Category: War of the Currents

• The "Electric Chair" Lobby

  This theory held that Thomas Edison and his allies promoted the electric chair not only out of penal reform or technological preference, but specifically to associate alternating current with death and discredit George Westinghouse’s AC system during the War of the Currents. The documented record clearly shows a strong factual core: Edison-backed figures such as Harold Brown pushed AC electrocution demonstrations, and AC became associated with execution during the campaign against Westinghouse. What remains debated is the exact degree of Edison’s direct operational control over every step, but the broad strategy of using execution politics to tarnish AC is well supported.