The Edison used his marketing experience to push for this system to become the standard for homes and businesses. Today, AC power is the standard for our electric grid; it is cheap, relatively safe, and can be used for everything from heating our homes to making ice. Tesla’s final victory would come when Edison was forced to merge with a different competitor and formed the General Electric Company. In the War of the Currents, the supporters of these two competing concepts clashed. The point is that a good idea—alternating current—wasn't taken down by a dirty fight. Edison didn’t take it well at all. In 1888, an electric line worker in New York City died while doing a repair on the AC lines that were powering the arc light system in the city. America was going to be powered by either DC current or AC current, and there was a lot at stake. The Secret Behind Numbers 369 Tesla Code Is Finally REVEALED! The war of the currents was a series of events surrounding the introduction of direct current electricity (DC) Thomas Edison invention –based Edison Electric Light Company and the alternating current (AC) Nikola Tesla invention –based Westinghouse Electric Company. Acting on these directives, they were to demonstrate to the press that alternating current was more dangerous than Edison's system of direct current. It reminded us that along with the often overlooked little things which change our lives, we need the loud, filthy, slaughter-filled battles just as much. This was Nikola Tesla's letterhead. I enjoyed reading the details of Tesla’s life and the many battles between him and Edison, I would have liked to see an inclusion of the fight for the Niagara Falls contract. Powered by his new technology, the company should have taken off, but this was not the case. He could construct models without having to draw them out.3  These two abilities served him well throughout his life. However, the influence it exerted changed the future of technology in America. It would have also been nice if there was a little more detail on how Edison used the death penalty and the fear of AC currents to weaken Tesla. The War of Currents project aims to inform you, the viewer, about the historical application and implications of AC versus DC current. Westinghouse won the contract to rig the lighting for the fair, his bid being substantially lower than Edison’s bid. Tesla signed over his patent rights in exchange for stock in the company, a seemingly good deal at the time. Even though Edison’s system was safer because of the low voltage, the process of transmitting the power over long distances was not practical. I strive to bring new voices to tell the stories of the past as I challenge my student to analyze and think critically about the events of the past. Almost every family has a story they can tell about a long distance road trip; This article was very interesting. Edison was personally against the death penalty, however this did not stop him from secretly financing the development of  the electric chair. However, this venture did not go as well as Tesla had hoped. It was not just a battle about electricity, but it was also about the future of America and the advances in technology that would build the 21st-century world.1. This was Nikola Tesla's letterhead. It was interesting to see the competition in the electric world and how it has innovated our way of life. Once Westinghouse started winning numerous bids because of the lower cost involved in producing and transporting AC power Edison could no longer compete, and Westinghouse and the AC system would become the power of the future for the world. Richard Gunderman, “The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla,” Smithsonian.com, January 05, 2018. Once Westinghouse started winning numerous bids because of the lower cost involved in producing and transporting AC power Edison could no longer compete, and Westinghouse and the AC system would become the power of the future for the world. On the other hand was Thomas "Dirty Fighter" Edison and direct current. The arc lights were powered by AC current but could only be used outdoors for safety reasons. Westinghouse capitalized on this shortcoming by promoting an AC power system to bring electricity to smaller communities further away from the power plants producing the electricity. It really highlighted an important piece of history in the electrical world. Like the dirty War of the Currents. The War of the Currents: Will Edison have the last laugh? Tesla’s began by working to improve the DC generators that supplied power to the system; later his supervisors tasked him with improving the arc lighting system they were installing. There could only be one winner. But expectedly now neither DC nor AC is favourite for the war rather both will work on parallel lines. His work at the company included designing a better arc lighting system, which the company declined to file a patent on. Because of all the above developments, Westinghouse won the war of currents and the grid, as we know it, came into being. Tesla challenged Edison in a conflict now remembered as the War of the Currents. I am a high school history teacher and an aspiring public historian. Letterhead image from Letterheady. The city of Chicago wanted to use electricity to illuminate the World’s Fair it was hosting. Considering that we don't refer to someone being shoved into the electric chair as a "Westinghousing," I'd say Tommy didn't do so well. In the closing years of the nineteenth century, plans were being made for a huge celebration of the past and a glorious look at the future. . The War Continues, with a Dash of Propaganda. So although the alternating currents won the war that time but the flames of the war are still alive and have entered in post-war zone. According to legend, he was born during a powerful thunderstorm, a fortuitous omen as electricity defines the work of Tesla’s life.2  Tesla, a math prodigy, displayed his talents at an early age. The first executions did not go well resulting in a lack of the negative publicity that Edison desired.8, The War of the Currents would end by 1893. Tesla’s work captured the attention of George Westinghouse who was working on an AC power system that was competing with Edison’s DC system. Some information from Wikipedia and the Nikola Tesla Museum. The positive implements this creation provided for the world is without a doubt one of the greatest technological advancements. I did not know Edison financed the electric chair either. Salvation arrived when he was contacted by investors looking to profit from newly patented technologies. When that wasn't enough, Edison got a bit more personal: He also tried to popularize the term for being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused". After completing his schooling, Tesla went on to pursue a job with a company on the leading edge of electric power. His work to improve generator designs and create better components for electrical systems culminated in a battle with one of America’s greatest inventors, Thomas Edison. The DC system worked well in crowded urban centers like New York or Philadelphia, but bringing power to rural communities would present a challenge with Edison’s system. Back in the War of the Currents, scientists and businessmen are starting to see the advantages of using AC over DC, and Edison was not happy. At the time, Edison’s electric company was wiring cities for electric power to light the streets at night. The most memorable contribution to come from Edison during this campaign was the invention of a new method of execution for condemned prisoners, the electric chair. The whole trouble began when the United States were ready to move away from Edison's idea of direct current and try that newfangled AC. It included commercial competition, a debate over electrical safety, and a nasty media propaganda campaign led … Tesla completed the work asked of him by manager Charles Batchelor, but Batchelor refused to pay Tesla promised bonuses for accomplishing the work. Westinghouse looked at Edison’s DC system and quickly realized it had a flaw. The first two men that helped Tesla get back on the right track were Alfred Brown and Charles Peck. A Student Organization of St. Mary's University of San Antonio Texas. Tesla’s final victory would come when Edison was forced to merge with a different competitor and formed the General Electric Company.9. The alternating current (AC) power system won the battle. He fanned the anti-AC furor that grew out of the worker’s death. So over the next few years, Edison runs a propaganda campaign that basically villainizes alternating current. Seems the U.S. has a habit of listening to the wrong guy. This resulted in Tesla’s departure from the Edison Machine Works, but he did not leave empty handed.5, Tesla’s experience at the Edison Machine Works was just the beginning of his troubles. On one end of it all we had Nikola "Wizard of the West" Tesla, George Westinghouse, and alternating current. Initially, his father wanted him to become a priest but, he relented when the young Tesla fell ill and was possibly on his deathbed. However, in the tradition of World’s Fairs the exhibition also displayed new technologies that were going to be introduced to the public in the near future. They had experience taking people’s inventions and setting up companies to profit from them. One of the new technologies to be showcased at the Fair was electric lighting. Edison even secretly hired a man named Harold P. Brown to travel to cities and put on public demonstrations where animals were killed by electrocuting them with AC current to show the public how dangerous it was. Edison jumped on this opportunity. Investors backed away from the dangerous arc lights and no one was interested in the AC motors Tesla had developed. So, he did what any man in his right mind would do and started a smear campaign against the new system: [He spread] disinformation on fatal AC accidents, publicly killing animals, and lobbying against the use of AC in state legislatures. The War of the Currents had begun.7, The battle for which electric system would power America would last just a few short years. Edison directed his company to create a power system that utilized DC power. But other than that, the development from when Tesla was a child, to working for Edison, to his lowest point working in ditches, to the many battles between AC and DC currents.

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