Plans For Stickley Electric Chair?

[RKP51X]

Keith Bohn writes

:>"The story goes that Stickley designed the first electric chair to be
>employed in New York State..." It goes on to compare the "fine
>plainness" of his Craftsman style with this electric chair.
>
>

>Anyone have any facts to back up t

There may be something to this story. Gustave Stickley moved to Binghamton NY
in 1884 and started a furniture mill with his brothers. Stickley left the
family business in 1888 and went to work as vicepresident for the Binghamton
Street Railway, an electric street car company. During this time, he also
supervised the prison workshops at the Auburn Prison It seems he supervised
the Auburn prison work shops during the time the electric chair was built. It
is easy to figure that a man with up to date knowledge of both electricity and
furniture design would be called on to design the first electric chair.

This sort of stuff fascinates some people. I am sure that if Stickly did design
the chair the documentation exists. If he did not design it , he certainly was
there to supervise the building of it.
Roger Poplin dba RKP...@aol.com

[Paul Kemner]

b...@execpc.com (Keith Bohn) wrote:
>"The story goes that Stickley designed the first electric chair to be
>employed in New York State..."

According to Bruce Johnson, organizer of the Grove Park Inn
conference, this is a myth. He did run or advise the woodworking
shop at the prison if I remember correctly, but the dates were
wrong for the chair. Maybe it was an early Roycroft- the pic of
the chair did look a lot more Roycroft-y than anything else!
anti-spam- remove the x from my address.

[Lee Barker]

Paul Kemner <pxke...@bright.net> wrote in article
<35879fa...@news.bright.net>...

> b...@execpc.com (Keith Bohn) wrote:
> >"The story goes that Stickley designed the first electric chair to be
> >employed in New York State..."
> According to Bruce Johnson, organizer of the Grove Park Inn
> conference, this is a myth.

The first chair did not work; evidently the current was inadequate. It was
taken back for improvement. Since that time many people have found the
whole concept of the electric chair revolting.

Lee Barker

[MKepke]

"Dammit Jim - I'm a cabinetmaker, not an electrician"

-MK
In article <01bd99f0$fed4c680$3ba5...@empnet.com.empnet.com>, "Lee
Barker" <grea...@empnet.com> wrote:

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My opinions, etc.
** To send email use: mkepke at nortel dot ca

[Nova]

Lee Barker wrote:

> The first chair did not work; evidently the current was inadequate. It was
> taken back for improvement. Since that time many people have found the
> whole concept of the electric chair revolting.
>
> Lee Barker

Since the chair didn't work the first time, I assume they had to try again
once the improvements to the chair were made. I would say it was
re-"volting". ;>)

Jack Novak

[CALA Woodshop]

Keith Bohn wrote:
>
> Anyone have any facts to back up this?
>
> I was leafing through the July 1998 copy of Architectural Digest and
> came across an article on the late Brenden Gill a long time
> contributor to the magazine. There are a series of his better
> articles and on page 41 I found the following:

>
> "The story goes that Stickley designed the first electric chair to be

> employed in New York State..." It goes on to compare the "fine
> plainness" of his Craftsman style with this electric chair.
>

In "A Complex Fate: Gustav Stickley and the Craftsman Movement" by Barry
Sanders, Preservation Press, ASIN#0471143928. The author contends that
Stickley designed the chair at Auburn Prison while a facilities manager
(or something) there. This indeed is long before his "Craftsman" line
and persona fully developed. Whether or not tgis is true is
questionable, but the book is a good read regardless.

The mystery of Stickley will likely never be fully explained.

enjoy

--
****************************************************
Kevin J. Groenke University of Minnesota
Operations Manager College of Architecture and
CALA Woodshop Landscape Architecture
arch...@tc.umn.edu 89 Church Street Southeast
Minneapolis MN 55455

http://www.cala.umn.edu/resources/woodshop/main.html
****************************************************

[Andrew Walduck]

I just wondered if it was made from quarter-sawn oak with a fumed
ammonia finish!!

I can just see it now:
Warden: Mr. Stickley what a wonderful new chair... now about that
table I've ordered...

Cheers.
Andrew Walduck
waldua at nortel dot ca

[Frank Hagan]

On Wed, 17 Jun 1998 20:18:45 -0400, Andrew Walduck
<"postmaster"@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:

>I just wondered if it was made from quarter-sawn oak with a fumed
>ammonia finish!!

Perhaps the idea of fuming oak to acheive a rich finish was inspired
by the first few uses of 'Sparky.

As my daughter would say, ewwwww!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Get your facts straight first, then you can
distort them all you want.

- Mark Twain -

[Mark Lange]

Actually more like re-amping. (Sorry, couldn't resist that one)

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