July 23, 2001

9:48 AM

Edison electrocutes an elephant at Coney Island. I never knew this horrifying bit of history until I read about it via rscharm's MeFi post.
posted by grumblebee (17 comments total)

Well, you know what they say: If you give people great links to your own site, they won't have to come back, because they won't leave...
posted by rschram at 9:59 AM on July 23, 2001

This just in: Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.
posted by jpoulos at 10:08 AM on July 23, 2001

I've seen that footage in a Nine Inch Nails video, among other places. It's got the grainy quality and high frame rate of a talkie, only with a lot of smoke and a dead elephant.
posted by jragon at 10:08 AM on July 23, 2001

Geez, grumble "electrocutes" sounds like it just happened -- this happened in 1903!

I remember seeing the film of the event in a film history course 13 years ago (before it became better known through Errol Morris's film). It is a horrifying thing to see.
posted by briank at 10:10 AM on July 23, 2001

Edison was vile. Tesla is the man to admire.
posted by thirteen at 10:11 AM on July 23, 2001

Tesla is the man to admire

yip!
posted by tolkhan at 10:17 AM on July 23, 2001

posted by quonsar at 10:32 AM on July 23, 2001

But not the band to admire. For that would be Def Leppard.
posted by solistrato at 10:32 AM on July 23, 2001

Y&T, baby. "Summertime giiiiirrrlllsss.....You make my whole woooooorlld go 'round....."
posted by jpoulos at 10:45 AM on July 23, 2001

Quonsar : I don't think that was necessary. I'm sure a link to the photo would have sufficed.
posted by mgtrott at 11:03 AM on July 23, 2001

pfft. it was only an elephant.

it's not like we're running out.
posted by jcterminal at 11:04 AM on July 23, 2001

it's not like we're running out.

Surprisingly enough, we are indeed running out of elephants. Who knew?
posted by ratbastard at 11:25 AM on July 23, 2001

never offer an elephant a Camel.
posted by clavdivs at 11:59 AM on July 23, 2001

WHERE'S. MY. ELEPHANT. ???
posted by davidmsc at 4:03 PM on July 23, 2001

[ben affleck] Fuck Thomas Edison. Fuck him in his stupid ass. [/ben affleck]
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:14 PM on July 23, 2001

Still no one has tried to electrocute an elephant with direct current yet.
I'd like to see that.
posted by lagado at 4:38 PM on July 23, 2001

And PETA would see to it that we also got to see how an DC electric chair worked. Cool, I say go for it Lagado.
posted by Nothing at 11:54 PM on July 23, 2001