Topsy was a nice, young gal, at twenty-eight years old. She never hurt anyone. Not without good reason, anyway. She certainly didn't deserve to be electrocuted by that revolutionary scientist Edison for one of his sick experiments.
Thief. Liar. Killer.
Edison wasn't even doing it for the glory of discovering new scientific possibilities. Having not wanted to lose his many royalties on the direct current he devised, Edison thought up a morbid plan: he would steal away the lives of a series of animals using an alternating current, thus discrediting both Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. He even went so far as to name the thrice-damned process getting Westinghoused. How unprofessional.
It started small. Edison would hook up stray dogs and cats, sometimes cattle and horses, and send some few thousand volts of electricity, on an alternating current, through their frame, setting their remaining time on this Earth to zero. His big chance came when the Luna Park Zoo on Coney Island volunteered Topsy the elephant for execution. Poor Topsy had experienced quite a few unkind handlers, including one that tried to feed her a lit cigarette. It's no wonder they didn't...last very long. But instead of letting her go into the wilds, or isolating her from mankind, or even, if she had to die, putting her down gently, they decided to arrange for her death by crazed madman, by insane lunatic, by Thomas Edison.
That isn't to say Thomas Edison wasn't a great inventor and scientist. I just resent him for his crimes.
Originally poor Topsy was sentenced to death by hanging, but the ASPC protested that method, so Edison suggested electrocution.
And as if a 6,600-volt AC charge wasn't enough, they fed Topsy a bushel of carrots (laced with ~460 grams of potassium cyanide) and tied her down using a ship's hawser just moments before switching it on. It is estimated that a crowd of fifteen hundred was present to witness the deed, but Edison wanted to get the word out. He had the...event videotaped, and it is now easily accessible - just look for "Electrocuting an Elephant." Filmed on January fourth, 1903.
Poor Topsy was killed instantly - within seconds - at any rate, the poison was completely unnecessary - and Edison had proved his point, or so he thought. In the end all he had to show for it was a string of dead animals, a group of angry activists, and quite a lot of money for a current that went out of style as AC became the standard.
It's all very interesting. No doubt they have information on it in your local library, or, if you are too good for solid, paper-based books, you can just click over to your next tab and Google the subject. I'm sure you'll learn something.
The park didn't get off scot-free, though. When Luna Park burned down in 1944 in a spectacular blaze, it was referred to as Topsy's Revenge. In 2003, just eight years ago, a memorial for poor Topsy was finally erected at the Coney Island Museum.
As much as I could entertain the idea of Topsy finally taking revenge, I think It may have had something to do with the flame.
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