George Edward Fell (July 10, 1849 – July 29, 1918) was an American surgeon and inventor. He was an early developer of
artificial ventilation and also investigated the physiology of
electrocution
Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death.
The term "electrocution" was coine ...
, a line of research that led to Fell creating the final design for the first
electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
.
Biography
Edward George Fell was born in
Chippewa, Ontario on July 10, 1849. He was the son of James Wilkins Fell and Ann Elizabeth Hoffman. After high school he studied engineering at the
University of Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...
and was working as a Buffalo City engineer starting in 1869, a post his brother, Charles Fell, eventually took over, planning many of the city's sewer lines.
George Fell worked in 1879 as the US engineer on the Ontario–New York State International Bridge at Buffalo. He was a founding member of the
American Microscopical Society and its president in 1890.
[''A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography: Comprising the Lives of Eminent Deceased Physicians and Surgeons from 1610 to 1910'', Volume 1, p. 379] Fell married Annie Argo Duthie (1872) and they eventually had four daughters and one son together. He received a medical degree from the
University of Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...
in 1882 and an
ad eundem degree from
Niagara University in 1886. George Fell was professor of
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
and
microscopy at Niagara University as well as a physician at the
Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo up to 1895. He was a surgeon at the Charity Eye Ear Nose and Throat Hospital Buffalo from 1910 to 1916. Fell married Gertrude Luella Axtell of Spokane Washington in 1912 and moved to Chicago in 1917. He died at home in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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from an
enlarged heart on July 29, 1918.
[
]
Studies and inventions
Artificial ventilation
After being unable save the life of an patient suffering from an opioid overdose
An opioid overdose is toxicity due to excessive consumption of opioids, such as morphine, codeine, heroin, fentanyl, tramadol, and methadone. This preventable pathology can be fatal if it leads to respiratory depression, a lethal condition that ca ...
using the "Silvester Method", a method of artificial ventilation invented by Dr. Henry Robert Silvester in which a patient is laid on their back and their arms are raised above their head to aid inhalation and then pressed against their chest to aid exhalation, Fell devised a method of mechanical ventilation
Mechanical ventilation, assisted ventilation or intermittent mandatory ventilation (IMV), is the medical term for using a machine called a ventilator to fully or partially provide artificial ventilation. Mechanical ventilation helps move a ...
using a bellows and a breathing valve to pass air through a tracheotomy
Tracheotomy (, ), or tracheostomy, is a surgical airway management procedure which consists of making an incision (cut) on the anterior aspect (front) of the neck and opening a direct airway through an incision in the trachea (windpipe). The r ...
, and later, a face mask. He first used his "forced respiration" method, also called the "Fell method" or "Fell Motor"[ in 1887 and was able to save many lives with it, keeping opiate poisoning patients breathing for several days, but it never became popular.][19th century pioneers of intensive therapy in North America. Part 1: George Edward Fell, Crit Care Resusc. 2007 Dec; 9(4):377–9]
abstract
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In 1888–1894 Fell helped Dr. Joseph O'Dwyer
Joseph O'Dwyer (October 12, 1841 – January 7, 1898) was an American physician. He developed a valuable system of intubation in diphtheria cases. O'Dwyer is often cited as the "father of laryngeal intubation in croup".
Life
Joseph P. O'Dwyer was ...
invent a mechanical ventilator, the Fell-O'Dwyer apparatus. It included tube intubation
Intubation (sometimes entubation) is a medical procedure involving the insertion of a tube into the body. Patients are generally anesthetized beforehand. Examples include tracheal intubation, and the balloon tamponade with a Sengstaken-Blake ...
supplied by a foot-operated bellows and procedure for the insertion and extraction of the tube down the patients trachea
The trachea, also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all air- breathing animals with lungs. The trachea extends from the ...
, using specially designed instruments.[
]
Electrocution studies
The late 1870s/early 1880s introduction of arc lighting systems (a new type of bright street light running from central generating stations producing 3000–6000 volts) was followed by the strange new phenomenon of people being killed (almost instantaneously) by the high voltages used. Buffalo dentist Alfred P. Southwick's exploration into this phenomenon would eventually lead to the invention of the electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
. Early on he enlisted the help of Dr. George Fell, along with the head of the Buffalo ASPCA, in whole series of experiments electrocuting hundreds of stray dogs, experimenting with animals in water, out of water, electrode types and placement, and conduction material, eventually coming up with a repeatable method to euthanize animals via electricity. Fell would conduct a further series experiments, electrocuting anesthetized dissected dogs trying to discern exactly how electricity killed a subject.[Moran, p. 4][Anthony Galvin, ''Old Sparky: The Electric Chair and the History of the Death Penalty'', Skyhorse Publishing – 2015, pp. 30–45] His observations of the animals lead him to believe death was being caused by the heart stopping instantaneously. His experiments were the closest at the time to figuring out the causes of death by electrocution, although he was unaware of the other cause of death, the effect electricity was having on the nervous system.
Although Fell was opposed to capital punishment he assisted in the development of the electric chair since it was considered a more "humane" form of execution.[ He demonstrated his experiments and shared his findings on the effects of ]electrocution
Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death.
The term "electrocution" was coine ...
with the 1886–1888 New York State Gerry Commission, chaired by the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry
Elbridge Thomas Gerry (December 25, 1837 – February 18, 1927), usually called "Commodore" Gerry due to the office he held with the New York Yacht Club from 1886 to 1892, was an American lawyer and reformer who was the grandson of U.S. Vice P ...
, during their investigation to find a more humane form of execution
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
. The mode they finally chose, death via electrocution in the electric chair proposed by commission member Alfred P. Southwick, went through more study and experimentation, mostly by the Medico-Legal Society, before it reached its final design. In 1889 the superintendent of New York Prisons, Austin Lathrop, had George Fell draw up the final plan for the chair, a simple oak construction with a retractable foot rest, restraints, and mounted electrodes. Fell went against the Medico-Legal Society's recommendations, changing the position of the electrodes from foot and head to the head and the lower back.[ " State electrician" Edwin F. Davis built the first electric chair.
Animal tests on a calf and a horse were conducted at the ]Auburn Correctional Facility
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility.
History
Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Pri ...
to fine tune the alternating current
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
generator being used. After the calf was electrocuted Fell attempted to revive it by resuscitation using his "forced respiration" method. The attempt was unsuccessful and he gave up after 30 minutes. During the run up to the first execution, that of William Kemmler
William Francis Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) was an American peddler, alcoholic, and murderer, who, in 1890, became the first person in the world to be executed by electric chair. He was convicted of murdering Matilda "Tillie" Ziegle ...
at Auburn on August 6, 1890, Fell told reporters that he planned to use forced respiration on Kemmler after the electrocution, but he never gained permission from the state. Fell was one of the attending physicians at the electrocution, making sure there was proper contact with the electrodes. After what appeared to be a partially botched execution, with Kemmler found to be still breathing after the first jolt forcing a second application of electricity, Fell was one of the few observers who thought Kemmler didn't suffer, stating "I am still a defender of electrical execution, but I do not entirely defend the manner in which Kemmler was executed".[Moran, p. 22]
References
*Brandon, Craig: ''The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History''
*Moran, Richard: ''Executioner's Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair'', Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group – 2007
External links
Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time, Death by Electrocution on Fell Alley?, by Angela Keppel, buffalostreets.com
19th century pioneers of intensive therapy in North America, Part 1: George Edward Fell, by Ronald V Trubuhovich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fell, George
American surgeons
1849 births
1918 deaths
Canadian emigrants to the United States
People from Chicago
Physicians from Buffalo, New York
People from Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara University faculty
Niagara University alumni
University at Buffalo alumni
19th-century American inventors
Capital punishment in the United States