Edison and his motivation for this


I think Thomas Edison had several things motivating him to make this film, one of which was to show how dangerous Alternating Current was (championed by his major competitor George Westinghouse). One of the major backstories in the development of the electric chair was to prove if AC (Westinghouse) was safer and better than Direct Current (DC), which was championed by Edison. This fight had gone on for a number of years, at least back to the 1893 Columbian Expo in Chicago and the battle to provide the electricity and lighting for the fair. Edison's bid was for using DC and the cost was going to be several times higher than Westinghouse's AC alternative.

There was also competition in developing the electric chair - Edison wanted to show that AC could kill people, scaring people to use Direct Current instead. Direct Current, isn't very good for long distances, which is why most items that you see today that use direct current are things like flashlights, remotes, and other battery operated items.

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