Thomas Edison was undoubtedly a great man, and like every self-respecting great man, Thomas Edison had a dream. He dreamed that his name would go down in history and be fixed in it for centuries. To achieve this goal, he was ready for anything, even for murder.
While Edison's design bureau worked tirelessly on all sorts of phonographs and kinetographs, trying to put his name on the list of the most famous inventors, electricity came into vogue. "Electricity! Edison exclaimed. “This is what will glorify me!”
But on the way to fame and fortune, Edison faced George Westinghouse. Westinghouse criticized Edison to the nines - the whole point is that the latter relied on direct current, which is good for everyone, only it is practically impossible to transmit it over long distances, and proposed an alternating current for use, ideal for driving it along wires without much loss even to the other end of the world.
Thus began the "War of the Currents," a war between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse that lasted for more than a century.
| Thomas Edison | George Westinghouse |
As I said, Edison was a great man, and, like every self-respecting great person, did not back down. The main trump card in the "War of the Currents" he saw the relative safety of direct current: alternating current beat people to death, and Edison's could spare. And, without thinking twice, Edison began to popularize his vision of electrification, arranging public shows where he killed all kinds of animals with “evil” alternating current in front of a gullible public: mostly small and domestic, but sometimes large and wild. One of his victims was the obstinate Topsy.
Elephant Topsy was disastrously unlucky. She worked at an amusement park in Coney Island and she didn't like the job at all. True, no one was interested in her opinion, so she, defending her civil rights and freedoms, systematically killed the trainers one by one. When Topsy killed a third, the park authorities tried her and sentenced her to death. She was fed carrots laced with cyanide, but this did not give any result: the elephant ate the carrot with appetite and was not going to die. Then the management decided to hang it. What are you surprised about? A common practice, the age of Progress and Civilization, after all, is not some kind of Middle Ages!
But it's not Topsy, it's Marie, another unfortunate animal. The Greens stood up for Topsy and the hanging had to be cancelled. It was then that Edison appeared, just looking for someone suitable for the role of a victim of alternating current. Topsy fit perfectly, and in the presence of fifteen hundred onlookers, Edison executed her electric shock.
But that didn't help either. And then it's time to introduce a third character into the story - William Kemmler.
Kemmler, unlike Edison, did not consider himself a great man, but he also had his own dream - the same, it seemed, unattainable. He did not want much: just that his own wife would stop bothering him. And the wife did not let up, she sawed Kemmler every single day and, in the end, she had to be killed. No, not current. Axe.
Kemmler was tried in 1890 - just in the midst of ideological war between Edison and Westinghouse. By that time, Edison, having killed more than one flock of innocent sheep with electric current, decided to switch to people: he sponsored the creation of a new tool for executions - the electric chair. Of course, the gadget worked on alternating current. The electric chair appealed to the Americans, who had always had a weakness for spectacle, and Kemmler was assigned to experience the exotic method of execution.
Westinghouse, having learned about Edison's idea, hired the best lawyers for Kemmler, but they could not do anything; then he refused to supply the equipment necessary to obtain alternating current to carry out the execution, but Edison got the necessary generator from somewhere.
Kemmler was executed on August 6, 1890. The next day, newspapers bribed by Edison came out with a scandalous headline: "George Westinghouse killed a man!" The execution by electricity made a very strong impression on the public. So strong that many Americans used Edison's inefficient current until 2007.
It seems to be a very good example of how the personal ambitions of a single person can influence the course of history and progress. However, no matter how Edison tried, in the end he failed to win this war, but he managed to write his name in history as a tireless inventor and no less tireless adventurer.
P.S. Topsy Edison killed in 1903, more than ten years after the events described, to achieve the same goals - a demonstration of the danger posed by alternating current, but the executions of animals arranged by Edison in the last decade of the 19th century were no different from the murder of Topsy, so I Without hesitation, he added this story to his story. Naturally, in order for as many Americans as possible to learn about this case, Edison filmed it and showed it to everyone with the help of a kinetoscope of his own production. I once showed one Edison film - “
The beginning of the last century was marked by a great discovery - the discovery of electricity. A lot of research in this area by a number of scientists led to the discovery of two types of current: direct and alternating. On the basis of this discovery, a lot of controversy erupted: which one has the right to be used to meet the needs of ordinary citizens, and which one will fade into the background or will not be used at all. Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, supporters of the use of alternating and direct currents, respectively, practically launched a theoretical war with each other based on their research. Edison, objectively realizing that alternating current is superior to direct current in many respects, tried to use the main counterargument - its danger to life. And he had a “good” moment to prove it ...
In 1875, an Indian elephant named Topsy was brought to Luna Park in New York. For the next 28 years, she delighted the audience with her performances, but then something happened to her: willy-nilly, Topsy caused the death of 3 people. One of them was her trainer, who, according to some reports, mocked the animal - in this case, it is not surprising that the elephant could behave aggressively. Be that as it may, the animal, after the investigation, was recognized as dangerous and sentenced to death.
The question arose: how to do it? In those days, Americans were very eager for public punishment - so what kind of execution would be the most revealing and enchanting? The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals opposed the execution by hanging, but then Thomas Edison proposed to kill the elephant with alternating electric current, solving 2 problems at the same time: he pleased the city authorities and got the opportunity to win the "war of currents", proving the danger AC for life. Edison filmed the entire execution process and later edited it into a film called Electrocuting an Elephant.
January 4, 1903 arrived. It is known that before the execution of the sentence, the elephant was fed carrots soaked in potassium cyanide (strictly speaking, this could well have been limited, but the public is equally delighted with circus performances and spectacular and cruel executions). To execute Topsy, they put on special "shoes" made of wood with a copper layer (a kind of electrodes), connected by wires to an electric generator. In front of 2,000 citizens (out of 15,000 who wished, only a part allowed themselves to buy tickets for the “performance”), an alternating current of 6600 volts was passed through a living being. The elephant died 10 seconds later, after turning on all the electrical installations, without making a sound.
In a few decades, opponents of any method of executing Topsy had the opportunity to reproach the executioners for their unfair and cruel decision: in 1944, Luna Park and most of the attractions in Coney Island were destroyed by fire. Unofficially, the incident was called "Topsy's revenge".
Until the 1920s, court-ordered executions of animals in the United States were commonplace.As a rule, they killed dogs and horses (when they led to the death of people by their actions).
But several executions went to the lot of elephants.
Topsy the elephant is considered the first to be executed.
She was brought to the United States in 1874 at the age of 6 by order of a circus from Pennsylvania. But in 1902, Topsy suddenly "changed her character" - she became aggressive. Several times, both the audience and the circus staff had to run away from an angry elephant. Finally, at one performance in New York, she crushed 3 people to death, and for this she was sentenced by the court to death by hanging.
PHOTO -Topsy
However, the then animal advocates began to protest against such a barbaric method of killing. And then the great inventor Edison appears on the scene. he then just rushed about with the idea of widespread implementation in life :-) of the electric chair. For Edison, the moment has finally come to demonstrate the humane way he invented to leave the next world.
PHOTO2-Topsy
The judge changes the method of execution from hanging to electricity.
And on Sunday, January 4, 1903, about 2,000 spectators gathered in the Luna Park of Coney Island (there were about 15,000 people who wanted to watch the execution, but the authorities nevertheless decided to hold it in a narrow circle, fearing for the order in the park).
A rope was tied around the elephant's neck, one end of which was attached to an auxiliary engine, and the other to a pole. To her feet were attached wooden sandals with a layer of copper, which served as electrodes. They were connected through a copper wire to the generator of one of Edison's power stations. A current of 6600 volts was applied. The elephant died 22 seconds after the start of the current, without making a sound.
The audience was disappointed with such a fleeting execution., and it was suspected that the elephant had been given a solution of cyanide to drink a few minutes before the current was applied (one of the police officers actually gave the elephant water before the executions).
The authorities decided to carry out the next execution of the elephant in a more spectacular way. Fortunately, the opportunity for this soon presented itself in Tennessee.
An elephant (again an elephant!) named Big Mary was generally executed without trial in this state (which is why animal advocates in our time rank her among the victims of the lynching).
On September 12, 1916, Big Mary crushed her trainer, and also, having escaped from the circus, 8 more random passers-by.
This time they decided to hang the elephant (in the tradition of the lynching). Big Mary (weighing 5.5 tons) was hanged on September 13, 1916 from a crane. About 5,000 people watched the executionsheep.