Ch. 23. The Age of the Electric Chair -- Epilogue: The New Spectacle of Death.
- ISBN
- 0802714064 (alk. paper)
- LCCN
- 2003052507
- R8-400407
- OCLC
- 52160004
- ocm52160004
- SCSB-5125286
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries