The Construction of a Death House.—The State of Pennsylvania is building, at the new Central Prison at Bellefonte, a separate building for the housing of condemned prisoners and for executions. In view of a movement in a number of States to segregate similarly the condemned men, the following detailed description is timely:
The death house, where is to be placed the first electric chair in Pennsylvania for the execution of criminals since the passage of the law providing for the substitution of electrocution for hanging, is to be a long two-story building, 136 feet in length by 29 feet 4 inches wide. A cellar under the central portion will contain the heating apparatus, and on the first floor will be the gasoline engine for generating the electric current.
But it is on the second story of the severely plain structure of reinforced concrete and of simple Renaissance type that interest centers, for here are the cells for the condemned prisoners, rooms for visitors and the sinister death chamber and post mortem room.
The arrangement is on the corridor plan. To the right, and occupying nearly half the floor space, are the cell room and cells, six of the latter, 7 by 9 feet in size, being arranged in a row at the back of the building facing on a well-lighted room and separated from the rear wall by what is known as a “pipe corridor.” At the end of the row is a bath room, and beyond this a room for visitors, opening into the cell room through a gate protected by a grille.
Beyond the visitors’ room is a room known as the “Lock,” access to which is had from the first floor by means of a curved stairway, and opening into a sort of antechamber to the cell room through a gateway and steel door. It may be said that all of the gates, grilles and metal doors in the building are to be of “tool-proof” steel.
On the other side of the ante-chamber is the apparatus room, where the rheostats and other electrical devices will be placed and where the assistants of the chief electrician will be stationed during executions.
Through a solid wood door, in contradistinction to the steel doors used elsewhere, entrance is given into the death chamber, which will be a spacious room, 26 by 29 feet, lighted by six windows, three on each side, all, of course, heavily barred. The door is near the front wall of the building, and that sinister piece of furniture, the death chair, is close to the door on the right. Behind and to the one side of it is the electrical wall cabinet, at which the electrician stands, watching the signals given by the physician in charge of the electrocution. Running nearly around the other three sides of the room are benches for the witnesses required by law.
The last room on the floor, into which a door opens directly from the electrocution chamber, is the post mortem room, 19 by 26 feet 8 inches in size, and equipped with two operating tables, one of soapstone, the other covered with rubber.
The execution chair will be constructed of solid oak, with a high back, from the top of which the head electrode, or cap, will project. Attached to one of the legs will be a connection for the other electrode which is strapped to the calf of the condemned person’s leg. Heavy straps will be attached to appropriate parts of the chair for securing the body, arms and legs of the criminal.
The design and arrangement of the chair and of the electrical apparatus is practically the same as used in all of the States where electrocution is prescribed as the death penalty.