Verne's Demon of Electricity
quentin skrabec
Vernian obscura et Trivia 4
Quentin R. Skrabec Ph.D.
Verne’s Future “Demon of Electricity”
Verne foresaw man’s misuse of electricity in Paris in the Twentieth Century. In Verne’s future Paris of 1960, he used the power of Faraday’s electric arc to light the city but foresaw a darker use. Verne noted in 1863 that in his futuristic Paris of 1960: “Decapitations were no longer in vogue; criminals were now executed by electric charge. Surely it was a better imitation of divine vengeance [referencing the killing power of lighting].” This prediction was a leap by Verne but in technology and culture.
While science suggested the killing potential of electricity as early as the 1700s, it wasn’t until 1889 that criminals were executed by electricity using the AC current system of Westinghouse, which was developed in the 1870s. In Verne’s novel of 1863, it was questionable whether the DC batteries could supply the power needed.
Ben Franklin, in 1749, hosted an electrical feast, which began with Franklin electrocuting a turkey (DC current by batteries) and then roasting it on a spit turned by an electrically powered jack. Initially, Franklin needed several shocks to kill the turkey fully, but Franklin persisted for years until he nearly killed himself. Having learned from his mistakes by 1773, Franklin noted: “The one who does the operation must be very aware, lest it happen to him, accidentally or inadvertently, to mortify his flesh instead of that of his hen."
In the 1820s, scientists like Sir Humphry Davy suggested that a battery-powered DC current could kill. AC current, developed by Faraday’s dynamo, offered more killing power in the 1870s, and stray dogs were being executed. Verne had closely followed some of Faraday’s AC experiments of the 1850s and 1860s. At the time of Verne’s writing in 1863, there is no record of anyone suggesting “electrocution” of criminals.
In 1879, a stage carpenter was accidentally killed by the alternating current of a Siemens dynamo that was giving a voltage of about 250 volts at the time.
In 1889, the state of New York sentenced its first criminal, a street merchant named William Kemmler, to be executed by AC current in their new form of capital punishment. Like Franklin’s turkey, it took two attempts to kill him. In the second attempt, Kemmler received a double shock of 2,000 volts. Leon Czolgosz was executed in the electric chair in 1901 for the assassination of President William McKinley. Widespread use of electrical execution took to the 1920s and declined after that. By the 1960s, most electric chairs were museum pieces.
References
Allison Marsh, “Ben Franklin’s Other Great Electrical Discovery: Turkey Tenderization,” IEEE Spectrum, November 2018
Editor, “In Death by Electric Currents and by Lightning,” Nature 91, 466–469 (1913).
rfb...@aol.com
Ross Bagby
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quentin
Yes! You are right - the famous “War of Currents” in the 1890s was an effort by Edison to discredit the use of Westinghouse and Tesla’s AC power for home lighting. Edison supplied financing for the famous Topsy the Elephant execution. Verne in his writings was more of a “DC” guy earlier on. In the short “IN THE YEAR 2889” Verne and/or Michaël saw the future as some combination of DC (battery) and mechanical AC
Note: I wouldn’t go as far as viewing the first electric chair as a stunt. On January 1, 1888, New York had instituted death by electrocution, the first such law ever. After Kemmler's conviction, it was determined that his sentence was to be carried out. George Westinghouse, did not want to see their new product used in this manner. His lawyer filed an appeal claiming the electric chair violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
I discuss this in my book Metallurgic Age The Metallurgic Age: The Victorian Flowering of Invention and Industrial Science: Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr.: 9780786423262: Amazon.com: Books
Thanks for input and comment
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Quentin R. Skrabec Jr., Ph.D.
St. Eloi Consulting
6609 Buck Creek
Maumee, Ohio 43537
Cell 419 349 0933
Verne: Past, Present, Future at paris2060.blogspot.com
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