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On this very day 105 years ago Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant meant to give rides and carry heavy items on Coney Island...all in the name of science! His science. He came to Coney to prove George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla's alternating current (AC) was dangerous, whereas his competing direct current was completely safe. In fact, Edison was the one who convinced New York to use the dangerous and deadly AC for their electric chair.
Edison had established direct current at the standard for electricity distribution and was living large off the patent royalties, royalties he was in no mood to lose when George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla showed up with alternating current.The big PR push came when Edison made this journey to Luna Park Zoo on Coney Island to electrocute Topsy, "a cranky female elephant who had squashed three handlers in three years (including one idiot who tried feeding her a lighted cigarette)." After declaring that hanging the elephant was not humane, the ASPCA agreed to let Topsy "ride the lightning" to her death -- and 1,500 watched as Edison sent 6,600 volts through her body. He also filmed it, and it was later released as a film titled Electrocuting an Elephant, which has since shown up in more recent movies (you can view it here).Edison's aggressive campaign to discredit the new current took the macabre form of a series of animal electrocutions using AC (a killing process he referred to snidely as getting "Westinghoused"). Stray dogs and cats were the most easily obtained, but he also zapped a few cattle and horses.
The headline in The Commercial Advertiser the day following Topsy's death read: "Bad Elephant Killed," and the paper reported that "the big beast died without a trumpet or a groan." As for Edison's direct current...the trail of dead animals didn't help him prove his point (shocking!) and "the AC demonstrated its superiority in less lethal ways to become the standard." In fact, Westinghouse was later awarded the Edison Medal for his achievements in developing the alternating current system.
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has since shown up in more recent movies (you can view it here).
Why, thank you - got any more gruesome clips for our viewing pleasure?
Edison was such a knucklehead. 100 years later, the MTA figured out that DC was one of the worst decisions that could have happened to electrified trains and is now converting everything over to AC because its more energy efficient and easier to handle.
Edison was a pretty keen marketer though. I'll give him that.
Given that Edison founded one of the companies that would later become ConEd, this is evidence that the company has a long history shocking animals to death.
...
Proving what an Asshole Thomas Edison was capable of being...
all with the blessing of the ASPCA
All hail Tesla!
Edison was such a knucklehead. 100 years later, the MTA figured out that DC was one of the worst decisions that could have happened to electrified trains and is now converting everything over to AC because its more energy efficient and easier to handle.
What? AC is not good for driving trains. It's inefficient at all but a single speed. Perhaps you're thinking of electronically commutated AC traction motors, which pick up DC from the third rail and change it to AC at the frequency needed for whatever speed the train is running at. Modern elevators also use electronically commutated hoist motors, again because they're efficient at a range of speeds. That's not the same as converting the whole system to AC. DC has some advantages, for instance carrying more power over the same size conductors. AC has to go from peak positive voltage to peak negative and back, hence "alternating current." DC is at peak voltage all the time. That's why interstate power cables are superhigh voltage DC.
Gee, thanks for those cheery photos of murder on this Friday afternoon!
Is it technically correct to refer to someone on the boardwalk at Coney Island 105 years ago as being ON Coney Island? Or should it be IN Coney Island. Was it still an island back then?
#9 technically Coney Island WAS an Island back then, it no longer is.
I know it no longer is, I grew up a few minutes away from there. I just wasn't sure when it lost its island status. One of my pet peeves is when people say ON Coney Island. Thanks.
How could the ASPCA allow such a horrific tragedy to occur? No animal should suffer for science.