The war of currents

Nikola Tesla set his foot on the land of New York, America on 6th June 1884 with 4 cents and a dream to manufacture his alternating current motor. He also had a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor to Edison. Edison was among one of the few men capable of helping Tesla manufacture his motor at that time.

Thomas Alva Edison, the pioneer of incandescent bulbs, had installed his first DC power generating Station in the year 1882. Any talk of AC system enraged Edison because he had invested a fortune in the DC system.
After overcoming all the hardships Tesla exhibited the working AC motor and all the components required to set up an AC power system in 1888 with the help of a group of investors. This demonstration was a precursor to the war of currents that lay ahead.
George Westinghouse identified the capacity of AC power and invested substantially to secure patents from Nikola Tesla (polyphase induction motor and other patents) and patents for AC Transformer from Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs. The main aim of the war was to prove the superiority of the power system that these giants had invested in respectively.

Let us Compare AC system and DC system at that time…

Transmission:

• DC power could not be transferred over long distances due to the high voltage drops in the copper wires. High voltage DC transmission was not possible due to lack simple and efficient voltage transforming equipment for DC.
• AC power could be transferred over longer distance by reducing losses by using High Voltages. These high Voltages were stepped down using Transformers.

Lossses:

• AC transmission has greater losses due to skin effect, though these losses can be abated by using stranded conductors.

Voltage Conversion:

• AC - > simple efficient transformers without any rotating parts.
• DC - > conversion required a large spinning rotary converter

The AC system gained weight due to the invention of transformer.

Edison’s employees on his word started defaming AC system by publicly demonstrating the fatal effects of AC by electrocuting animals. . Edison’s desire to disparage the ac system led to the invention of electric chair by Harold P. Brown, which was supposed to prove that ac was deadlier than dc.

The Chicago World’s Fair -- also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition -- took place in 1893, at the height of the Current War. The Contract was to be awarded to the lowest bidder. The Thomson-Houston Electric Company and Edison joined hands to form the General Electricals. But all efforts that Edison made to get this contract failed and Tesla-Westinghouse acquired the contract. This was a spectacular show of AC power for the first time in History. At the fair Nikola Tesla also demonstrated that ac power is safe to use by his Columbus’s egg experiment and many others.


The same year, 1893, a contract was awarded to Tesla Westinghouse, The Niagara Falls Generation Project. AC power was generated and transmitted at a frequency of 25Hz. On November 16, 1896, electrical power was transmitted to industries in Buffalo from the hydroelectric generators at the Edward Dean Adams Station at Niagara Falls. The generators were built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation using Tesla's AC system patent. Soon General Electricals also boarded the train of AC Power.

And the outcome of the war is pretty clear….

Credits:

Aeishwarya Baviskar