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