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Elephant Killed by Thomas Edison with 6000 Volts!

by tagiscom
9 replies
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I know what you are thinking, yuck?

But it is from 1889, (more or less) so it isn't too bad! :rolleyes:

It is silent, as well, although the music, is a bit tacky!


And if you are into the history of Tessler and Westinghouse, then there is this 2 hour video!



I am currently watching a series on Edison, and Henry Ford to name a few, offline.

And saw this reference today!

I new that he fried some stray dogs, but an elephant???

I also understand why he did it, because he had a wealthy backer putting 10's of millions into his electricity setup, and pressuring him to do anything to get Tessler and Westinghouse's version of electricity distribution to fail, or show that it was dangerous!


Personally l thought that he should have refused, but large sums of money make even geniuses do callus things!


Shane
  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Edison was the guy who wanted the world to use direct current. Tesla invented a way to produce alternating current, which doesn't require transformers every few miles of wire.

    Edison killed animals with Alternating Current to show how dangerous it was. It was a mean and untruthful trick, very deceiving.

    Edison stole most of his most popular inventions. Tesla was the real genius here.
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      Edison was the guy who wanted the world to use direct current. Tesla invented a way to produce alternating current, which doesn't require transformers every few miles of wire.
      You have that backwards. Tesla advocated A/C because it COULD drive transformers, and change the characteristics of the electricity so it can go father. A/C wasn't any mystery. EDISON was against A/C, so the story goes, partially because it was so lethal. The world as we know it today would be VERY different without A/C. In edisons day, they thought about lights and not much else, and many things were developed for 110 or 220. MOST electronics today works at 5v or 12v, and the wattage is kept relatively high by doing it with transformers. EARLY computers changed it to DC, pulsed the power at a set rate, and stepped it down. NOW, most just step it down.

      Edison killed animals with Alternating Current to show how dangerous it was. It was a mean and untruthful trick, very deceiving.

      Edison stole most of his most popular inventions. Tesla was the real genius here.
      Yeah, edison ran a business and had MANY people creating inventions for him. You have to wonder what he really did invent. We may NEVER know. IBM, for example, had employees sign away rights to patentable items.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author tagiscom
        Well in all honesty Edison didn't invent the light bulb, many scientists before him showed that there was something there, but it wasn't practical!

        Edison's genius was taking a non-viable idea, and making it commercially viable!


        And frying the occasional animal along the way! :rolleyes:


        I won't discuss his attempts at the first electrocution of a prisoner on death rowe, he botched that one up a bit!


        I may not touch fried chicken for a while! :rolleyes:


        Shane
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  • Profile picture of the author dtul
    I've always thought of Edison as more of a fantastic marketer than fantastic inventor. Kind of sickening to see that elephant go down like that also.
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by dtul View Post

      I've always thought of Edison as more of a fantastic marketer than fantastic inventor. Kind of sickening to see that elephant go down like that also.
      The thing Edison was truly great at was raising money from investors.
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      • Profile picture of the author Marvin Johnston
        Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

        The thing Edison was truly great at was raising money from investors.
        The thing Edison was truly great at was taking action and persevering.

        Whether he stole all his great ideas is somewhat irrelevant since most great ideas were previously thought about by people unable or unwilling to take action on them.

        But I certainly agree the misleading marketing on AC vs DC was not an admirable thing to do.

        BTW, my understanding is that DC at high voltages is a better way to transmit power than using AC. It is (was?) being used in California to carry power from Northern California to So. Cal.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_DC_Intertie
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        • Profile picture of the author seasoned
          Originally Posted by Marvin Johnston View Post

          The thing Edison was truly great at was taking action and persevering.

          Whether he stole all his great ideas is somewhat irrelevant since most great ideas were previously thought about by people unable or unwilling to take action on them.

          But I certainly agree the misleading marketing on AC vs DC was not an admirable thing to do.

          BTW, my understanding is that DC at high voltages is a better way to transmit power than using AC. It is (was?) being used in California to carry power from Northern California to So. Cal.

          Pacific DC Intertie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
          Well, I don't think I ever heard of that. The idea of synchronizing power IS interesting, but obviously must happen at the grid. I imagine they would change the AC to DC and back. It isn't perfect anyway.

          Steve
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          • Profile picture of the author Marvin Johnston
            Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

            Well, I don't think I ever heard of that. The idea of synchronizing power IS interesting, but obviously must happen at the grid. I imagine they would change the AC to DC and back. It isn't perfect anyway.

            Steve
            You don't have to synchronize DC .

            But you do have to synchronize AC lines before they are connected, i.e. the phase of the two lines have to be in sync. Connecting two lines that aren't synchronized is like connecting a battery to your car battery in reverse (positive connected to negative, and vice versa.) Bad things happen.
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            • Profile picture of the author seasoned
              Originally Posted by Marvin Johnston View Post

              You don't have to synchronize DC .

              But you do have to synchronize AC lines before they are connected, i.e. the phase of the two lines have to be in sync. Connecting two lines that aren't synchronized is like connecting a battery to your car battery in reverse (positive connected to negative, and vice versa.) Bad things happen.
              I said change the AC to DC and BACK! Actually, you DO have to synchronize DC! If you hook two DC power supplies together with negative and positive connected, negative BETTER be connected to negative, and positive BETTER be connected to positive. If they are connected the OTHER way, SHORT!!!!!!!

              The current HAS to be pulsed for transformers to work, and the US simply cycles the power through sinewaves, instead of the regular pulsing. If you ran DC, TV sets, computers, etc... wouldn't work as they use transformers.

              BUT, once hooked up, nothing is needed. Unless you require a certain wave in which case the best way is to use capacitors to get stable DC and run it through a waveform generator, which is similar to creating AC synchronization.

              Buy YEAH, I'm familiar. TODAY, must computer power supplies run the power through a transformer to get a voltage that is a bit too high. It is then run through a rectifier to get DC, capacitors to stabilize it, and a regulator to knock it down a bit more, to what is needed. THAT way, it can handle some spikes and sags that are bound to happen.

              Steve
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