Thomas A. Edison is well known and credited for having invented the lightbulb. But did you know that his employee Harold P. Brown developed the electric chair in Edison's laboratory? And that Edison was promoting it although he was against the death penalty?
Edison was fighting for contracts for the electrification of entire cities. His hardest competitor was George Westinghouse. Edison used direct current (DC), and Westinghouse alternating current (AC).
It was already known that electrical power can kill living beings. Edison's engineer was conducting deadly tests with horses, cattle and even a circus elephant to prove the thesis and to create a device to electrocute humans. However, the decision to use AC for the trials and hence the execution device was entirely driven by Edison's attempt to claim that AC was more lethal than DC.
The cunning plan behind this project was to completely destroy the reputation of AC and to drive Westinghouse out of business. How can you install something into your house that is used to kill people? Edison even suggested to use westinghoused instead of electrocuted.
Mankind got the electric chair, but Edison's cunning plan came to nothing. AC and with it Westinghouse won the market. AC might be deadlier than DC. But it's much easier to distribute. This did the job.
Do you want to know more? Read Edison and the Electric Chair by Mark Essing.
2 comments:
Edison was a genuis....but most of all he was a businessman who wanted to make money.
I remember reading an article about the conflict between him and Westinghouse, very interesting business going on.
By the way....is your refrigerator running?
You should go catch it!
Well I would rather call him a genius with an extreme contradiction.
I hope that the light he has given us, can equalise in a way his negligence...
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