Summary

The story in Chapter 4 discusses theories about Thomas Edison's sexuality that are centered around correspondence from his assistant, Vasil Golakov. Golakov's firing was sudden and some scholars hypothesized years later that Edison was homosexual. One scholar suggested that Golakov's sexual advance to Edison got him fired. Another scholar suggested that Edison fired the assistant because his sexual attraction to the young man was growing too strong and that he was in denial of his own homosexuality. The narrator discusses a translation of letters from Golakov to his sister that actually show no proof of either situation. An altercation or confrontation of some sort did happen on the day of Golakov's firing, and it all started with the execution of an elephant in 1903.

Desperate to gain some credibility for the use of DC electrical current which he invented, Edison offered...