History of Elephant Electrocution On Closure Box Set

[Monday, February 19th, 2001 - 8:00 am ET] Although its not really related, a viewer by the name of Trnqt666 recently took on a history hunt about the black and white piece on the 'Closure' box set right before the 'March of the Pigs' video when the 1903 Thomas Edison film was shown of the elephant being electrocuted.

"I wanted to find either stills of that or see what other experiments he had done (which I don't think were photographed, but he also had electrocuted a 1000lbs horse as well as squirrels, dogs and cats while developing the electric chair)," he explained. "Anyway, the elephant's name was Topsy and was one of the elephants that was allowed to roam free at Coney Island's Luna Park. Initially she was going to be publically hanged because she had killed 3 people in 3 years (although the last person was a drunk who had fed her a lit cigarette)," he continued. "Even at the time it was considered inhumane to hang such an animal so Thomas Edison (who was also a frequenter of Luna Park) decided that it would be an opportune time to show the world the dangers of AC, alternating current, high voltage electricity as well as test electrocution (electricity + execution) as a means of humane, painless execution," Trnqt666 said. He filmed it and showed it around the country to sway popular opinion into believing that DC electricity was ideal for the future (his rival George Westing house supported AC). Of course in the end AC won the battle but in any case I always was curious at the circumstances which would cause a man to electrocute an elephant."

Two sites where he got some of the information can be found at Roadside Pet Cemetery: Topsy and RailwayBridge: Topsy.

Thanks a lot to: Trnqt666 (Nick).