Everyone knows the name Thomas Edison, known as a decent thinker and brilliant businessman. Some people, however, are much less familiar with the feud between Edison and Nikola Tesla over alternating current versus direct current. Edison had his money in direct current, and Tesla was in alternating current. Supporters of direct current (mostly those who stood to profit from it) spoke of the danger posed by alternating current.Edison, not wanting to compromise his enormous profits from direct current, vehemently denied the claims that alternating current was far superior, and organized a series of animal executions to prove how dangerous it could be. When Edison learned that a zoo elephant, Topsy, was to be executed for killing three of her handlers in the past three years, he saw a fantastic marketing ploy. So when plans to hang the elephant were scrapped for humanitarian reasons, Edison offered to have the animal killed by electrocution. When the day came, Topsy the elephant was fed cyanide-laced carrots just prior to the idiotic execution, and when the current came she was killed instantly. Edison gained nothing from the spectacle other than a marred reputation: alternating current very quickly showed its vast superiority to Edison’s direct current.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 02:22:41 +0000
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