Top 10 facts about electricity

Electric chair in Sing Sing Prison, New York

TODAY is the 125th anniversary of the first use of the electric chair as a means of execution.

1. The victim on August 6, 1890 was William Kemmler, a New Yorker who had been convicted of murdering his common-law wife with a hatchet. 

2. The executioner was Edwin Davis, who had been given the official title of “State Electrician” for performing the job. 

3. Davis went on to perform 240 executions, including that of the first woman victim Martha M Place in 1899. 

4. Davis also held US Patent No.587,649 for his invention of an improved “Electrocution-chair”. 

5. In 1749, Benjamin Franklin wrote of using “Electrical Shock” to kill a turkey for dinner.

6. The word ‘electric’ comes from the Latin word for amber, electricus, referring to the static electricity that had been observed in amber. 

7. Electric eels can produce electric shocks of around 500 volts for hunting or self-defence. 

8. On October 6, 1941, two men named Wilburn and Frizell were executed by electric chair in Florida: Wilburn Crews and Frizell McLaren. 

9. The world’s first electricity power station was opened by Thomas Edison in 1882. 

10. The power generated by electrical impulses in the human brain would light a 20-watt bulb.