The Blog

This day, 105 years ago, Thomas Edison set out to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current (AC) electricity in what can only be described as a completely ‘fucked up’ experiment:

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.

Edison got his big chance, though, when the Luna Park Zoo at Coney Island decided that Topsy, a cranky female elephant who had squashed three handlers in three years (including one idiot who tried feeding her a lighted cigarette), had to go.

Full story on Wired.com

Fans of Dumbo, look away now.

Filed under: science, technology by Paul McClean