ECN Electrical Forum
Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals

Paul of the UK,
As far as the the electric chair goes I really dont know what voltage it is, all I know is that when they were going to 'Fry' Ted Bundy, a radio station in Fla was asking everybody not to use any power, until it was over,,,.. bordering on the macabre, but it is lethal.
As far as the De-fib unit My source works in a intensive cardiac care unit and their method is as I described and their is no thought about what the body resistance is, If the patient is in shock they are cold and clamy anyway which has got to reduce the body resistance.
My whole point was the environment in which this takes place, an electric shock and the severity of the shock will be dependant on the prevailing conditions, ie if you are standing ankel deep in water a 50-70 volt jolt is probably more than enough to be lethal. And as someone pointed out Ohms law works,.. always
Since we have been talking about DIYers, I remember one telling me he never worried about 'House-hold current because it was only 110 volts', as strange as that was, the US Navy came out with a training film, many moons ago called, "110 volt, the deadly shipmate", and very graphically drives the point home, one shot i remember to this day is some Steward sticking a metal knife in a toaster... Respect is what it is all about.

Mark

"The Chair" that I played with (I worked in a prison system in a non-death penalty state, BUT the chair was still there) was 2,500 volts. "Sparkies" last client was a cop killer in the 50's, but was actually one of the originals from about the turn of the century.

Just thought I'd pass it along.

For those interested in history, there is a book coauthored by the first US person to be executed by an electric chair. It goes into all of the design and testing to insure a humane operation.

The name is "A Peep Into The Twentieth Century". Sorry I can't remember the author.

[This message has been edited by JBD (edited 09-19-2002).]

A Peep into the 20th Century
by Christopher Davis

Sumner Locke Elliott
"...a brutal case of man's inhumanity to man...because he is a beautiful writer he has conceived it as poetic horror story."

Book Description

A National Book Award nominee, A Peep Into The 20th Century is about the first electrical execution in 1890 and the war between Edison and Westinghouse for the soul of electricity's first deliberate victim.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Mark,
All the quotes I've seen give the chair voltage as between about 1700 and 2600V, although in many cases they apparently reduce the voltage after a few seconds. A quick search came up with these:

GA: 2000V 4 sec, 1000V 7 sec, 208V 2 min.
AL: 2500V 20 sec, 250V 100 sec.
VA: 1825V 30 sec, 240V 60 sec.
??: 2400V 7 sec, 600V 17 sec.

The initial higher voltage is supposed to knock out the brain & nervous system instantly.

George,
Trying to place where that would have been from the list I have here in conjunction with your location. You said state, but would that by any chance have been the District of Columbia? Just morbid curiosity!

I seen an oft-quoted value of just 32 volts as being the lowest potential which is on record as having proved fatal.

Roger Paul, The good ole State of Confusion

Paul, I knew it! There had to be some use for increased-voltage starting!

George,
Thought it might have been Washington D.C. The only other non-death-penalty state at present bordering Va. appears to be WV, and I know they were the last state to adopt the chair in 1949, so it wouldn't have been a turn-of-the-century installation.

BJ,
Hee-hee! Gives new meaning to the term "jump start." But did you hear about the proposed new NEC rule? In order to provide greater safety against shock electric chairs will be required to be fed via a GFCI --

P.S. Re "State of Confusion," I ran into somebody the other day who was convinced that America has 52 states. No way could I get him to believe that it's only 50.
(And I've lost count of the number of people here who don't realize that Washington D.C. and Washington State are two different places on opposite sides of the country!)


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 09-20-2002).]

Paul, in the vain of, “…electric chairs will be required to be fed via a GFCI,” I wonder in hospital surgery rooms if electronic “give me 360 joules!” defibrillators are required to be fed from ground-fault-interrupter circuits?

Got this in my email today:



Comments please.

I'm growing very tired of this stubborn and ignorant fool.



I replied:



[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 11-20-2002).]