There is an early silent film entitled A Fight with Sledgehammers (1902), and by all accounts, that's what it depicts. Two blacksmiths get into an argument over a woman, then they just go at it with sledgehammers. Not for real, of course — this isn't a documentary, just a very early display of stage combat depicted on film in a period in which films had titles that told viewers exactly what they could expect to see. Everything you need to know about the movie is right there in the title.
“Hey, wanna see a movie?”
“What's playing?”
“A Fight with Sledgehammers.”
“What's it about?”
“A fight with sledgehammers.”
“Who's in it?”
“Two guys with sledgehammers.”
“Let's go!”
In those days, movies were short, direct and to the point. Train Arriving at Bombay Station (1898) is simply a train pulling into a station. The Kiss (1896) is just two people kissing. And Electrocuting an Elephant (1903) shows a real elephant being executed.
Whoa! What?! Back up!
Yes folks, one year after two actors pretended to duke it out with sledgehammers, Thomas Edison filmed the actual execution of Topsy, a Coney Island elephant. Topsy was due to be executed after she killed three people, including a cruel trainer who allegedly tried to feed her a lit cigarette. The problem was that nobody was sure how to go about killing an elephant. Death by hanging was proposed (can you imagine!?) but shouted down by the ASPCA. Then Edison suggested electrocuting the beast and filmed the process, releasing the film as Electrocuting an Elephant. You can see the footage on YouTube and in the documentary Mr. Death (1999). Topsy's death is rather quick — just a few seconds — and she supposedly died without making a sound. The most alarming thing about the film is the vast amount of smoke rising from the body. Well, that and the fact that they killed a real live elephant right there in front of you.
Oddly enough, Edison intended this film to be corporate propaganda. Edison's company had established Direct Current (DC) as the standard in many American homes, and Edison was keen to discredit the rival Alternating Current (AC) as being too dangerous for home use. Topsy was killed using AC, and Edison wanted everybody to associate this upstart technology with electrocution and death. In fact, he had already publicly killed several dogs and cats with AC in order to get the fear mongering underway. At the time, AC was being developed and distributed by the Westinghouse Company, and Edison tried to get people to use the word “Westinghoused” as another term for “electrocuted.”
Eventually, of course, Edison's attempts to hold back the march of progress became thoroughly Westinghoused, and AC became the accepted standard. After all, if it's good enough to fry an elephant, it's good enough to operate your lava lamp collection.
Comments: 2
Cavorite wrote:
I enjoyed this article and even though I knew about the elephant electrocution, I found it interesting. History and historians seem to be full of Thomas Edison. His famous unscrupulous demonstrations to sour public opinion against alternating current are well documented. The thing I found most interesting about this article is that while it told of the conflict Edison had, and the lengths he went to, trying to crush his competition; it never reviled the identity of that competition. This competition ultimately won the electricity war and we all use AC power today.
The story joined the historical conspiracy perpetrated against one of the world's brightest stars, to wipe his name from the history books. The article contained not one mention of the man who almost single-handedly created the modern age. Many of his ideas, concepts, and inventions are often attributed to other people. Radio, radar, shortwave communication, AC power, florescent lighting, X-Ray, electric car, and the coil that rests inside of almost every electronic device you own, just to name a few. He holds the world record for the largest man made display of lightning; over 135 foot long. He was more famous than Edison throughout the 1890's and has more than 120 U.S. patents. The system he proposed used no wires, so we would not have telephone poles or extension cords today if we used his system. Of coarse there would also be no way to charge a fee, or to monitor power usage with his system. So you can see why we have wires now. $Cha-Ching$
His name is the International System of Units measure for a magnetic field. (tesla)
Nikola Tesla was a Croatian emigrant born 1856, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1891. His life and inventions are the stuff of science fiction even today.
Nikola Tesla died in his 33rd floor suite at the Hotel New Yorker in 1943, where he had lived for the last ten years of his life. Within hours of his death the U.S. Secret Service confiscated all his notes and experiments, and have never released them even to his family.
I understood that the article was not really about Thomas Edison. I just thought a mere mention of Tesla's name was in order, but lacking as usual. By the way, Nikola Tesla is far more interesting than Thomas Edison. Check it out.
Ron Dye
on Mar 10th, 2010 at 9:27am Report Abuse
Kyle Francis wrote:
on Mar 10th, 2010 at 2:11pm Report Abuse
Post comment: (Login or Register)