FRIDAY SCIENCE, BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
4 01 2008That’s right. I thought it was high time to bring back the weekly installments of Friday Science. Today’s science tale is a gruesome one and will make you see Thomas Edison in a whole new light.
We all know Thomas Edison as the inventor of many things like the light bulb, phonograph, and electric power distribution. But what many may not know is that Edison was a shrewd business man. The Edison Electric Illuminating Company was the most evil Wal-Mart company of the time and Edison would stop at nothing to maintain his monopoly of electric power distribution.
Edison invented a power distribution system that relied on direct current (DC) and opposed all technological advancements that went against his business model, advancements like alternating current (AC) distribution invented by Nikola Tesla. AC distribution is more efficient then DC because power is sent in very high voltages to transformers and then sent over thinner, less expensive wires to the users.
Well, people started talking about AC and how much better it seemed to be then DC. So Edison started a propaganda campaign in 1887 to convince people that AC was too dangerous to use. To prove his point, he electrocuted small animals like stray dogs and cats, even some cows and horses. Then, on Jan 4th 1903, Edison electrocuted Topsy the elephant. All this was filmed and released as Electrocuting an Elephant. I don’t recommend watching the video. It’s bad enough just knowing that thing exists.
I’d like to think that heads of big corporations would never be able to get away with doing this today, but somehow I’m not so sure. I mean, in the end electrocuting Topsy didn’t help Edison save his precious DC. AC of course proved its superiority in less lethal ways to become our standard form of electric distribution. But it still makes you wonder. Remember the electric car? I didn’t think so.
Oh God. I didn’t watch it. WTF?? Why is it that once you hit a certain level of rich (which I presume he was, if he had money to waste on whole elephants he intended to electrocute) you can’t stop wanting more money? Normal people do just fine without REALLY dreaming about making OODLES more money. Most of us middle-class grown-ups, when forced to be realistic and honest about it, know we’re fine with the money we make (as long as someone has a full-time job and so therefore has health insurance). But it seems that once you reach some invisible line of wealth, it’s like you’re an addict: you’ve just got to have more and you’ll do anything for it. Ick.
Maybe Tesla wasn’t the strange one.
I think Sara Gruen talked about this in Water for Elephants, right? Did you read that? I’m sure you did.
I’ve read that, but I don’t remember the part about Edison electrocuting an elephant. I may have wiped it form my memory.
YIPPEE! Friday Science! Sorry about the elephant. I always liked Tesla better anyway.