Added: 5 years ago
From: leydensjar
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  • EDISON 2012

  • Tesla rulezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

  • Topsy killed by a Greedy pig.

  • i will always feel so bad for dear Topsy. She was mishandled and mistreated, and kept in a miserable life, and then the poor thing was finally slaughtered under the supposed guise of "furthering science". No matter how she was killed or who killed her, it was still unfair. She needed to roam in her native habitat.

  • poor elephant

  • The caption to this video is completely false. Topsy was an elephant at the Coney Island amusement park who had killed her keeper. The fate of killer elephants was to be put down. Rather than criticize electricity, the movie short was designed to show the power and potential of electricity. The film also because a favorite in movie theaters of the day.

  • @mnpd007 the keeper regularly whipped the elephant and was killed while trying to feed the elephant a cigarette lighter.

  • @mnpd007 I didn't hear it that way, what I heard was that yes, she did kill someone (accidentely) They didn't know what to do with the extra elephant. Edison, found his opportunity to show the world how dangerous A.C. currents really were, and he electrocuted Topsy.

  • @mnpd007 The caption to the video is correct!!

  • That's a nice tactic against AT-ATs.

  • If there is a hell, I'm pretty sure Edison gets assraped by Hitler right now

  • @Tributorious

    Nope. It will be VERY lonely in hell. No one will see ANYONE.

  • @stevenscottoddballz Thanks for the info, Satan

  • Comment removed

  • This was in the Nine Inch Nails Broken movie as well.

  • Even a great cientist has his idiot side.

  • YOU EVIL MAN!!!!!!!

  • Awwww I love elephants

  • Faces of Death brought me here.

  • George Bradley's poem brought me here.

  • in the name of science!

  • cracked

  • Cracked

  • heard about this on QI.

    

  • Thumbs up if Assassin creeed 2 brought you here

  • @l2wyer....Edison invented the Tesla Machine ?? naah was invented by Tesla....

    Edison invented the Electric chair?? Naah was invented by Harold P. Brown

    I fully agree with sindilee and Dismae , Edison was a thief and swindler himself and when you know your history you will find that Edison was not a nice person as we thought he was ....

  • APUSH brought me here.

  • I laugh so hard

  • @TheDrunkAmerican so hard fuk da police smoke weed errday

  • Thumbs up if an article on Cracked.com brought you here.

  • This elephant called Topsy killed 3 people. Effectively she was given a death sentence. And Thomas Edison as an inventor of Tesla Machine and the electric chair was asked to kill the elephant with the electricity.

  • @l2wyer No, Edison was throwing a smear campaign against Tesla and before the elephant he had been electrocuting stray dogs and cats to try and scare people from using AC (alternating current) so that they would use DC (direct current) which he was behind. However, what he failed to mention was that DC is just as dangerous as AC can be. Due to this incident though it led to the invention of the electric chair.

  • @l2wyer Get your facts straight, man!! Nikola Tesla was a genius, who had to sue Edison and Marconi for his own patents, such as the radio!! Edison was an idea thief!!

  • @sindilee And you are a plagiarist who obviously believes everything he reads.

  • @HeWhoIsIAm420 Yet, I have at least 18 people agreeing with my original comment. This comment being based on documented facts, such as court records.

  • @sindilee Votes on YT are like those little golden stars you used to get when you did something that made the teacher happy and such. They may be shiny, and pretty to look at, but in reality, they are completely and utterly valueless.

    Everyone knew Tesla was a genius, he invented a fucking HUGH JACKMAN teleporting device! He could teleport a FUCKING X-MAN into your living room just to literally slap your shit for not recognizing his mad skills. Ed was a dick, also well known.

  • Comment removed

  • @l2wyer he did not invent the tesla machine. that was nikola tesla.

  • none of you realize the reason it happened.....

  • <3 Team Tesla.

  • fucking asshole

  • I'm so grateful to be named after Nikolai Tesla and not that dumbass Edison. Of course, a girl named Thomas may have been shocking...

  • @easilyamused713 his name is Nikola, not Nikolai ;)

  • faces of death brought me here

  • thomas edison is a fucking prick who couldnt hold a candle to the genius of tesla

  • FUCK YOU EDISON YOU FUCKING DOUCHE!!!!

  • Fried like a naughty sausage

  • It's amazing how far a man would go just for wealth and attention

    Edison didn't like the idea of Tesla's way of AC (alternating Current) while he went with DC (direct Current, Tesla was by far the best inventor of all time beside's Leonardo Da Vinci, Edison how ever was just a selfish Jerk

  • Damn, I thought Zaltzman was joking :-0

  • The new Bugle mascot, Topsy!

  • Cheers Zaltsman!

  • Comment removed

  • She was put down for killing her mistreating handlers? That seems fair. (Sarcasm intended) If Edison wanted to prove electrcity was dangerous, he should have figured out another way.

  • @MariaSmusic83 it happened over 100 years ago. People thought different back then, Bitching about it now isn't going to help Topsy the elephant.

  • Got what it deserved!

  • I came here from Assassin's Creed 2 hahaha

  • Edison was an asshole

  • scumbag edison, rips Tesla off $50,000

  • Faces of death website brought me here.

  • Thomas edison is such a dickwad! Go to hell, edison!!!

  • assassins creed 2 brought me here

  • @Thrashardl

    Hey~me too!

  • @Thrashardl The Residents brought ME here.

  • @Thrashardl bitch, please

    lol

  • Fuck elephants, i fucking hate them. Long live the fucking beast.

  • @ubiquitous0666 why hate them

  • my history teacher brought me here

  • LMFAO

    

  • Topsy had killed 3 men that's why she was executed.

  • Edison was an asshole.

  • @Skylar2k8 why? because he invented a quick and humane way to put down animals who were due to be killed in a more barbaric way?

  • @robp2k11 No, because he was being a baby to Tesla, the real genius.

  • @robp2k11 you're dumb. Electricity is way worse than a bullet in the head

  • @SpEcImEn128 Actually both are just as worse, unless someone else is doing it to you.

  • @SpEcImEn128 For a human, yes a bullet to the head is better. But bare in mind that an elephant is fucking huge, a thick skull and tough skin, there would be less chance that a bullet to the head would actually pierce the brain properly, higher chance it would just leave the animal in an even worse situation, i.e. bleeding out. Plus 100 years ago they didnt have that powerful guns, even less likely that it would kill the elephant quickly. So actually, it is you that is thicker than cow shit.

  • @robp2k11 You're kidding me right? Do you really think that the intention of this experiment was to kill the elephant in the most morally permissible manner possible? No. It was an experiment based on execution; morality had NOTHING to do with it.

  • @XxStrongDrums1996xX i believe Edison had a theory that electricity would be more humane to kill (be it humans or animals) and he used Topsy as the experiment. This animal was due to be destroyed for killing three humans and seemed like the perfect specimen to test his theory on i.e. if it can kill an elephant it can kill a human. All credible theories need to be tested, even capital punishment. If you want to talk morality is it moral that this elephant be kept alive after killing three humans?

  • @robp2k11 The animal was abused, and attacked out of instinct. 

  • @XxStrongDrums1996xX it was abused by one of the three men who it killed, what about the other two? did they deserve to die? end of the day, this experiment had to be carried out to see if capital punishment can become more humane so they tried it out on a condemned elephant that was already going to be killed. Stop being a sop and booing about an elephant that was put to death quickly and humanely over 100 years ago. Appreciate the fact that we have the fucking video in the first place.

  • @robp2k11 why not do it to a criminal who killed purposly

  • @robp2k11 God damn, people like you piss me off. I'm not "booing" over a dead elephant, I simply stated the FACT that the animal was abused. I don't even know why I'm arguing.

  • Tesla only cared about science, and Edison cared about money, even if it meant trying to stop REAL science.

  • sad thing here is,GE's current ceo, jeffrey immelt still lives up to the reputation. Tesla was a hundred years ahead of his time.

  • Can anyone tell me where else I can read more about this? Very interested. Thanks :)

  • Water for Elephants brought me here

  • Thank u history channel

  • History channel led me here

  • History Ch. brought me here

  • Thumbs up if History Channel brought you here.

  • @ohsheeilla Bingo! Never knew about this...now I do

  • The uneducated masses. This elephant was due to be put down so edison suggested a humane and quick way via electrocution. Why can't you all appreciate this video for what it is, a 107 year old video! Amazing technology for the time.

  • @robp2k11 i don't think this is a very humane way to go and he electrocuted many other animal like cats, dogs, and horses.

  • @scott0551 As for your point about it not being very humane, well the original plan was to hang the elephant. Yes thats right HANG the elephant, until edison came in and said no use this it will be over faster, so if you can think up a realistic and more humane way available 100 years ago, please speak up now. Im more dumb struck by the fact people care about the rights of a bloody elephant who had died long before your existance rather than appreciate the video technology of the time.

  • @robp2k11 where can I read more about this elephant being due to be put down? I would appreciate you sharing this with me. Thanks

  • @emmacorsa A combination of wikipedia and various articles online. I think QI mentioned it briefly in a recent episode. (QI is a british comedy quiz show hosted by stephen fry). My knowledge is limited to say the least but i'm just shocked by the preachers of animal rights on a bloody elephant who died over 100 years ago instead of appreciating the fact that we have this video to look at

  • I read about this in a Ripley's book. Poor elephant.

  • people are worse than animals

  • Edison was pretty metal.

  • i have currently finished reading a book about this event ANDD the majority of these comments are a load of crap. Get your facts right, it was simply to test whether they could get enough electricity to kill an animal so large, it had nothing to do with punishment. This is science and although it is horrible it is and was the only ever electrocution of an elephant and without it we wouldnt know what we know today about electricity. GET AN EDUCATION PEOPLE.

  • @mjk121091 Just so you know it was a punishment but it just happened to fulfill Edison's needs. No owner of an elephant would give it up for electrocution when at this point animals like this drew in huge crowds when they performed in circuses. Topsy killed three people in three years and as such was seen as too dangerous to keep alive. Yes it was a test but not in the way you describe... there was no question about "Enough electricity" Power stations since 1878 had been able to produce enough.

  • @mjk121091 He did it to prove Nicola Tesla's AC was too dangerous. You should look up the first electric chair, too.

  • Talk about getting an education... it had nothing to do with "getting enough electricity." Edison did it just to try and prove that his form of electricity was safe while Tesla's was dangerous (when the opposite was much more true). Edison stole most of his ideas and was a jackass.

  • @99EvilMonkey do you want to back up your claims. Most of Edison's patents were improvements on existing products, but that hardly constitutes stealing. Other inventors at the time were doing similar things, it is unfair to lash out at him because he is the most famous of the time period.

  • Edison denilen gavat ibne gibi puşt gibi bir adammış.

    Paranın kokusunu alınca reklam sektörüne dadanmış.

    Valla kaptırırsın konulu ona uzatırsan elini,

    götüne girsin kafam kadar tesla bobini.

  • Glad he tested this on an elephant, rather than a human being losing their life.

  • These damn bastards.

    May they burn in Hell and may there souls never find peace.

    Fuck Off T.A.Edison.

    Tesla was a genius!

  • I have read enough Cracked.com articles about Edison that I can now say he can go fuck himself.

  • Edison was a piece of shit and a pig of a man who could not admit he was wrong. Tesla was the genius. Edison was a fucktard!

  • they should of buried him face down ...go to hell for doing what u did.

  • TESLA = SUPERGENIUS.

  • Fucking Templar's.

  • This was not filmed by Edison. Jesus.

  • @Nutterbutterz95 dude yes it was im doing a project about him and the facts say he taped it

  • The reason Topsy was killed was that she was fed a lit cigarette by her trainer, who she then killed, for feeding her a lit cigarette. She was sentenced to death because even though it was okay at the time for an elephant to kill up to 3 people, killing your trainer was deemed worthy of death. They originally wanted to hang her but it was deemed inhumane.

  • @theusedfan1992 Good thing they killed it before it hurt/ killed anybody else. That's stupid as shit that an elephant could kill 3 people and not be put to death.

  • Even though Thomas Edison did kill Topsy, doesn't mean he was bad. Just think of this.....He seriously invented the 20th century. Anyways, Thomas was showing how dangerous electricity is, he wasn't trying to be mean OKAY PEOPLE!

  • @cheezefreak1600 becaouse of him (T. Edison) they cut foundings for Tesla... We could all now use wireless free electricity, imagine how much improved we could be now as a civilization...

  • Thomas Edison= motherfucker. This alone is reason enough to support Tesla in his battle with Edison, if there weren't others.

  • This video is bullshit. The elephant was put to dead because he had killed people.

    His dead was instant (few seconds). So very human

  • @razorlord2 Had it killed people really, or was that "story" just put out afterwards? Even if it were true this is a nasty thing: to use the death of an elephant, a creature comparable in intelligence and sensitivity to man, in this humiliating and contemptuous way. To exploit this tragedy for publicity.

  • Why are some people fine with the torture of animals?? I'd like to hook up some of those guys and flip the switch on them..

  • Someone should have electrocuted Thomas Edison.

  • They deemed Topsy to be a permanent threat to humans, as she had killed three handlers in three incidents, one of which involved a handler, who regularly whipped her, trying to feed her a lighted cigarette just to watch her suffer. She stomped on him. I can only imagine what the other handlers did to her...

  • Edison called elephants, lions, tigers, bears and horses menaces to society. Before they killed her they fed her carrots soaked in cyanide. Edison was happy to oblige the state of NY in executing these “menaces to society,” by employing alternating current, but his ulterior motive was merely to show the world the danger of alternating current, invented by Nikola Tesla, his arch-rival. Edison’s direct current didn’t have the strength to electrocute an elephant, and he considered it safer.

  • :(

    

  • RIP Topsy, will always be remembered

  • now try it with high voltage dc!

  • One last thing. To me the most disturbing aspect of the Topsy and Mary stories is the reaction of the bystanders. People love blood. The elephants were killed for behaving like wild animals. What can you say about the people?

  • Yeah, I just read an article on Mary. Her story is painful.

    As most people here probably know, Edison's thugs would roam the country picking up stray dogs and electrocuting them before a bloodthirsty public. The point was to breed fear about AC. At least Tesla finally won that one, and kids have learned not to stick their tongues in the light socket.

    As an aside, look up the Flynn Effect. It sheds some light on these videos.

  • @savetheguineaworm They electrocuted doggies??!! I didn't know that! Those heartless monster freaks! :(:(

  • I hear they hanged an elephant in Tennessee. It really makes me embarrassed to be human. The only good thing I can say is that we seem to have come a long way in the last hundred years.

  • @savetheguineaworm Yeah they did, her name was Mary. I used to live in the area where they did it. :S They hanged her with a railway crane

  • Little known fact that Tesla invented Edison because he had such an easy time inventing things (the bug powered motor was just too successful). Edison got jealous and invented Marconi to steal Tesla's radio.

  • Dam that shit got fried

  • Die all attenders at the same way!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Tesla-I am trying to invent electricity and you look like an asshole

  • thumbs up if Nash brought you here

  • Am I the only one disturbed by the way Topsy fell over?

  • k seriously, its a video about edison killing an elephant, not god striking it down so how about you keep religion out of it FUCK

  • I'm glad that despite me being American, I have found the truth about who Edison was. Most Americans think that he was a genius for inventing a light bulb but he was actually a mean bastard who would electrocute animals and screw over Nikola Tesla. Edison you are a jerk.

  • @elr456 Uhh, "Topsy the elephant" killed 3 of it's handlers in Coney Island during it's preforming career... it had to be killed, just like how they kill alligators that eat pets in florida, and they kill murderers for killing someone in Detroit. I don't see how it's mean at all. Considering electricution was the best method for humane killing at the time, just like the electric chair was during that time.

  • @SuperSneakySniper his handlers were abusive they deserved it

  • @cops12344 oh okay. Well then I don't really know how well the handlers treated the elephant, but yeah. The real tradegy is that if they were electricuting an alligator or a snake or a "dangerous not-cute animal" most of these "animal lovers" would be cheering over the roasted body. I really hate that.

  • @cops12344 Topsy was a girl

  • @elr456 Edison did not invent the lightbulb. He just made improvements on other designs. He was a first rate asshole.

  • @elr456 Oh man, I know right, Telsa was a much better inventer, some of his ideas were, and still are incredible to think of, I mean come on - A DEATH RAY. Tesla invented the radio, thought of wireless energy transfer, had the superior AC current.

    Edison wasted so much of his career doing stuff like this to discredit Tesla, if only the had stayed partners, they would have done some incredible things together.

  • hijooo de su reputisima madre!!!!! porqe no se electrocuto los wuevos el perroo :@

  • @morefiles1. U have no idea why this was done u thick fuck!!! It was to show the world that teslas theory of ac was dangerous and eddison who was much richer and far less clever than teslar tried to prove that his dc was better. However teslar was the true genius of our time. Try read a book ya footpad

  • thems good eatin

  • Ugh, this is one of the most disgusting things commited to film. And I'm including Southland Tales in that assessment, too!

  • :( Poor elephant, died in the name of trying to prove that DC is wors- I mean better then AC

  • Anything to beat the Austrians...

  • THUNDER STRUCK

  • we read about this in my holocaust class

    the subject was the bystander effect....

  • This is fucking disgusting.

  • HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    

  • @killer3000ad Yes BUT tesla is the one who invented AC (alternating current) which is very deadly and dangerous as edison is showing. Edison was promoting DC (direct current) which is much safer to use. they were competition for one another to see who's would win basically. eventually tesla's AC won but we still use DC, like in our computers the power supply converts AC from the wall to DC and sends that electricity to the MOBO and powers everything in the computer. History class helps sometimes

  • i found this on the faces of death site ;/

  • Dswan9 sent me here XD

  • Not to sound like an ass, but the elephant DID kill 3 of it's trainers. At least thats what I read in the Weird N.Y. book.

    It's still wrong though, they shouldn't have killed Topsy.

  • @AxcelKaru I know that the last guy tried to feed her a lit cigarette. Don't know about the others though....

  • They should have more videos of people killing themselves on youtube and less videos of people killing elephants. Elephants>people.

  • anybody in the mood for a salad and a little fried elephant

  • Fucking Edison! typical american winner.

  • Edison was an asshole AND he was also wrong. Tesla was right.