voltage of an electric chair ac or dc?

Answer 1

AC. Approximately 2000 volts at 10 amps.

More than 110 years ago, two men squared off in a technological battle that made Netscape vs. Microsoft look like a little league baseball game. In the late 1800’s, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were battling for control of the electric industry. Edison felt that direct current (DC) was the wave of the future. Westinghouse was convinced that alternating current (AC) was a safer and cheaper method of distributing electricity.

Edison had invested his resources in inferior DC power, and because of this, he saw safer and cheaper AC as a threat and did everything in his power to shut down Tesla and his business partner, George Westinghouse. The major advantage of AC had was the ability to step up the voltage and send it long distances over smaller wires and then step it back down for use by the customers. Try using a transformer with DC power and all you get is a big electromagnet.

To prevent Westinghouse and Tesla from capitalizing on the benefits of higher AC voltages, Thomas Edison launched an appalling campaign to discredit alternating current. The idea was to show that AC was too dangerous to use. His workers invited reporters to demonstrations where stray dogs and cats were placed on metal sheets and electrocuted with 330 volts AC. By using a hidden relay that interrupted the circuit, the animals merely yelped when up to 400 volts of DC was applied. The plan was to get AC circuits limited to no more than 300 volts. Keeping the voltage low would remove the major benefits of alternating current.

Next, Edison took out a commercial license to use AC. The world found out why after he'd made clandestine visits to Sing Sing prison. He'd created the electric chair. Now the American public would see what AC could do to a human being. Before the chair was first used on a fellow named William Kemmler, Edison's people started killing larger animals such as calves and horses in their AC demonstrations. "Is this what your wife should be cooking with?" they asked.

When poor Mr. Kemmler was taken to the chair to be -- as the Edison people put it -- "Westinghoused," the voltage was too low. A half-dead Kemmler had to be electrocuted a second time to finish him off. All this served Edison's purpose, of course. There was no need for Kemmler's passing to be a pleasant one. 8/6/1890

How many volts are used and for how long?
There has never been a standard protocol for this. Individual states and individual executioners have come up with their own practices. There are, however, certain limits. If the voltage is too low it takes too long, If it is too high or left on too long, the body is burned. The first execution used a voltage of about 1,700, although it was not officially recorded. The voltage has tended to increase over time and in the modern era the voltage is usually 2,000 to 2,200 volts at seven to twelve amps. Often the current is switched on and off several times, with the voltage often dropped between jolts. It usually is left on for less than a minute, although in many cases it is left on for as long as four or five minutes with repeated jolts if the prisoner does not die immediately.

2000 volts / 7 amps = 285 ohms.

Keep in mind that they shave the condemned person’s head and put wet sponges against the skin to make good, low-resistance connections. They don't want arcing to occur. An electric arc is a couple thousand degrees Fahrenheit.

"It's the volts that jolt but it's the amps that kill"

Answer 2

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voltage of an electric chair ac or dc?

Answer 3

Thomas Edison Electric Chair

Answer 4

Electric chairs use AC. Thomas Edison is known to build an electric chair to show that AC is more dangerous than DC. This was part of the 'War of Currents' in which Thomas Edison favoured DC, but eventually lost out to AC as the commercial electric supply

Answer 5

because of ac signals can be used in long distance transmissions.. While DC cannot.. The loss in ac can be recovered by simply adding a lead or lag circuit.. While loss in DC cannot be recovered.. And as you have noticed, the cross section of the wire increases as the current transmitted increases, DC will not be economical as ac.. Example: a certain wire can carry a maximum amount of current. Now, using DC, this will end up using limited amount of DC which losses cannot be recovered. Now using ac, a high current signal can be converted to a high voltage-low current signal which losses can be recovered and this signal can be converted back to a low voltage-high current signal..

Answer 6

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edison tried to stay with DC however this caused problems in transmitting electricity over any long distance. With the Tesla designed ac system voltages could be transformed up for transmission over distance thus avoiding voltage drop. then transformed down to the required voltage. Edison tried to make AC seem dangerous>> he promoted AC to be used in the electric chair then advertised his DC as safe electricity and AC as so dangerous that it is used to kill people. read>> "the man who invented the 20th Century" the biography of Nicola Tesla. He invented most of the electrical stuff that we now take for granted>> others got the Kudos

Answer 7

But, the genius edison was, investing in
DC is why also why the morons at Westinghouse
are now in the Yankee buisness.
And GE's in the Boeing buisness.

Answer 8

Are you planning to build yourself an electric chair?

Answer 9

AC,I'm sure...DC tends to lock up muscles,AC makes you jump around...

Answer 10

the lethal voltage is AC..... yo can look in other literature to find the specifics. From the E!!!