While the pressure generated by the explosive propellant is substantial it is not nearly as high as that of the pneumatic guns. The selection of Propellants is quite possibly the most important part of spud gun performance. The propellant is the fuel burned during combustion.
Oscar Byron Ellis, director of a state prison farm in Tennessee, was hired as general manager, later director, of the Texas prison system; working from his base in Huntsville, he implemented a reform program that brought fundamental changes in the management of Texas prisons.erman L. Crow, Political History of the Texas Penal System, 1829â1951 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1964). Steve J. Martin and Sheldon Ekland-Olson, Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1987).
Texas changed its execution laws in 1923, requiring the executions be carried out on the electric chair and that they take place at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville (also known as Huntsville Unit). From 1928 until 1965, this was also home to the state's male death row. The first executions on the electric chair were on February 8, 1924, when Charles Reynolds, Ewell Morris, George Washington, Mack Matthews, and Melvin Johnson had their death sentences carried out. The five executions were the most carried out on a single day in the state.