The Edison Feud and the Electrocution Spectacle

The Edison Feud and the Electrocution Spectacle

Date: 1887–1890

Story:
When Tesla promoted alternating current (AC), it directly challenged Thomas Edison’s direct current (DC) empire.
The feud turned into the infamous War of Currents.
Edison launched a smear campaign, claiming AC was dangerous and deadly.
To prove it, Edison’s agents began electrocuting animals in public using AC—dogs, horses, even an elephant named Topsy.
This gruesome propaganda reached a peak when Edison backed the electric chair, powered by AC, to execute criminals.
The first execution, of William Kemmler, was botched—he was burned alive.
Tesla was horrified and called the campaign “barbaric.”
Despite Edison’s tactics, AC eventually triumphed as the standard.
The public never forgot Edison’s cruelty—or Tesla’s silence on his own mental trauma from the ordeal.
Some believe Tesla never recovered emotionally from how far science had been degraded in the name of profit and ego.

Key Characters:

• Nikola Tesla

• Thomas Edison

• William Kemmler (first electric chair victim)

• Harold Brown (Edison’s AC execution advocate)

Reference:

• U.S. Electricity Archives

• New York State Execution Records

• Smithsonian History of Electricity