Mario J. Pinheiro

LINKS TO MY WEBPAGES COURSE OF ELECTROMAGNETISM AND OPTICS

At the beginning of XX century, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were proposing different systems to electrify cities, in particular, New York.

Thomas Edison in an unprecedent move decided to use electricity for a weird purpose, to fry an elephant. He wanted to show that if an alternate current could kill an elephant, much more easily it could kill a man...

 

According to Wikipedia “Topsy (born circa 1875, died January 4, 1903), was a domesticated elephant with the Forepaugh Circus at Coney Island's Luna Park. Because she had killed three men in as many years (including a severely abusive trainer who attempted to feed her a lit cigarette),^[1] Topsy was deemed a threat to people by her owners and killed by electrocution on January 4, 1903, at the age of 28.^[2] Inventor Thomas Edison captured the event on film. He would release it later that year under the title Electrocuting an Elephant.”

See here, Topsy being electrocuted in a film of 1903...