Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.93 (508 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0802777104 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-10-06 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Can You Be Sure, Once You've Been "Westinghoused"? Bruce Loveitt I should raise a warning flag to start this review: if you are squeamish, or an animal lover, this book might be a bit too much for you. There are several horrific episodes involving detailed descriptions of botched executions, as well as descriptions of electrocution experiments performed on dogs, calves, and horses. Mr. Essig's intent is not to be sensationalistic. He wants to show us that when Thomas Edison said that deat. Fascinating History Today we all take electricity for granted. We pay monthly fees to large utility companies, and whenever we buy an electrical appliance we plug it in and it works. But we never think about the fact that as recently as the late 19th century, electricity in homes and businesses was a rarity. And it wasn't the government or large public companies who were rolling it out to communities across the US, but instead entrepreneurs lik. A Fascinating Look at the History of Science Brian Jackson Just finished Mark Essig's Edison and The Electric Chair. I received the book as a surprise gift, not having heard of it before. Very glad I did.The book covers a period in American history that I knew next to nothing about -- the Gilded Age and the War of the Currents. It traces Thomas Edison's work developing and marketing many of the key elements of the US's electrical landscape, from the light bulb to the distribution sy
Thus in 1890 William Kemmler became the electric chair's first victim. Yet except for the rivalry with George Westinghouse, he would have remained a closet humanitarian. Nonetheless, AC triumphed in the end. Or so historian of science Essig argues in his first book. Edison publicly decried AC as a safety hazard and convinced New York legislators that electricity offered the cleanest execution method available-provided it was done with AC. The race between Edison, advocate of direct current (DC), and Westinghouse, champion of alte
Louis, he now lives in Los Angeles. A native of St. This is his first book.. Mark Essig earned a doctorate in American history from Cornell University
Edison championed the electric chair for reasons that remain controversial to this day. A decade later, despite having been an avowed opponent of the death penalty, Edison threw his laboratory resources and reputation behind the creation of a very different sort of device--the electric chair. Deftly exploring this startling chapter in American history, Edison & the Electric Chair delivers both a vivid portrait of a nation on the cusp of modernity and a provocative new examination of Edison himself. A Discover magazine Top Science BookThomas Edison stunned America in 1879 by unveiling a world-changing invention--the light bulb--and then launching the electrification of America's cities. Was Edison genuinely concerned about the suffering of the condemned? Was he waging a campaign to smear his rival George Westinghouse's alternating current and boost his own system? Or was he warning the public of real dangers posed by the high-voltage alternating wires that looped above hundreds of America's streets? Plumbing the fascinating history of electricity, Mark Essig explores America