WAR OF CURRENTS
Nikola Tesla developed polyphase alternating current system of
generators, motors and transformers and held 40 basic U.S. patents on
the system, which George Westinghouse bought, determined to supply
America with the Tesla system. Tesla and Westinghouse demonstrated
(1893) the system for the first time at the World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago.
Edison did not want to lose his DC empire, and a bitter war ensued. This
was the war of the currents between AC and DC. Tesla -Westinghouse
ultimately emerged the victor because AC was a superior technology. But
not without a fight. Advocates of direct-current power - desperate to
discredit their alternating-current competitor - claimed that AC current
was hazardous to humans. In support of their argument, DC defenders took
the novel approach of using a standard Tesla (AC) generator to discharge
death sentences in New York State. An interesting approach (to say the
least), although futile in the long run.
Edison opposed capital punishment, but his desire to disparage the
system of alternating current led to the invention of the electric
chair. Harold P. Brown, who was at this time being secretly paid by
Edison, constructed the first electric chair for the state of New York
in order to promote the idea that alternating current was deadlier than
DC. When the chair was first used, on August 6, 1890, the technicians on
hand misjudged the voltage needed to kill the condemned prisoner,
William Kemmler. The first jolt of electricity was not enough to kill
Kemmler, and only left him badly injured. The procedure had to be
repeated and a reporter on hand described it as "an awful spectacle, far
worse than hanging." In all, the entire execution took approximately
eight minutes. George Westinghouse commented: "They would have done
better using an axe."
Since his childhood, Tesla had dreamed of harnessing the power of the
great natural wonder. And in late 1895, his dream became a reality. That
year Adams Power Plant at Niagara Falls, the first large-scale,
alternating current electric generating plant in the world, with Tesla
generators, was set in operation, which was the final victory of
alternating current. Tesla was the first to successfully harness the
mechanical energy of flowing water, change it to electrical energy, and
distribute it to distant homes and industries. AC systems overcame the
limitations of the direct current system used by Thomas Edison to
distribute electricity efficiently over long distances. It was a war won
for the progress of both America and the world.
From one plant at Niagara Falls, electric power could be sent hundreds
of miles to light the homes of hundreds of thousands of customers and
also run tens of thousand of factories. This meant that for the first
time in history, major factories would not have to sit right beside
waterfalls. Tesla revolutionary model set the standard for hydroelectric
power as we know it to day.
Shortly before he died, Edison said that his biggest mistake had
been in trying to develop direct current, rather than the superior
alternating current system that Tesla had put within his grasp. (Tesla
began working with Thomas Edison, but the two men were worlds apart in
both their science and cultures and they soon went their separate ways.
Certainly, letting Tesla go wasn't the brightest thing Edison had ever
done.)
As a result of the "War of Currents", Edison and Westinghouse went
nearly bankrupt, so in 1897, Tesla released Westinghouse from contract,
providing Westinghouse a break from Tesla's patent royalties. When
Westinghouse got into financial trouble Tesla's royalties were running
into the millions. Since Westinghouse signed a contract to pay Tesla
royalties of $2.50 per horsepower of AC equipment sold, Tesla could
have died as a multibillionaire. But, Tesla ripped up a Westinghouse
contract that would have made him the world's first billionaire. In one
of the most generous acts ever recorded in human history, Tesla tore up
his lucrative royalty contract with George Westinghouse in order to save
his company from bankruptcy and the AC system from destruction. Tesla's
generosity, his idealism and humanism eventually left him without
adequate funds to pursue and realize his inventions. Nikola Tesla - one
of the greatest geniuses of any age – died of heart failure, alone and
destitute in a shabby hotel room, penniless and with significant debts,
in 1943.
Unable to challenge AC electricity on technical merits, Edison turned to
using scare tactics instead. Leaflets about the dangers of AC current
were printed and distributed. Edison paid local children 25 cents for
each stray dog or cat they could bring him. Dogs and cats began
disappearing from the neighborhood around Edison's laboratory. Then he
would hold press conferences and electrocute the frightened pets stolen
from the streets to scare people and to demonstrate to the press that
alternating current was more dangerous than Edison's system of direct
current.
