(Untitled)

[boxmint]

Did you know that Edison electrocuted an elephant at Coney Island in order to prove that AC was more dangerous than DC?

The elephant was named "Topsy."

Comments

[poliphilo]

What a bastard thing to do!

[kengwen]

Yeah, hey! I *like* elephants.

[boxmint]

Wikipedia says it was an elephant which had already been sentenced to death --which stops me picturing Edison forcing his way into a cage with a live wire shooting sparks.

But yes!

[poliphilo]

What had the elephant done, poor thing?

[projectcyborg]

and there's a FILM of it! a very famous film.

[boxmint]

No! What's it called? Is it somewhere I can see it?

[projectcyborg]

it's one of Edison's very early actualities -- I don't know where one finds such things. an archive somewhere? or maybe there's a DVD of prehistoric films? there are still's in Mary Ann Doane's book The Emergence of Cinematic Time, if I recall. :)