In [Fig. 16] a pail or large tin can is shown with the wire passing down through the interior and finally reaching the bottom, where it is soldered fast. The can is filled with small chunks of carbon, or charcoal, and some holes are punched around the outer edge and bottom to let the water out. The can is then buried three or four feet in the ground. Use nothing but copper wire for “grounds,” and it should be heavy—nothing smaller than No. 14. The wire should be well insulated down to and below the surface for a foot or two, so that perfect action will take place and a complete “ground” secured.
The Edison Roach-killer
When Edison was a boy he invented the first electrocution apparatus on record. At a certain station on the Grand Trunk Railroad, where Edison was employed as a telegraph operator, the roaches were so thick that at night they would crawl up the partition between the windows and reach the ceiling, where they would go to sleep. During the day they were apt to become dizzy, lose their footing, and drop down on the heads of the operators. This did not suit young Edison, so he devised a scheme for their destruction. While watching a piece of telegraph apparatus one day, he saw a roach try to step from a bar charged with positive electricity to one through which a negative current flowed. The insect’s feet were moist and so made a connection between the two bars. As a consequence a short-circuit of high tension passed through its body and it dropped dead. This put an idea into Edison’s head, and the electrocution apparatus was soon in working order. The “killer” was the most simple device one could imagine, and was composed of two long, narrow strips of heavy tin-foil pasted side by side on a smooth board, with a space of one-eighth of an inch between them, as shown at [Fig. 17]. To one strip a positive wire was connected, while to the other a negative or ground was made fast. High-tension current, or that from an induction-coil, was connected with the wires, and the resulting voltage was strong enough to give one a severe shock if the fingers of one hand were placed on one plate and those of the other hand on the other plate.
This device was arranged across the window-casing in the path the roaches were accustomed to travel on their nightly trips up the side wall. It was not long after dark before roach number one sauntered up the wall, crossed the under strip, and stepped over on the upper one. But he went no farther, and he, with many of his friends and relations, were gathered up in a dust-pan the next morning and thrown into the stove.
In electricity, as in many other things, simplicity is the key-note of success; and from this little device to employ the alternating current for ridding a house of an insect nuisance sprang the grim apparatus known as the “death chair,” used in the execution of first-degree criminals in the State of New York. Many people think the mechanism for electrocution is a complicated one, but it is quite as simple as the Edison roach-killer. One pole is placed at the head of the criminal and the other at the feet, the latter being bound fast so that perfect contact can be had. Then an alternating current of fifteen hundred to two thousand volts is run through the body, and death is instantaneous and void of pain.
An Electric Mouse-killer
A modification of the simple roach-killer was recently used by the author in his laboratory to get rid of some troublesome mice. A piece of board was cut twelve inches square, the edges being bevelled so that it would be an easy matter for the mice to climb up on it. An inch-wide circle of sheet brass was prepared measuring eleven inches outside diameter and nine inches inside. Another circle was cut measuring eight inches and a half outside and six inches inside diameter. Both circles were attached to the board with copper tacks and polished as bright as possible, the finished board appearing as shown in [Fig. 18].
Wires were soldered to each strip, and these in turn were connected to a high-tension current of several thousand volts. Crumbs and small pieces of meat were placed on the board inside the circles, and the trap was set in a convenient place on the floor of the laboratory.