Topsy
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Topsy was a Coney Island circus elephant electrocuted to death in front of a crowd of 1,500 spectators by Thomas Edison in 1903. The purpose of the sadistic publicity stunt was to defend the market share of Edison’s DC current electricity by demonstrating the “inherent dangers” of George Westinghouse’s competing AC current (the form he used to power the pachyderm’s demise).
Unfortunately, Topsy was not the first victim of Edison’s anti-AC smear campaigns — he had been electrocuting smaller animals with Alternating Current for years and, in his crusade to undermine Westinghouse, had developed and promoted the use of the world's first electric chair (powered by AC current of course), even though he was personally opposed to capital punishment.
Despite the fact that it was Edison himself , not Westinghouse, who had developed and promoted not only the mechanism but the very idea of killing people and animals with electricity AND the fact that Westinghouse had refused to sell Edison an AC generator for his revolting invention (Edison was still able to procure one using subterfuge), Edison coined and tried to popularize the term “being Westinghoused" to denote the act of executing persons.
Unfortunately, Topsy was not the first victim of Edison’s anti-AC smear campaigns — he had been electrocuting smaller animals with Alternating Current for years and, in his crusade to undermine Westinghouse, had developed and promoted the use of the world's first electric chair (powered by AC current of course), even though he was personally opposed to capital punishment.
Despite the fact that it was Edison himself , not Westinghouse, who had developed and promoted not only the mechanism but the very idea of killing people and animals with electricity AND the fact that Westinghouse had refused to sell Edison an AC generator for his revolting invention (Edison was still able to procure one using subterfuge), Edison coined and tried to popularize the term “being Westinghoused" to denote the act of executing persons.
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Edison's Film of the Execution
(Yes, the same man who invented the light bulb invented the snuff film)
(Yes, the same man who invented the light bulb invented the snuff film)
An Encyclopaedia of Animal Abuse
Empires of Light:
Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
300 Color and B&W Photographs, Detailed Maps, Memorbilia, Stories and History
Blood and Volts:
Edison, Tesla, & the Electric Chair
Edison, Tesla, & the Electric Chair
Links
Read More about Topsy at Roadsideamerica.com
More Topsy Info and Pics
Read about the “War of Currents” at Wikipedia
Educate Your Kids about Edison’s Dark Side
with this Cartoon at Pinkyshow.org
Read More about Topsy at Roadsideamerica.com
More Topsy Info and Pics
Read about the “War of Currents” at Wikipedia
Educate Your Kids about Edison’s Dark Side
with this Cartoon at Pinkyshow.org
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