English: "Electrice - The Girl Who Defies Electricity", a carnival
sideshow performer in 1914 who passed high voltage electricity through her body. She is shown strapped into an
electric chair being "electrocuted", the climax of her act. Sparks are visible at her wrists and the center of her forehead where the top electrode is strapped to her head. The source explains that the current comes from a
Tesla coil. The Tesla coil produces very high voltage, up to several hundred thousand volts so it can create sparks several inches long, but low current, and because it is alternating current with a high frequency (in the radio range, 100 kHz to 2 MHz) it does not cause the sensation of
electric shock. This "electric chair act", common in sideshows, capitalized on public fascination in the US with electrocution, an exotic new method of capital punishment which had recently replaced hanging to become the dominant method of execution in the United States. The spectacular finale often left the audience scandalized, and her male partner, who strapped her in and operated the switch, was often regarded as a brute. Although it didn't give her a shock, the sparks could give her skin burns and the act was somewhat uncomfortable, and of course could be lethal if the coil was misadjusted. Today passing currents from a Tesla coil through the body like this, painful or not, is considered extremely dangerous, so DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.