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[q="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/us/16cover.html"]
Jack Cover, 88, Physicist Who Invented the Taser Stun Gun, Dies
By BRUCE WEBER
Jack Cover, the physicist who invented the Taser stun gun, the police weapon that subdues its targets with jolts of electricity, died Feb. 7 in Mission Viejo, Calif. He was 88 and lived in San Clemente, Calif.
The cause was pneumonia brought on by Alzheimer’s disease, said his wife, Ginny.
Mr. Cover (pronounced KOH-ver), who worked as an aerospace scientist and was affiliated with NASA’s Apollo moon landing program, came up with the idea for a nonlethal weapon for use in law enforcement in the 1960s as a response to emergencies in the news, including airplane hijackings.
The scientific inspiration, Ms. Cover said, was a newspaper article about a man who had inadvertently walked into an electrified fence and survived, though he was temporarily immobilized.
“When he read that had happened, he knew an electric current could be used without danger,” Ms. Cover said.
Mr. Cover named his invention as a tribute to another inspiration, the Tom Swift science fiction novels he read as a child, one of which was “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.” He created an acronym from “Thomas Swift Electric Rifle,” adding the “A,” he explained to The Washington Post in 1976, “because we got tired of answering the phone ‘T.S.E.R.’ ”
The Taser gun shoots electrified darts connected to the gun by insulated wires, and it works by flooding the target’s body with current, causing uncontrollable muscle contractions.
Small amounts of current are not inherently dangerous, but the safety threshold is not absolute, especially involving people whose heart circuitry has been made vulnerable by drug use or overexertion, common factors among resisting offenders.
Law enforcement agencies generally support the Taser as a worthy tool that protects officers from violent offenders and protects the suspects as well. According to Taser International, founded in 1993, which markets products based on Mr. Cover’s original invention, more than 13,400 law enforcement agencies around the world now use Tasers. More than 375,000 individual officers have them, and so do more than 181,000 private citizens.
From 1976 to 1995, Tasers were considered firearms because the darts were propelled by gunpowder. Approached in 1993 by Taser International, Mr. Cover modified the weapon so that it was powered by compressed nitrogen, allowing Tasers to be freely sold to the public.
The proliferation of Tasers has made them controversial, as their frequent use has led to fears of their overuse. According to Amnesty International, which seeks to have the use of Tasers by private citizens prohibited and use by the police curtailed pending further study, at least 334 people have died since 2001 after being shot with Tasers by police officers.
In a statement sent by e-mail on Friday, a spokesman for Taser International, Steve Tuttle, said, “We stand by the safety of our devices.”
John Higson Cover Jr., known as Jack, was born in New York City on April 6, 1920, and grew up mostly in Chicago, where his father was a professor of economics and his mother earned a master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Chicago. Mr. Cover later earned a B.S. and a Ph.D. in physics there.
He was a scientist at North American Aviation (which later became Rockwell International), a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contractor, and he led the company’s team of researchers working on the Apollo project.
Mr. Cover’s first two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Steven, of Newport, Wash.; three daughters, Dede Rhodes, also of Newport, Melissa Beckley of Brush Prairie, Wash., and Cathy Cover of Tucson; two stepchildren, Shawn Kerr of San Clemente and Aron Fisher of Menifee, Calif.; 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
On the issue of Taser safety, Mr. Cover was unwavering.
“He used to say he saved 100,000 lives,” his wife said.
[/q]
Donegeal, fire off a twenty-one-taser salute in his honor!
Jack Cover, 88, Physicist Who Invented the Taser Stun Gun, Dies
By BRUCE WEBER
Jack Cover, the physicist who invented the Taser stun gun, the police weapon that subdues its targets with jolts of electricity, died Feb. 7 in Mission Viejo, Calif. He was 88 and lived in San Clemente, Calif.
The cause was pneumonia brought on by Alzheimer’s disease, said his wife, Ginny.
Mr. Cover (pronounced KOH-ver), who worked as an aerospace scientist and was affiliated with NASA’s Apollo moon landing program, came up with the idea for a nonlethal weapon for use in law enforcement in the 1960s as a response to emergencies in the news, including airplane hijackings.
The scientific inspiration, Ms. Cover said, was a newspaper article about a man who had inadvertently walked into an electrified fence and survived, though he was temporarily immobilized.
“When he read that had happened, he knew an electric current could be used without danger,” Ms. Cover said.
Mr. Cover named his invention as a tribute to another inspiration, the Tom Swift science fiction novels he read as a child, one of which was “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.” He created an acronym from “Thomas Swift Electric Rifle,” adding the “A,” he explained to The Washington Post in 1976, “because we got tired of answering the phone ‘T.S.E.R.’ ”
The Taser gun shoots electrified darts connected to the gun by insulated wires, and it works by flooding the target’s body with current, causing uncontrollable muscle contractions.
Small amounts of current are not inherently dangerous, but the safety threshold is not absolute, especially involving people whose heart circuitry has been made vulnerable by drug use or overexertion, common factors among resisting offenders.
Law enforcement agencies generally support the Taser as a worthy tool that protects officers from violent offenders and protects the suspects as well. According to Taser International, founded in 1993, which markets products based on Mr. Cover’s original invention, more than 13,400 law enforcement agencies around the world now use Tasers. More than 375,000 individual officers have them, and so do more than 181,000 private citizens.
From 1976 to 1995, Tasers were considered firearms because the darts were propelled by gunpowder. Approached in 1993 by Taser International, Mr. Cover modified the weapon so that it was powered by compressed nitrogen, allowing Tasers to be freely sold to the public.
The proliferation of Tasers has made them controversial, as their frequent use has led to fears of their overuse. According to Amnesty International, which seeks to have the use of Tasers by private citizens prohibited and use by the police curtailed pending further study, at least 334 people have died since 2001 after being shot with Tasers by police officers.
In a statement sent by e-mail on Friday, a spokesman for Taser International, Steve Tuttle, said, “We stand by the safety of our devices.”
John Higson Cover Jr., known as Jack, was born in New York City on April 6, 1920, and grew up mostly in Chicago, where his father was a professor of economics and his mother earned a master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Chicago. Mr. Cover later earned a B.S. and a Ph.D. in physics there.
He was a scientist at North American Aviation (which later became Rockwell International), a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contractor, and he led the company’s team of researchers working on the Apollo project.
Mr. Cover’s first two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Steven, of Newport, Wash.; three daughters, Dede Rhodes, also of Newport, Melissa Beckley of Brush Prairie, Wash., and Cathy Cover of Tucson; two stepchildren, Shawn Kerr of San Clemente and Aron Fisher of Menifee, Calif.; 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
On the issue of Taser safety, Mr. Cover was unwavering.
“He used to say he saved 100,000 lives,” his wife said.
[/q]
Donegeal, fire off a twenty-one-taser salute in his honor!
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