TESLA vs EDISON | THE WAR OF THE CURRENTS

TESLA vs EDISON : A RIVALRY BETWEEN TWO INVENTORS  

Tesla was probably the greatest scientist to have existed in this world. He was an inventor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer and also an innovative and revolutionary thinker. There are a minimum of 273 patents issued to Tesla in 26 different countries, although some sources say that this number is around 300. Almost all the modern day gadgets and equipments that we use in our day to day activities are directly or indirectly based on the designs and ideas of Nikola Tesla. His revolutionary concept of Alternating Current (AC) made electricity reach even to the remotest corners of the world in a very economical way. Without the concept of Tesla’s Alternating Current, electricity would have been viewed as a luxury to mankind and not as a basic need.   
  

NIKOLA TESLA

But the story of the greatest ever scientist is very tragic. Tesla literally fought to prove his ideas and had earned certain rivals who had sworn to destroy Tesla and his reputations. He begged to corporate to fund his projects but many times he was rejected. There was a time when Tesla even had to work as a ditch digger to meet his need and to carry out his works. Tesla in his lifetime didn’t receive the fame and appreciation from the world which he truly deserved. Even there were times when his intellect was used by others for their own benefits whereas Tesla ended up receiving neither fame nor money. Tesla never wanted to get involved in any kind of rivalry, all what he wanted was to prove his ideas to the world. But somehow he got engaged in a rivalry where his rival had the high ground, in terms of financial superiority. This rivalry is also known as the War of the Currents or the Battle of the Currents. Tesla’s rival was none other than The Wizard of the Menlo Park – Thomas Alva Edison. It was a war where Edison advocated for his Direct Current (DC) and Tesla advocated for his Alternating Current (AC). Today it is very clear who actually won the war, as the current used throughout the world is AC. But back in those days Edison left no stone unturned to defame Tesla and his AC. Edison even funded huge propaganda campaigns to poison the minds of the people against Tesla’s AC and attacked Tesla in all possible ways to win The War of the Currents or to Edison the war of money and fame. In this article we shall know in details how this rivalry started and how Tesla emerged victorious.

THOMAS ALVA EDISON

WHERE IT ALL BEGUN

It all started back in the year 1884, when Tesla migrated to US to work in Edison’s company, Edison Machine Works. Edison Machine Works was highly reputed and was considered as the top company in terms of invention and innovation. Edison became the first to make electric bulbs commercially available. But for people to use it, Edison had to provide electricity to every house. To do this Edison relied upon the concept of Direct Current. For that Direct Current Edison had generators. Soon after Tesla arrived to the company, he was entrusted with the work of improving the generators for greater efficiency. He was promised a bonus of $50,000; whose inflated equivalence as that of today would be around $10 - $12 millions. Tesla successfully delivered the work but later was denied of his bonus, where he was told that the money offer was merely a joke. There are versions of this story where Edison himself promised to give Tesla the sum of money but later refused to give him telling “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humour.” Anyways it is clear that Tesla was promised the sum of money in the beginning but was later denied. Tesla didn’t like the gesture and resigned from Edison Machine Work.

THE WAR OF THE CURRENTS

In the meantime, Tesla had the idea of Alternating Current in his mind and he knew that his concept of Alternating Current would be far more efficient than Edison’s Direct Current. After resigning from Edison Machine Works, Tesla had a tough time meeting his needs and focusing on his works as well. He had a hard luck finding investors to fund his project. It was a hard time for Tesla as he worked in various electric repair jobs and also work as a ditch digger for $2 per day. After rejections from investors Tesla finally met Alfred S. Brown and Charles F. Peck. They helped him develop the Induction motor which ran on Alternating Current. An agreement was made that the profit generated from the patents would be divided where 1/3^rd would go to Tesla, 1/3^rd to Charles and Peck and the remaining 1/3^rd to fund development.   After the motor was developed and patented there were press releases and independent testing and then it was ready for a demonstration at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on 16^th May, 1888. This particular demonstration attracted the attention of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company and the owner George Westinghouse was interested to work with Tesla. Finally Tesla had the funds through which he could convert the ideas of Alternating Current into reality. From there the War of the Currents was on between Tesla’s AC and Edison’s DC; the war in which the winner would have the chance to light up entire America which meant huge amount of money and fame.

EDISON's DEFEAT AND THE CAMPAIGN OF PROPAGANDA

Tesla was destined to win the war of the currents as his Alternating Current was way more efficient and advantageous compared to Edison’s Direct Current. One of the main advantages of AC was that by adjusting the voltage it could be transmitted over hundreds of miles whereas in DC the current would only go about a mile before it starts fading out. This meant that Edison had to set up a power house in every block of the neighborhood which would make every unit of electricity way more costly as compared to the electricity generated by AC. The war was almost over in 1893, when Westinghouse used Tesla’s patents to get the contract of providing electricity in the Chicago World’s Fair. Everyone expected that Edison would get the contract but it was Westinghouse to get the contract. That was a big nightmare for Edison and it literally marked the end of the war making Tesla victorious. But Edison could not give up so easily, he refused to admit that he had lost. In return Edison launched one of the nastiest campaigns of propaganda against Tesla’s Alternating Current. He attacked Tesla from all possible directions. Pamphlets were distributed stating that Alternating Current was very dangerous because of its high voltage. Edison even went to the heights of electrocuting animals with Alternating Current in public. His associates electrocuted dogs and horses showing that Alternating Current had the potential to kill living beings and hence it was dangerous to mankind. Also a circus elephant, Topsy, was electrocuted by Edison’s company. There Edison deliberately used AC and made a documentary to use in his propagation campaign.

TOPSY THE ELEPHANT electrocuted on 4th January 1903
(Photo taken from a short documentary produced by Edwin S. Porter or Jacob Blair Smith for the Edison Manufacturing Company)

Edison also invented the electric chair; a device used to kill people. In that chair he used Alternating Current to show how it killed people and also earned profit out of it. It was true that AC had the capacity to kill people but Edison was the one to invent a device which would use the current to kill people. Hence Edison killed animals and also invented a device which killed many people in the coming years and he did all these just for the sake of mere propagation against Tesla’s brilliant idea of Alternating Current, which was far more economical and efficient than his Direct Current. But all these attempts went in vain as Tesla and Westinghouse went forward to harness the power of Niagara Falls and provide electricity to the city of Buffalo, New York.  

Even though Tesla had such great ideas and had so many patents issued but he didn’t earn a lot of money in his life. Even till his last day, his life was miserable and full of struggles. As I said earlier, Tesla never received the fame and attention which he actually deserved. I personally came to know about Edison when I was in 4^th or 5^th standard in High School. I read that Edison invented the Electric Bulb, but in reality he didn’t invent it from the scratch, he bought the patent from Henry Woodward and with a few modifications launched it commercially and became renowned as the man to have invented it. On the other hand I heard the name Tesla during my Physics lectures in college; Tesla as SI unit of Magnetic Induction. But to know about the scientist Nikola Tesla I had to go through the internet. I don’t know what they are teaching in high school now, but I came to know about Tesla from other sources and not from my formal academics. This actually shows that even to this day Tesla is deprived of the fame which he truly deserves as a great scientist.

Edison provided the world with some of his excellent inventions, but for me Edison is more of a successful businessman rather than an inventor. Whereas Nikola Tesla; he was not only an inventor or a scientist, he was the man who saw the future.