Riviera Blog

I therefore challenge Mr Westinghouse to meet me in the presence of competent electrical experts and take through the body the alternating current while I take through mine a continuous current. The alternating current must have not less than 300 alternations per second. We will commence with 100 volts and will gradually increase the pressure 50 volts at a time, I leading with each increase, until either of us or the other has cried enough and publicly admits his error.

Harold Brown, ca. 1890, quoted from Tom McNichol, AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War.

Below, one of Edison’s first motion pictures, showing the electrocution of Topsy the rogue elephant with 6600 volts of alternating current, unconvincingly trying to demonstrate that DC is safer.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/RnHXSL5jW-c" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[tags]ac/dc electricity elephant standards[/tags]