They Could Have Done It Better

George Westinghouse made this remark after the botched execution of William Kemmler in August 1890, the first use of the electric chair, which used alternating current and was deliberately chosen by Thomas Edison's allies to associate AC electricity with death. The execution took nearly eight minutes and was widely reported as gruesome. Westinghouse's comment reflected both his opposition to capital punishment and his outrage that his technology had been misused in a public spectacle designed to discredit it.