Thomas Edison the inventor who harnessed electricity, believed that a workable system would have to be based on direct current (DC). When the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla appeared to have succeeded in creating a system based on alternating current (AC), Edison was furious. He determined to ruin Teslas reputation, by making the public believe that the AC system was inherently unsafe, and Tesla irresponsible in promoting it. To this end he captured all kinds of household pets and electrocuted them to death with an AC current. When this wasnt enough, in 1890 he got New York State prison authorities to organize the worlds first execution by electrocution, using an AC current. But Edisons electrocution experiments had all been with small creatures; the charge was too weak, and the man was only half killed. In perhaps the countrys crudest state-authorized execution, the procedure had to be repeated. It was an awful spectacle. Although, in the long run, it is Edisons name that has survived, at the time his campaign damaged his own reputation more than Teslas. He backed off. The lesson is simple—never go too far in attacks like these, for that will draw more attention to your own wrongfulness than to the person you are slandering.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 19:38:20 +0000
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