Haliwood Minute - EP 6 - "Humans and Elephants" - 2007

For those who died of curiousity. Topsy the Elephant, executed to demonstrate AC power. Topsy was going to be executed anyway, but Edison thought he'd capitalize on the matter. (Important to note). Thanks,
-Derek

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• NSCAD
• Derek
• Nason
• Topsy
• Elephant
• Thomas
• Edison
• 1903
• Electrocution
• Execution

[nachtkriechen]

By the way, Thomas Edison may have decided to film Topsy's death, but it should be noted that over 1,500 people showed up to watch her die in person. The radio was the fastest means of mass communication at the time, black people were still considered second class citizens, and this all happened 11 years prior to WWI, and only 5 years after the Spanish American war. It was a different time. Don't judge what was deemed acceptable and HUMANE in it's time, by today's ideals.

[prostarscereal]

True enough. Sorry to have offended you. I think I'll keep the video up though. Its not meant to be a smear piece about Thomas Edison. That would be useless. He's been dead a good while. Thanks for adding some excitement to my day by commenting on my video which has a mere 733 views. I'll have some better videos up soon. I've been doing some rotoscoping lately. You like rotoscoping? It could be said that without some of Edison's inventions there'd be no rotoscoping. I guess.

[nachtkriechen]

@prostarscereal That's probably a little off topic, but, essentially what I was taking issue with in your video. But, you have the right to your own opinion and voicing it. But, please, do your research before you post controversial videos like this. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So a moving picture is worth how many words? It's a powerful tool, use it WISELY!

[nachtkriechen]

@prostarscereal ...We do a LOT of good in the world for many other countries & provide humanitarian aide when a lot of the critic's country's do little or nothing. It's time Americans stood up & became united & patriotic again, be proud of what we have & stop sniveling about what we don't have and having to recite the pledge of allegiance in school. If you like living here and having the freedoms we enjoy, PROVE IT! Stand up for your country! Don't join the cynics!

[nachtkriechen]

@prostarscereal I'm an American patriot, so, when I see (or appear to see) American heroes greatest accomplishments tossed aside & their errors magnified, I get a little testy. So many Americans have joined the world's view that we're horrible people, which isn't true...

[nachtkriechen]

...Get your facts strait instead of making assumptions about people, and making them out to be bloodthirsty murderous capitalists.. You can find the information I just quoted at Wikipedia under "Topsy The Elephant".

[nachtkriechen]

Topsy wasn't killed by Edison as a curiosity experiment. Topsy had killed 3 people, and "was deemed a threat to people..." and sentenced to death by hanging originally. But the ASPCA protested and death by electrocution was decided as the most humane method at the time, to kill Topsy. Death by electrocution had been used to kill humans for 13 years when Topsy was put to death, so it WAS NOT a "demonstration". Edison had patents on (DC) power, not (AC) power, that was used to kill Topsy.

[LiquidSmooth]

Edison is repulsive to me.