The Electric Chair Was Invented by a Dentist

The search for a more "humane" form of capital punishment in the late 19th century led to an unlikely source: the office of a Buffalo, New York dentist. After hearing a story of a local man who died instantly and seemingly painlessly from touching an electrical generator, Dr. Alfred Southwick became convinced that electricity was a superior alternative to the often-botched process of hanging. Drawing from his own profession, where he worked on patients in a fixed position, he naturally conceived of a "death chair" to administer the fatal shock.

Southwick's concept was quickly co-opted into the bitter "War of Currents" between Thomas Edison, who championed direct current (DC), and his rival George Westinghouse, who promoted alternating current (AC). To prove that AC was dangerously unsafe for household use, Edison and his associates secretly funded and promoted the development of an AC-powered electric chair. They hoped the public would forever associate Westinghouse's technology with state-sanctioned death. Ironically, the first execution by this method in 1890 was a horrifying spectacle, a gruesome debut for a technology born from a dentist's unusual observation.