Like the phonograph, death in the electric chair required a new name. (The first such execution, of William Kemmler, took place 6 August 1890.) In a series of letters in mid-1889, Edison and his lawyers swapped ideas. Despite their choice of "electricide"and the suggestion of "Westinghouse"the Oxford English Dictionary cites the use of "electrocute" in a 1 August 1889 New York Voice article.
