The electrifying truth behind Edison’s vegetarianism
Re: “Thomas Edison also lit up the truth about human savagery”, Have Your Say, June 3.
Jenny Moxham quotes Thomas Edison as saying, “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” Nice, but I think you picked the wrong man to prove your point about animal cruelty. Here’s why.
In the early 1880s, when electricity was still a novelty, there were two forms of power transmission in the US: alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). Proponents for each system touted their method as safer and more efficient than the other. In one corner was Edison, who had already taken out a patent on DC transmission and hoped to rake in tons of money. In the other was George Westinghouse, who gambled on AC. In the so-called “War of Currents”, Edison went so far as to round up stray animals and then use AC to electrocute them in front of journalists, in order to demonstrate that AC was more dangerous than DC. (The only real danger that AC posed was to Edison’s bank account.)
When it comes to money, there is no such thing as “ethics” or “ethical treatment of animals”.
Somsak Pola
Samut Prakan
