* NPR blinded me with science

December 4, 2008

How did the Brooklyn Dodgers get their name?

According to a recent edition of NPR’s Studio 360, you can thank Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, who were battling it out to see whose system of electricity would prevail.

Mike Daisey narrated a segment on “Tesla vs. Edison”:

There was a trolley running in Brooklyn on Edison’s form of direct current and people actually got used to listening for the sounds that the trolley made [Daisey makes increasingly loud buzzing sounds]. That sound meant [in a stentorian voice] “Get away from the trolley!” And people would hear the sound and they woould run away. They’d run away in every diection and momments later a bolt of electricty would ground itself, on a horse or a baby; whatever was nearby.

And that’s why they’re called the Brooklyn Dodgers.

You can Google that.

Which I did: How did the Brooklyn Dodgers get their name?

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Tagged as: Brooklyn Dodgers, NPR, Studio 360

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