Are they plugged in to the prison’s own mains or have their own generators?
I would think the latter.
Well, there’s the traditional account of prison lights dimming when the chair is in use, so you’d expect that it’s been part of the prison system.
The next generation of electric chairs will be holistically powered by solar panels.
They typically used their own generators, just to make sure that a temporary power outage (possibly caused by protestors) wouldn’t botch the execution.
In many prisons, the generators could also power the prison and worked as backup generators in case the power went out. In some cases the dimming of the prison lights was due to the prison power being switched over to the generators, and did not actually indicate when the switch on the chair was being thrown.
Plug into an outlet. It’s all good.
Mississippi’s electric chair had its own generator on a truck. The state couldn’t decide where to locate a central death chamber for the state, and hangings were traditionally performed in the county where the crime had occurred, so the electric chair would travel the state as needed, usually being set up in the courtroom where the condemned had been convicted.
While the executions were not public, the generator truck itself could become a focal point for public attention. People would go down to the courthouse in the evening to whoop and cheer as it revved up.
Well, you COULD do it this way
From The Orlando Sentinel’s account of Ted Bundy’s execution in 1989,
“At 6:30, a steady plume of thin, gray smoke rose from a small building to the right of the execution chamber - a sign that the prison’s diesel generator, used to power the electric chair, had started and was running smoothly.”
~Max
Did it play, “Turkey in the Straw”?
No, that was the Good Humor Truck…
Well, a traveling truck, easy for me to become confused.