In 'The Green Mile', what is the nickname of the electric chair?

In “The Green Mile,” the electric chair is nicknamed Old Sparky. The name belongs to the execution apparatus at Cold Mountain Penitentiary, where Paul Edgecombe supervises death row in Stephen King’s serial novel.

The story is set mainly in 1932 and follows Edgecombe’s memories of his work on the prison’s death row, whose green linoleum gives the novel its title. Old Sparky represents the routine, institutional machinery of execution, but the arrival of John Coffey forces Paul and his colleagues to question what they think they know about guilt, punishment, and miracles.

The chair’s nickname is not unique to the fictional prison. “Old Sparky” has historically been used for real electric chairs in several U.S. states and is also sometimes used generically for an electric chair. That broader usage helps explain why the term appears in other books and films.

The Green Mile was first released as six installments in 1996 before being collected as a single novel. Frank Darabont’s 1999 film adaptation also uses Old Sparky as the name of Cold Mountain’s electric chair.