---
title: "Read the full text of Ferris et al. 1936, 'Effect of Electric Shock on the Heart' (BSTJ 15(3)) and confirm what the paper actually reports"
type: "question"
status: "answered"
date_raised: "2026-07-09T00:00:00.000Z"
date_answered: "2026-07-28T00:00:00.000Z"
answered_log: "Answered by [[claim-ferris-1936-bstj-text-is-digest-of-electrical-engineering-paper]], [[claim-ferris-1936-experiments-seven-species-columbia-physiology-led]], [[claim-ferris-1936-0-1-ampere-60hz-danger-threshold-for-man]], [[claim-ferris-1936-counter-shock-recovered-60-percent-of-fibrillating-sheep]], and [[claim-ferris-1936-priority-credited-to-prevost-battelli-1899-not-kouwenhoven]]. What settled it: the full BSTJ text was obtained via direct PDF extraction from the open Internet Archive mirror (bstj15-3-455, TLS verified) and read in full, confirming the paper is a digest of an Electrical Engineering original, reports original seven-species experiments led by Columbia's physiology labs (resolving H. B. Williams's role), states the 0.1 A / 60 Hz / 3-second danger threshold, reports a 60% counter-shock recovery rate in sheep, and credits Prevost and Battelli (1899) — not Kouwenhoven — as the first report of shock-induced fibrillation recovery. All four of this question's original 'what would answer it' items were resolved in one session."
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
tags: ["bell-labs","history-of-medicine","electrical-safety","cardiology","verification","hop"]
---


[[claim-bstj-1936-published-electric-shock-heart-paper]] rests only on the
*bibliographic record* of the paper — title, authors, volume/pages, DOI — confirmed
via the Wiley Online Library catalog. The full text was paywalled at capture (Wiley,
HTTP 402) and never read. The note's claim is deliberately narrow (the paper exists
and concerns electric shock and the heart); the following would let it say more and
move it off `capture-verified`:

**What would answer it:**

- Obtain the full text of Ferris, King, Spence & Williams, "Effect of Electric Shock
  on the Heart," *Bell System Technical Journal* 15(3):455–468 (July 1936). The BSTJ
  archive is otherwise open (archive.org/details/bstj-archives, and telephonecollectors.info);
  check for a non-paywalled scan of vol. 15 before assuming Wiley is the only route.
- Confirm whether the paper reports *original* experimental research (e.g. animal
  studies of fibrillation thresholds) versus a review, and record its actual
  findings and a verbatim grounding quote.
- Clarify co-author H. B. Williams's role — whether the physiologist among four
  Bell-affiliated authors indicates a formal medicine/engineering collaboration.
- Wayback-capture whatever open copy is found (Tier-1 primary).

Resolving this firms up the head of the electrocution-safety → defibrillator → CPR
lineage ([[claim-kouwenhoven-electrocution-research-produced-defibrillator]],
[[claim-chest-compression-cpr-discovered-by-accident]]).

**2026-07-28 — answered.** All three bullets above were resolved by a direct
full-text read of the open Internet Archive mirror; see `answered_log` in the
frontmatter for the five claim-notes that carry the findings. The lineage
this question was meant to firm up turned out to need a correction, not just
firming: the paper's own priority statement moves the lineage's oldest known
link back to Prevost and Battelli, 1899 — see
[[claim-ferris-1936-priority-credited-to-prevost-battelli-1899-not-kouwenhoven]].


## Progress log

- Answered by [[claim-ferris-1936-bstj-text-is-digest-of-electrical-engineering-paper]], [[claim-ferris-1936-experiments-seven-species-columbia-physiology-led]], [[claim-ferris-1936-0-1-ampere-60hz-danger-threshold-for-man]], [[claim-ferris-1936-counter-shock-recovered-60-percent-of-fibrillating-sheep]], and [[claim-ferris-1936-priority-credited-to-prevost-battelli-1899-not-kouwenhoven]]. What settled it: the full BSTJ text was obtained via direct PDF extraction from the open Internet Archive mirror (bstj15-3-455, TLS verified) and read in full, confirming the paper is a digest of an Electrical Engineering original, reports original seven-species experiments led by Columbia's physiology labs (resolving H. B. Williams's role), states the 0.1 A / 60 Hz / 3-second danger threshold, reports a 60% counter-shock recovery rate in sheep, and credits Prevost and Battelli (1899) — not Kouwenhoven — as the first report of shock-induced fibrillation recovery. All four of this question's original 'what would answer it' items were resolved in one session.