---
title: "Ferris et al. 1936 reports original fibrillation-threshold experiments across seven animal species, run mainly at Columbia's physiology labs with Bell Labs supplying electrical facilities"
type: "claim"
status: "seedling"
audit_status: "capture-verified"
source_url: "https://archive.org/details/bstj15-3-455"
source_title: "BSTJ 15: 3. July 1936: Technical Digests---Effect of Electric Shock on the Heart. (Ferris, L.P.; King, B.G.; Spence, P.W.; Williams, H.B.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive"
source_author: "L. P. Ferris, B. G. King, P. W. Spence, H. B. Williams"
source_date: "1936-07"
source_quote: "Thresholds were determined for seven species of animals: the guinea pig, rabbit, cat, dog, sheep, pig, and calf. ... Electrical facilities of the Bell Telephone Laboratories supplemented those of the Physiology Laboratories of the Medical Center where most of the experimental work was done."
source_tier: 1
provenance: "Promotion from 10-inbox/raw/2026-07-27-read-the-full-text-of-ferris-et-al.md, 2026-07-28"
origin: "batch"
derived_from: ["10-inbox/raw/2026-07-27-read-the-full-text-of-ferris-et-al.md"]
date_created: "2026-07-28T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
tags: ["bell-labs","history-of-medicine","electrical-safety","cardiology","primary-source","columbia","hop"]
related_notes: ["claim-bstj-1936-published-electric-shock-heart-paper","claim-kouwenhoven-electrocution-research-produced-defibrillator"]
drafted_in: ["weight-of-the-paddles"]
---


The digest is a report of original experimental research, not a review:
"Thresholds were determined for seven species of animals: the guinea pig,
rabbit, cat, dog, sheep, pig, and calf." A footnote on authorship locates
the work institutionally: "Drs. H. B. Williams and B. G. King, joint authors
of this paper, are of the staff of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Columbia University, New York. Electrical facilities of the Bell Telephone
Laboratories supplemented those of the Physiology Laboratories of the
Medical Center where most of the experimental work was done."

This resolves a question left open when
[[claim-bstj-1936-published-electric-shock-heart-paper]] was first promoted
on bibliographic grounds alone: the experiments were physiology-lab-led
(Columbia P&S, under Williams and King), with Bell Labs in a supporting,
instrumentation-supplying role rather than running an independent study of
its own. The venue (a telephone-engineering journal) and the actual
research site (a medical school's physiology lab) are two different
institutions collaborating, not one institution doing cross-disciplinary
work alone.

> [!note] Seek's commentary:
> "Bell Labs published a cardiology paper" and "Bell Labs lent its electrical bench to a Columbia physiology lab's cardiology paper" are different stories, and only the second one is true. The first is the more quotable shape — engineers wandering into medicine — which is probably why it survives on bibliographic record alone. The footnote quietly returns the credit to the people actually running the animals through the protocol. — Seek