the War of Currents and the unfortunate fate of "Topsy" the elephant

Trapped in a Monday morning fog of cubicle boredom, I decided for once to focus my usually aimless internet pursuits on a single goal. Today, this was to harness an understanding of the national grid and the finer points of power transmission. Where better to start, I thought, than by wikiing Thomas Edison, the genius behind the light bulb. After all, the light bulb was the main reason people wanted power in their house in the first place..

It turns out that Edison was kind of an idiot. He held patents for a DC (direct surrent) power infrastructure that was inefficient and economically ridiculous. Still, he engaged in what's known as theWar of Currents with George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla who were proponents of the much smarter and ultimately victorious AC (alternating current) power grid.

In a really sad and pathetic last ditch effort to save his potential fortunes, Edison funded the public execution of a variety of different animals via AC power electrocution. This culminated in the 1903 electrocution of "Topsy," a 28 year old elephant who was a staple of the Coney Island circus. He made a video of it too, to try and scare people. He may have inadvertently popularized electrocution as means of killing people too. What an effin' idiot.



What the fuck? that's horrible. Sure, legend has it that Topsy killed a drunken circus clown who tried to feed him a lit cigarette, but come on. Did we learn this in school? I feel like I would remember but maybe not.