Executioner's Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair by Richard Moran: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

Book is in excellent condition, like new.

Print length: 304 pages

Language: English

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, American Publishing House

Publication date: October 15, 2002

Dimensions: 6.75 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches

Item Weight: ‎1.35 pounds

ISBN-10: 0375410597

ISBN-13: 978-0375410598

The amazing story of how the electric chair developed not out of the desire for a method of execution more humane than hanging but of an effort by one nineteenth century electric company to discredit the other.

In 1882, Thomas Edison launched “the age of electricity” by lighting up a portion of Manhattan with his direct current (DC) system. Six years later George Westinghouse lit up Buffalo with his less expensive alternating current (AC). They quickly became locked in a battle for market share. Richard Moran shows that Edison, in order to maintain commercial dominance, set out to blacken the image of Westinghouse’s AC by persuading the State of New York to electrocute condemned criminals with AC current. Westinghouse, determined to keep AC from becoming known as the “executioner’s current,” fought to stop the first electrocution, claiming that use of the electric chair constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The legal battle that ensued ended when the Supreme Court refused to rule.