He was trying to prove that electricity was dangerous. Even at the time though a lot of people pointed out that the voltage used was not the voltage used in mains electrics so it was basically a pointless thing to do and people quite upset about the elephant. He did receive a fair amount of bad press for it.
Edison’s electricity was the same 110volts. But it it was 110v from generators to peoples homes and thus suffered greatly from resistance losses.
Telsa’s AC however used high voltages for distribution and step down to 110v at the final destination, so the resistance losses were much lower. Edison’s propaganda conveniently glosses over that fact.
He was trying to prove that electricity was dangerous. Even at the time though a lot of people pointed out that the voltage used was not the voltage used in mains electrics so it was basically a pointless thing to do and people quite upset about the elephant. He did receive a fair amount of bad press for it.
He wanted to show that AC lines with their heigh voltages are dangerous, as he sold low voltage DC power.
Edison’s electricity was the same 110volts. But it it was 110v from generators to peoples homes and thus suffered greatly from resistance losses.
Telsa’s AC however used high voltages for distribution and step down to 110v at the final destination, so the resistance losses were much lower. Edison’s propaganda conveniently glosses over that fact.