MovieChat Forums > Electrocuting an Elephant (1903) Discussion > BACK OFF.

BACK OFF.

posted 18 years ago by GrEmLiN-X
27 replies | jump to latest

I can see more people are getting linked to this from SlashDot(<3 /.) and the attention isn't all good.

The facts:
-Topsy was an elephant who was used for labor, to help build Luna Park on Coney Island. Still a very popular place.
-Topsy KILLED *3* PEOPLE.
-Topsy was sentenced to the death penalty by NY state superior court.
-Thomas Edison, a well educated man, who we owe nearly everything around us to his hard work and dedication to helping society and the world as a whole, was at the time promoting a "safer and more efficient" DC power, and had been traveling the nation and doing executions on *SICK AND STRAY CATS AND DOGS AND RATS* to demonstrate the dangers of AC power.
-At the time this film was made, 1903, nothing like this had ever been attempted before, and to not get it on film for documentary/historic purposes would have been a sin.

Just HOW DO YOU EXECUTE AN ELEPHANT?

You can't shoot it... because you can't pierce its extremely thing hide, unless you used an artillery cannon, but that would not only be most likely ineffective, entire inhumane... and messy.

You can't use dynamite.. that's effective but entirely not practical. Not even in 1903 could that be remotely considered humane... I guess unless it was so much that it never stood a chance. But that's neither here nor there.

You can't push the damn thing off a cliff or drown it or suffocate it or gas it. We didn't have the means to do any of those things, and the longer the animal stayed alive and in captivity, the greater the risk of it taking OTHER HUMAN LIVES.

One of the most humane(so they say) methods of execution for a long time has been electrocution. Yeah it's pretty brutal, and if I had the choice, I'd choose firing squad for myself most likely.

But anyway, AC power was powerful enough to get the job done and it was about the only "humane" means of executing an animal this large at that point in time.

Anything else would cause the animal pain and suffering, this method of execution, the animal most likely didn't feel the pain because of the electricity surging through its body. Now, actions speak louder than words, I realize, and it may appear as though the elephant was in excruiciating pain before it collapsed, however, it's unlikely it would have felt more than a pain like it stepped on a hot coal or intense burning where the electrodes were connected to its body. Beyond that the brain would have too much electricity in it to really make it all that possible to feel or control itself.

I realize this seems like I'm winging it and not calling many facts up, but it is 5 in the morning, afterall.

Moving along...

My opinion. this happend 103 years ago. The animal is long since dead, it was an animal, it took the lives of *THREE* *human beings*... it may very well have demolished a family by taking away kids' fathers, widowing wives, taking away the only form of income for a family. Versus an elephant.

Don't get me wrong, I love animals. But honestly this was over 100 years ago! Things have changed a LOT. (Though, don't think putting animals down/to sleep is entirely humane and painless... if a certain reaction occurs to the drugs used, it can cause EXCRUCIATING pain to the animal(or even human) if the subject is not completely sedated before the lethal drugs are injected.

So just cool your jets, and don't watch it.
We've got plenty more *beep* for you to go hurly guts over...

Faces of Death, beheading videos, war videos, tortures, executions, accidents, pictures, videos, sound clips... you name it, it's basicly out there.
The world is a *beep* up place. Welcome to real life.

PS: Thomas Edison was a great person. The fact that he was chosen by the state of New York to perform this execution and experiment does not make him "scum" or anything, nor does the fact that he accepted the job and carried it out successfully. Thomas Edison did more for this world than you could even begin to IMAGINE anybody being able to do. If someone had to go and bring air to this planet for everything to breathe and use, a man like Thomas Edison would have been the man to do it. He lit this planet, he saved billions of lives, every single day, and night, you interact all around you, conscious or not, willfully or not, with his inventions. If there is a god, may it bless Edison's soul.. if he has one. Whatever. Just lay off the Edison bashing.

[–] Warren_Parker 18 years ago

Yeah? And you're ugly.

[–] GrEmLiN-X 18 years ago

I love you too. <3

[–] DIXIEmcall 18 years ago

He was a sick man I mean for heaven sakes the man was smiling.

if julie london & bobby troup played vice city i wouid be in heaven

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] junk-mail-4 18 years ago

A fine and detailed lesson in moral relativism. You put the "sop" in sophism.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] bartons-3 17 years ago

You can't shoot it... because you can't pierce its extremely thing hide, unless you used an artillery cannon, but that would not only be most likely ineffective, entire inhumane... and messy.

Sorry, but I disagree with you. There are many rifle calibers that have been used for over a century to hunt elephants. During the early 1900's calibers such as the .577 Nitro Express, .375 H&H Magnum, .416 Rigby, 404 jeffery and the .470 Nitro Express were all very popular to use on african dangerous game animals. Any of these rounds would instantly kill an elephant with a well placed brain shot.

[–] Gavno 16 years ago

>>> Sorry, but I disagree with you. There are many rifle calibers that have been used for over a century to hunt elephants. During the early 1900's calibers such as the .577 Nitro Express, .375 H&H Magnum, .416 Rigby, 404 jeffery and the .470 Nitro Express were all very popular to use on african dangerous game animals. Any of these rounds would instantly kill an elephant with a well placed brain shot. <<<

Right on!

These days, the .458 Winchester Magnum would settle the argument in a BIG hurry.

As you say tho... any of the British Nitro Express calibres would have been MORE than adequate.

In any case, the idolotry of Edison is misplaced. Genius he may have been, but Edison's staff from Menlo Park described him as a major rectal opening, and just this side of insanity.

That, plus the fact that he and Henry Ford were both extremely rabid antisemites in addition to harboring a big time hatred for Black people and a love for the idea of using eugenics to create an alleged "master race", are, for me, enough to close the book on Edison.

[–] fredlafaire 17 years ago

"Thomas Edison, a well educated man, who we owe nearly everything around us to his hard work and dedication to helping society and the world as a whole"

My main beef with Edison is how much of a dodgy, morally dubious person he was when it came to competitors. Sure, the man invented many things one takes for granted, but his attitude is a major turn off for me. Further, though he was a hard worker, it would be a stretch to say that he was dedicated to helping humanity. He was by no means an altruistic person. Had Edison had gotten his way, AC's implementation would have been delayed for years.

[–] chooky42 14 years ago

Yes he did it to show that AC was (apparently) more dangerous than DC, but he did this because he wanted to sell his idea of DC and make Nicolai Telsa's AC look bad. It WAS his idea to kill the elephant by electrocution, as a matter of fact it was edison that coined the term "electrocution" as in execution by electricity.

Edison may have been a smart man and great inventor but he was a very unscrupulous buisnessman. Around 1895 Nicolai Telsa's New york lab was burnt down and it was strongly suspected that Edison had something to do with it. As he had sold some equipment to a german firm who imediately patented tech that Telsa was just about to patent before the lab was burnt down.

Also in the end it turned out that AC was actually better and safer because it can travel further distance without losing its charge and is easier to control than DC.

For crying out loud, just suspend your disbelief already.

[–] rooprect 17 years ago

Edison was an egocentric, anthropocentric, sadistic, morally bankrupt sociopath whose stole all his ideas from other inventors. And he wore ladies' undergarments. Each time I switch on a lightbulb, he gets a red hot poker up the bum in hell.

[–] Burntout 17 years ago

So we all agree then that Edison is the epitome of modern-day Americans?

Mooo.

[–] kroneland 17 years ago

YES. Thank you.
The elephant was mad, it had to die.

Freaking PETA types.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] wildanimals 17 years ago

If you ask me, they should have never kept elephants captive in the first place.

[–] BarryFrom 16 years ago

People seem to ferget that this animal was constantly abused by its keepers who did such things as forced it to eat lit cigarettes. Wouldn't you kill three people?

[–] merln 16 years ago

Maybe, if I was an elephant. And then I would be tried in court for triple homicide, aggravated, or whatnot legal jargon. And, being an elephant, I'd be unable to defend myself by testifying and answering the prosecution's questions, so I'd be condemned to death and electrocuted.
Sound familiar?
Sucks for me, the elephant, but what have you? I'm an elephant.

Speaking of electrocution, I've been electrocuted three times in the past 5 years or so, and my overwhelming impression is of being picked up and shaken. It's not really pain, per se, but it's sure a jolt, and not one I'd necessarily like to repeat. The body doesn't like it, no matter what the brain may think, and reacts to it in order to save itself. Ergo electro-shock-therapy: forcing the body to supersede the brain's control. Worked in "Cuckoo's Nest," dinnit?

[–] bartons-3 16 years ago

This is what happens when you shoot an elepahnt with the correct rifle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCpa8OQRosM

[–] garrett4987 16 years ago

I've seen a man drop an elephant with a single shot. You just have to have the right equipment and know what your doing, but I guess we've established that. I don't endorse it though, unless you plan to give the meat to a local African tribe that really needs it, or other similar circumstances.

[–] Lothar_gr 15 years ago

Edison was a great man eh? Really? And he was frying helpless animals for the promotion of science and the benefit of mankind, right? It wasnt because he was losing profits with AC current no, no. Who is saying these things? Blasphemy!

Edison was a bussinessman, and a cruel bussinessman too.

[–] The_Great_Gabbo 15 years ago

I studied a good deal of Edison in my childhood and had quite a bit of respect for him. However, after I found out he authorized this sick act, I lost all respect in him--too bad he didn't die this way. And anybody who says electrocution is painless, they're full of $hit. I have been electrocuted twice in my life and it feels like someone is jerking your ligaments with all their might. And you feel the impact for days, that is, if you live.

<*))))))><

[–] BKinzeys 15 years ago

Just to correct a misnomer. If you have been electrocuted then you are dead. If you are alive then you have been shocked. Shocked until dead is electrocution.