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Zap!

I have a feeling the gods of political correctness would have never put up with Thomas Edison:

And then there was the time Thomas Alva Edison electrocuted an elephant. Intentionally.

Edison's zapping of the elephant followed an associate's electrocution of a dog, then a calf and then a horse. The quadruped slaughter was intended by Edison to demonstrate the lethality of Alternating Current, which his competitor, the talented George Westinghouse, was using in his lighting systems; Edison was a proponent of less economically efficient Direct Current to which he had committed resources and reputation, and he was frantic to discredit Westinghouse.

That anecdote is part of Woody West's longer review of Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison And The Pioneers Of The Electric Revolution by L.J. Davis. It looks like an interesting read.

[Posted at 20:40 CST on 06/12/03] [Link]

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