He electrocuted an elephant (Topsy) in New York just to prove how "unsafe" AC design was.
He electrocuted an elephant (Topsy) in New York just to prove how "unsafe" AC design was.
Topsy belonged to the Forepaugh Circus and spent the last years of her life at Coney Island's Luna Park. Because she had killed three men in as many years (including a severely abusive trainer who attempted to feed her a lit cigarette),[1] Topsy was deemed a threat to people by her owners and killed by electrocution on January 4, 1903, at the age of 28.[2] Inventor Thomas Edison captured the event on film. He would release it later that year under the title Electrocuting an Elephant.
He didn't electrocute an elephant just to prove the unsafety of AC, he filmed an electrocution of a previously (even wrongly) condemned elephant. Yes, he may have been a heartless bastard to take advantage of the death sentence of a beautiful (innocent?) animal to further his own goals, but it wasn't as senseless a killing as your reply would suggest, and certainly not him that did it. He was the guy behind the camera.