February 25, 2010 • 8 mins
What do Edison, Tesla and an unfortunate elephant named Topsy have in common? They were all involved in "The War of Currents," an ongoing battle over the standardization of electricity. Tune in and learn more about Topsy's fate in this episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
works dot com. Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. This
is Alban ladermer Like, the science editor at how stuff
works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science writer
at how stuff works dot com. Today we're talking about
(00:23):
the ward occurrence and world tops the Elephant. Yeah, did
you see the video clip I sent you? I did,
I did see the TOPSI clip. Um, it was pretty
mind boggling, it is. I mean, one second Topsy's walking
out there kind of blurry in and black and white,
but walking out their full life sort of. And the
(00:44):
next yeah, she's smoking and killed over poor Topsy. And
it was all filmed by Thomas Alva Edison, forefather of
the motion picture industry. YEP. On January, Luna Park Zoo
and Coney Island people to gather. The people gathered to
watch this elephant die. Why why? Indeed, now that the
(01:07):
reason for this elephant's death supposedly was that Topsy had
allegedly killed three zoo handlers. Of course, this is nineteen
o three at a zoo on Coney Island, so the
conditions were not that great. Yeah, I have a hard
time to get up. Yeah, I have a hard time
siding with the zoo workers, especially since one of them
apparently tried to feed her a lit cigarette and that's
why Topsy squashed him. Yeah, I don't blame Topsy for
(01:30):
that one. Yeah. When so they're gonna they're gonna kill
this elephant, right right, They talked about hanging the elephant,
didn't maybe, but New York had recently outlawed hanging in
some super nice person pointed out that it probably wouldn't
be nice to do it to an elephant either, And
I think they'd also tried to kill poor Topsy by
cyanide as well before that. So they're they're looking for
(01:51):
another means of doing it. And suddenly Thomas Edison, stained
and Winner steps up to the plate and says, hey,
let me electrocute this elephant. Why why would he do
such a thing. Well, at the time, he was pretty
game about if you needed an animal electrocuted, or or
even a person, Thomas Edison was the guy to talk to.
He would uh uh not of course, not because he
(02:14):
was He would bring his own brand of electricity, the
DC or direct current uh for but he loved to
use his competitors a C, which is Tesla, right, yes,
Tesla backed by Westinghouse. He would he'd love to bring
that product forward and kill stray dogs, stray cats, horses, cows,
um all kind of in this quest to prove the
(02:35):
alternating current was this, you know, rampant force that couldn't
be controlled. I think there is a really good quote there. Yes,
this is from a Westinghouse actually who worked with Tesla.
He said, I remember Tom telling me, telling them that
the red current was like a river flowing peacefully to
that sea, while alternating current was like a torrent rushing
violently over a precipice. Imagine that. Uh. Edison was always
(03:01):
game to discredit alternating current, and this was his gig.
This was his his crazy PR move that he pulled. Yeah,
it's it's like if you were if you were the
spokesman for Pepsi and you like drown kittens and vats
of Coca cola or something. I mean that's kind of
what this was. Not that PEPs here cook has ever
done such a thing or whatever. Contemplate it's such a thing,
(03:21):
but yeah, definitely. So it was a killer PR where
and Edison was pulling some serious tricks out of his
PR bag. Um yeah. I mean, and one thing you
have to keep in mind too is this was we
might we take it electricity for granted a lot right now. Um,
I mean we have like novelty, Like I have a
novelty lamp on my desk that does nothing but just
(03:41):
light and smile at people, you know. But in the
I in in this time, I mean, electricity was crazy.
It was magical. It was this this strange force of
nature that we didn't really necessarily understand, and it could
kill people and maybe it could heal people, and maybe
it could power the future. And we're at this yeah,
that we're exactly We're at this turning point in history
where it was about to we were about to figure
(04:01):
out what was going to power industry and what was
going to power the world essentially. And it was this
fight between the two main candidates, alternating current and direct current.
And on one hand we have you know, Nicola Tesla,
famed inventor who came over from Eastern Europe and like
what eighteen late eighteen hundreds, and he filed these seven
patents on behalf of alternating current, and he said, you
(04:23):
know what, I can supply all your power with this
awesome system in Western House said yeah, you sure can,
and it sounds like a great invention. And you know,
Tesla was right. I mean, a C powers is what
travels through a power lines. It's what you know, our
houses and our businesses run on. And then you have
direct current and direct currents a little bit more docile,
(04:45):
if you will. And that was Thomas Edison's baby. And uh,
I mean direct current hasn't totally been ruled out. I
mean we still use it in fuel cells and solar
cells and stuff like that. But Thomas Hays and he
knew he was on a he was on the losing end. Yeah,
his back against the wall. And um, you know it's
like in politics, what do you do? You start fighting dirty?
You started slinging a little nud and electrocuting stray cats.
(05:08):
Yeah yeah, I mean because he didn't he didn't really
have a good case on his hand because a C power, right,
you know, it can't travel as well over um or
a C power is actually better at traveling over long
distances in d C. And uh, he he knew he was.
He was. He was screwed essentially, And like like I said,
it's like he tapped into that fear that what the
(05:29):
heck is this electricity? And and is it dangerous? And
you know, so he played on this whole idea that
if you start hooking up your homes and your cities
to a c power, you're just you're hooking yourself up
to the Maelstrom here. Yeah, this uncontrollable power essentially. Yeah,
and in electricity, electrical wiring was kind of shaky in
those days, like, uh uh, there's this a weird case
(05:50):
from Boston in eighteen ninety where a thousand volt wire
came down and charged up the iron work in front
of this building on Washington Street, and the crowd, the
crowd started gathering because even standing on the sidewalk a
ways back, they could feel it, you know, in the
in the in the cement. And they all just stood
there and watched as a dog walked walked up to
(06:11):
the iron and was just like killed instantly, but then
burned to a crisp as well. And they're just you know,
standing there in awe and fear at the spectacle of it. Yeah.
I mean, the cities used to be hung with a
live wires, at least in Brooklyn. And I heard that
the residents of Brooklyn used to have to dodge the
live wires and guess what, people, that's where we got
Brooklyn Dodgers supposedly. I think they should bring that back.
(06:34):
I might actually watch baseball if there were live wires
on the field and they're having to hit the ball
and then duck under and definitely add an element of surprise, no,
no doubt. Yeah, so ultimately not a good idea. I mean,
Topsy was a it was a senseless sacrifice in the
war of currents. Yeah, she probably lived her life under
you know, pretty poor conditions there on Coney Island. And
(06:56):
then uh was maybe even frame for these murders. I'm not,
I mean possibly sound bit true. But if you want
to read more about elephants, electricity, A, C, D C.
Are there any other ways to kill an elephant? T
NT dynamite perhaps, And how Nikola test would change the
way we use energy, we can always head on over
to how staff works dot com. Fantastic electric website yeah,
(07:18):
no doubt. Hey, and you know what, we have a
blog too, Yeah, the spiffy sign stuff flog at blogs
dot has staff works dot com. So that's all we
got for you today, guys. For more on this and
thousands of other topics is that how stuff works dot Com.
(07:39):
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the house stuff works dot Com home page.
Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
works dot com. Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. This
is Alban ladermer Like, the science editor at how stuff
works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science writer
at how stuff works dot com. Today we're talking about
(00:23):
the ward occurrence and world tops the Elephant. Yeah, did
you see the video clip I sent you? I did,
I did see the TOPSI clip. Um, it was pretty
mind boggling, it is. I mean, one second Topsy's walking
out there kind of blurry in and black and white,
but walking out their full life sort of. And the
(00:44):
next yeah, she's smoking and killed over poor Topsy. And
it was all filmed by Thomas Alva Edison, forefather of
the motion picture industry. YEP. On January, Luna Park Zoo
and Coney Island people to gather. The people gathered to
watch this elephant die. Why why? Indeed, now that the
(01:07):
reason for this elephant's death supposedly was that Topsy had
allegedly killed three zoo handlers. Of course, this is nineteen
o three at a zoo on Coney Island, so the
conditions were not that great. Yeah, I have a hard
time to get up. Yeah, I have a hard time
siding with the zoo workers, especially since one of them
apparently tried to feed her a lit cigarette and that's
why Topsy squashed him. Yeah, I don't blame Topsy for
(01:30):
that one. Yeah. When so they're gonna they're gonna kill
this elephant, right right, They talked about hanging the elephant,
didn't maybe, but New York had recently outlawed hanging in
some super nice person pointed out that it probably wouldn't
be nice to do it to an elephant either, And
I think they'd also tried to kill poor Topsy by
cyanide as well before that. So they're they're looking for
(01:51):
another means of doing it. And suddenly Thomas Edison, stained
and Winner steps up to the plate and says, hey,
let me electrocute this elephant. Why why would he do
such a thing. Well, at the time, he was pretty
game about if you needed an animal electrocuted, or or
even a person, Thomas Edison was the guy to talk to.
He would uh uh not of course, not because he
(02:14):
was He would bring his own brand of electricity, the
DC or direct current uh for but he loved to
use his competitors a C, which is Tesla, right, yes,
Tesla backed by Westinghouse. He would he'd love to bring
that product forward and kill stray dogs, stray cats, horses, cows,
um all kind of in this quest to prove the
(02:35):
alternating current was this, you know, rampant force that couldn't
be controlled. I think there is a really good quote there. Yes,
this is from a Westinghouse actually who worked with Tesla.
He said, I remember Tom telling me, telling them that
the red current was like a river flowing peacefully to
that sea, while alternating current was like a torrent rushing
violently over a precipice. Imagine that. Uh. Edison was always
(03:01):
game to discredit alternating current, and this was his gig.
This was his his crazy PR move that he pulled. Yeah,
it's it's like if you were if you were the
spokesman for Pepsi and you like drown kittens and vats
of Coca cola or something. I mean that's kind of
what this was. Not that PEPs here cook has ever
done such a thing or whatever. Contemplate it's such a thing,
(03:21):
but yeah, definitely. So it was a killer PR where
and Edison was pulling some serious tricks out of his
PR bag. Um yeah. I mean, and one thing you
have to keep in mind too is this was we
might we take it electricity for granted a lot right now. Um,
I mean we have like novelty, Like I have a
novelty lamp on my desk that does nothing but just
(03:41):
light and smile at people, you know. But in the
I in in this time, I mean, electricity was crazy.
It was magical. It was this this strange force of
nature that we didn't really necessarily understand, and it could
kill people and maybe it could heal people, and maybe
it could power the future. And we're at this yeah,
that we're exactly We're at this turning point in history
where it was about to we were about to figure
(04:01):
out what was going to power industry and what was
going to power the world essentially. And it was this
fight between the two main candidates, alternating current and direct current.
And on one hand we have you know, Nicola Tesla,
famed inventor who came over from Eastern Europe and like
what eighteen late eighteen hundreds, and he filed these seven
patents on behalf of alternating current, and he said, you
(04:23):
know what, I can supply all your power with this
awesome system in Western House said yeah, you sure can,
and it sounds like a great invention. And you know,
Tesla was right. I mean, a C powers is what
travels through a power lines. It's what you know, our
houses and our businesses run on. And then you have
direct current and direct currents a little bit more docile,
(04:45):
if you will. And that was Thomas Edison's baby. And uh,
I mean direct current hasn't totally been ruled out. I
mean we still use it in fuel cells and solar
cells and stuff like that. But Thomas Hays and he
knew he was on a he was on the losing end. Yeah,
his back against the wall. And um, you know it's
like in politics, what do you do? You start fighting dirty?
You started slinging a little nud and electrocuting stray cats.
(05:08):
Yeah yeah, I mean because he didn't he didn't really
have a good case on his hand because a C power, right,
you know, it can't travel as well over um or
a C power is actually better at traveling over long
distances in d C. And uh, he he knew he was.
He was. He was screwed essentially, And like like I said,
it's like he tapped into that fear that what the
(05:29):
heck is this electricity? And and is it dangerous? And
you know, so he played on this whole idea that
if you start hooking up your homes and your cities
to a c power, you're just you're hooking yourself up
to the Maelstrom here. Yeah, this uncontrollable power essentially. Yeah,
and in electricity, electrical wiring was kind of shaky in
those days, like, uh uh, there's this a weird case
(05:50):
from Boston in eighteen ninety where a thousand volt wire
came down and charged up the iron work in front
of this building on Washington Street, and the crowd, the
crowd started gathering because even standing on the sidewalk a
ways back, they could feel it, you know, in the
in the in the cement. And they all just stood
there and watched as a dog walked walked up to
(06:11):
the iron and was just like killed instantly, but then
burned to a crisp as well. And they're just you know,
standing there in awe and fear at the spectacle of it. Yeah.
I mean, the cities used to be hung with a
live wires, at least in Brooklyn. And I heard that
the residents of Brooklyn used to have to dodge the
live wires and guess what, people, that's where we got
Brooklyn Dodgers supposedly. I think they should bring that back.
(06:34):
I might actually watch baseball if there were live wires
on the field and they're having to hit the ball
and then duck under and definitely add an element of surprise, no,
no doubt. Yeah, so ultimately not a good idea. I mean,
Topsy was a it was a senseless sacrifice in the
war of currents. Yeah, she probably lived her life under
you know, pretty poor conditions there on Coney Island. And
(06:56):
then uh was maybe even frame for these murders. I'm not,
I mean possibly sound bit true. But if you want
to read more about elephants, electricity, A, C, D C.
Are there any other ways to kill an elephant? T
NT dynamite perhaps, And how Nikola test would change the
way we use energy, we can always head on over
to how staff works dot com. Fantastic electric website yeah,
(07:18):
no doubt. Hey, and you know what, we have a
blog too, Yeah, the spiffy sign stuff flog at blogs
dot has staff works dot com. So that's all we
got for you today, guys. For more on this and
thousands of other topics is that how stuff works dot Com.
(07:39):
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the house stuff works dot Com home page.
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