electric chair

Tue May 10 22:24:43 UTC 2005

OED has 1889

A NEW METHOD OF EXECUTION.
Boston Daily Globe; May 27, 1883; pg. 4 col 6
"A New York man, Sheridan by name, has invented an electrical chair for
executing criminals, and made application for a patent. . . .The mystery
that would attach itself to the swift, silent death in the electric
chair would have a farm more powerful influence upon the public mind
that the brutal barbarity of hanging."