The Electric Chair Was Invented by a Dentist

In 1881, Buffalo dentist Alfred P. Southwick was experimenting with low-voltage electricity to numb dental pain when he heard a story that would change the history of capital punishment forever. A drunk dockworker named George Lemuel Smith had snuck into a power plant, touched a live generator, and died instantly—apparently without suffering.

Southwick saw an opportunity. At the time, hanging was the standard method of execution in America, and it was often botched, causing prolonged suffering. What if electricity could provide a more humane alternative?

Why a Chair?

Here's where Southwick's day job comes in. As a dentist, he spent his entire career working on patients sitting in chairs. When designing his execution device, he naturally chose the same setup: a wooden chair fitted with metal electrodes. The concept was straightforward—strap the condemned person into a familiar seated position and apply a lethal electrical current through conductors attached to the head and feet.

In 1886, New York Governor David B. Hill appointed Southwick to a three-member commission tasked with finding alternatives to hanging. After exploring various methods, the commission recommended Southwick's electric chair in 1888. The legislation passed, and on January 1, 1889, New York became the first state to authorize electrocution as a legal method of execution.

The First Execution Was a Disaster

On August 6, 1890, convicted murderer William Kemmler became the first person executed by electric chair. It did not go as planned. The initial surge of electricity failed to kill him, and witnesses watched in horror as a second, longer jolt was administered. The event was described as an "amateurish spectacle" and raised immediate questions about whether this method was truly more humane than hanging.

Despite the botched debut, the electric chair spread to other states and became one of the most common execution methods in America for decades. Southwick died peacefully in 1898, but his invention remains one of the most controversial legacies in both dental history and criminal justice.

The Irony of Mercy

Southwick genuinely believed he was advancing humanitarian progress. He wanted to eliminate suffering from executions, applying the same problem-solving mindset he used to reduce pain in his dental practice. Instead, he created a method that would be used in thousands of executions—many of them as gruesome as Kemmler's.

The electric chair has largely been replaced by lethal injection in most U.S. states, but it remains available in some jurisdictions. And it all started with a dentist who wanted to make death painless.