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Re: Death Row HV Question



Original poster: "Gary Johnson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gjohnson-at-ksu.edu>

The most deadly current level is in the range of 100 to 200 mA. This causes
fibrillation of the heart, a condition where the heart twitches but does not
pump blood. Once a current through the chest cavity has caused the heart to
go into fibrillation, the heart tends not to start beating normally when the
current is removed. What is needed is a current large enough to contract all
the heart muscles at once. When this large current is removed, the heart
often starts beating again.  We have all seen this procedure many times on
the medical shows. The doctor grabs the two paddles of the defibrillator,
yells CLEAR, and applies a pulse which raises the patient several inches off
the bed.

This small current applied for a few seconds usually does not produce any
marks on the body. If nobody is watching, and the contact point is not
obvious, it might appear that you have died of natural causes. It turns out
that with typical skin resistance, that 120 volts at 60 Hz is more likely to
cause a deadly current than higher voltages or higher or lower frequencies.
More of us would be alive if Tesla had stuck with his first choice of 133 Hz
for the power system frequency.

The people doing electrocutions do not know the above facts.  They assume
that if 120 volts is deadly, then 2400 volts must be more deadly. They apply
this high voltage, resulting in a high current that clamps the heart (and
burns flesh). They cook the criminal for a minute or so, then check to see
if he is dead.  His heart has resumed beating since it was never in
fibrillation. So they cook him some more.  After several such episodes, the
guy finally dies. There has been a lot of action (agony) and the smell of
burning flesh. It is enough to make bleeding heart liberals out of staunch
death penalty advocates. It would be a lot less interesting to watch (IMHO)
if the guy in charge would crank down the voltage and maybe use a current
limiting resistor to get into the 100-200 mA range.

Gary Johnson

At 04:35 PM 09/24/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Robynsaddiction-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>Hello List, 
>
>        You know, I have been wondering what they typically feed the dreaded
>electric chairs. That is, what kind of voltage and amperage are we talking
>about here? Will a pulsed discharge kill you faster than just getting hit by
>your PIG? Is a blow from a Pole Pig a definite death sentence, or is it
>possible to survive such a nasty shock? On which part of the body would be the
>most fatal place for me to take a shock? Perhaps from one hand to the
other, or
>would the head be the worst place to be hit. I'm not trying to be a sick
freak,
>but I am curious. Thanks to all who have the stomach to answer. 
>
Richard
>
>