Did you know before Thomas Edison invented the electric light in 1879, most people slept ten hours each night. He helped in many other ways too. He helped develop the electric chair in the late 1880's. Edison was publicly against capital punishment, but he thought the electric chair was much more humane after seeing animals killed that way. The first person executed by electric chair was William Kemmler in 1890. The execution took two shocks to kill Kemmler. In the second attempt, Kemmler was shocked with 2,000 volts. Blood vessels under his skin ruptured and bled, and some witnesses claimed his body caught fire. The New York Times reported that "an awful odor began to permeate the death chamber, and then, as though to cap the climax of this fearful sight, it was seen that the hair under and around the electrode on the head and the flesh under and around the electrode at the base of the spine was singeing. The stench was unbearable." Upon autopsy, doctors had found the blood vessels under the cap of his skull had carbonized and the top of the brain had hardened. Thanks a lot, Thomas Edison.
