The Westinghouse Years
George Westinghouse, 1868
- Tesla wanted to spread his alternating current invention with the world
- He had been taken advantage of by Edison and his company, but was approached by George Westinghouse.
- Westinghouse offered Tesla $60,000 plus 150 shares of Westinghouse Electric stock and $2.50 per horsepower generated by Tesla's inventions.
- Edison was furious and began a smear campaign against Westinghouse and alternating current (AC).
- He had a lot to lose. If AC proved to be better than direct current (DC), Edison would lose his patent-monopoly on the electric power business, costing millions of dollars in potential profits.
"Westinghoused"
A sketch of William Francis Kemmler
Westinghouse: "I remember Tom [Edison] telling them that direct current was like a river flowing peacefully to the sea, while alternating current was like a torrent rushing violently over a precipice. Imagine that! Why they even had a professor named Harold Brown who went around talking to audiences... and electrocuting dogs and old horses right on stage, to show how dangerous alternating current was."
- Edison paid schoolboys $0.25 a head for cats and dogs that he would electrocute publicly
- He paid H.P. Brown, an electrical engineer from Columbia, to develop an AC electric chair
- William Kemmler was executed on March of 1889. The execution took seventeen seconds when, “to the horror of all present, the chest began to heave, foam issued from the mouth, and the man gave every evidence of reviving.”
- One eyewitness claimed he saw Kemmler’s spinal cord burst into flames. He had to be electrocuted again before being pronounced dead.
- Kemmler's gruesome death terrified the public. Westinghouse lost public and financial support and fired Tesla.
Edison: "I have merely glanced over an account of Kemmler's death, and it is not pleasant reading."
Westinghouse: "They would have done better using an axe."
Westinghouse: "They would have done better using an axe."
A City of Light
Chicago World Fair's "City of Light"
- Edison and Westinghouse bid for the right to provide the electrical illumination for the 1893 Chicago World Fair.
- AC could do it for half the price. Westinghouse won the bid.
- Grover Cleveland pushed a button after sunset and 100,000 incandescent lamps illuminated the fairgrounds. The "City of Light" was Tesla's design.
- 27 million people saw the exhibit and were so impressed by alternating current that 80% of all electrical devices ordered since ran on alternating current
The Niagara Falls Project
Nikola Tesla at Power House #1, Niagara Falls Power Company (1895-1899)
- Lord William Kelvin (of thermostatic fame) was so impressed by the City of Light that he hired Tesla and Westinghouse to use alternating current to power a hydroelectric dam at Niagara Falls
- On November 16, 1896, the switch at Niagara Falls was thrown and the electricity reached Buffalo, New York. The War of the Currents has ended.
- Westinghouse was bankrupt from fighting Edison. He owed Tesla his dues from the now 12 million dollar contract.
- Tesla tore the contract apart. Westinghouse was able to save his company and use Tesla's patents to make alternating current the dominant form of electric power, as it is today.