DescriptionHarold Pitney Brown edison electrocute horse 1888 New York Medico-Legal Journal vol 6 issue 4.png
English: Anti-alternating current demonstration by activist Harold P. Brown demonstrating the killing power of AC to the New York Medico-Legal Society by electrocuting a horse at Thomas Edison's West Orange laboratory. Illustration was originally from "Experiments on Death by Electricity", Scientific American 59 - December 22, 1888.
In order to more conclusively prove to the Society that alternating current would be suitable for the electric chair Brown set up an experiment with members of the press, members of the Medico-Legal Society, the chairman of the death penalty commission, and Thomas Edison looking on. The image depicts Brown in an unsuccessful attempt using a hammer and a metal plate to make contact. Brown eventually dispatched the horse with 750 volts of AC. Based on these results the Medico-Legal Society recommended the use of 1000-1500 volts of alternating current for executions.
Date
Source
New York Medico-Legal Journal, vol. 6, issue 4 1889 page 389
Author
Unknown authorUnknown author
Licensing
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1929, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents
Items portrayed in this file
depicts
inception
22 December 1888Gregorian
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.