The “war of the electric currents” refers to the rivalry for dominance between Nikola Tesla’s alternating current and Thomas Edison’s direct current in the late 19th century. In last few months of 1887, Tesla applied for and obtained patents for polyphase electrical systems that included generators, motors, transmission lines, and transformers. The patents caught the attention of industrialist George Westinghouse, who was also the inventor of railroad air brakes. Westinghouse bought the AC patents from Tesla in order to commercially generate and transmit AC power. About a decade earlier, Thomas Edison had developed a low voltage utility DC system that supplied power to homes and businesses for lighting applications. Westinghouse used Tesla’s patents to design a distribution system that transmitted power at a high voltage and then stepped it down for domestic use. As a result, Westinghouse AC system was cheaper and efficient than Edison’s DC system that required thick and expensive copper wires due to the heavy currents. The ensuing competition between the AC and DC systems instigated an industrial war, with each technology vying to be picked as the energy of choice for driving industrialization in America (Energy.gov, 2014). This paper explores the contribution of Westinghouse in popularizing AC power over the DC power regime in the war of the currents.
Westinghouse first got involved in the war of the currents when he purchased Tesla’s patents. He paid a total of $60,000, with an upfront down payment of $5000 and the rest was in the form of 150 shares of the Westinghouse Corporation. Also, Tesla was promised royalties of $2.50 for every horsepower generated by the AC generators (Pbs.org, n.d.). Edison, fearing relegation and losing the royalties he got for the DC systems started a smear campaign against AC power systems. He hired propagandist to convince the public that AC currents were dangerous and lethal. One such campaigner, Professor Brown, illegally acquired a second hand generator from Westinghouse Corporation and used it in the design of the first electric chair. The convict to be executed was an ax-murderer known as William Kemmler. Professor Brown tweaked the electric chair design to create a horrible spectacle of torture and anguish of a human being impacted on by an alternating current. As a result, the suspect suffered an awful death worse than hanging, and the method of execution was later referred to as “Westinghousing” (Nix, 2015).
Westinghouse had the capital and ambition to actualize Tesla’s ideas. A year after purchasing the Tesla’s patents, Westinghouse Corporation was installing AC generators in the United States. The company focused mainly in the less populated parts of the country that Edison’s DC systems could not reach. Also, Westinghouse sold power to other populous cities such as New Orleans even opting to operate at a loss in order to enter Edison’s market. In 1887, Westinghouse had been in the energy business for one year and had already managed to install more than half the amount of generators installed by Edison’s company. This escalated the competitive atmosphere between the two establishments. Westinghouse’s reach into both suburban and rural areas took up most of Edison’s market thereby demoralizing its sales staff, which impacted negatively on the sales volume (Nix, 2015).
Westinghouse’s response to the Edison’s smear campaign
Despite Edison’s efforts to label AC power as dangerous through unorthodox antics, Westinghouse responded to his competition in a professional manner. For example, when he realized the Edison was behind the public experiments on the electrocution of animals in a bid to show how dangerous AC was, he chose to write a letter to him instead of responding in a similar manner. In the letter, Westinghouse urged Edison that the state of affairs between the two companies ought to be different. But Edison was not moved and he continued to publicly electrocute stray dogs for show. In another instance, when Edison sponsored Harold Brown to design an electric chair for executing William Kemmler, Westinghouse choose to abandon his diplomatic approach and unsuccessfully paid the legal fees for Kemmler’s appeal case in the Supreme Court (Nix, 2015).
Contributions of the Westinghouse Corporation in commercialization of AC power
The Chicago World’s Fair
The Westinghouse Corporation did not falter under the bad press ensuing from the execution incident but instead, the company won a tender for lighting up an all-electric fair in Chicago dubbed “The Chicago World’s Fair”. The fair exhibition was also referred to as the “Columbian Exposition” with reference to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Westinghouse Corporation beat General Electric Company (GE), which was affiliated to Thomas Edison, for the job by bidding at half the GE’s quoted price. Westinghouse was able to offer lower prices for the job because much of the GE’s cost were tied to the thick copper wires required to transmit the DC power (Nix, 2015).
During the Columbian Exposition on the 1st of May 1893, the president, Grover Cleveland, turned a switch and a hundred thousand incandescent lamps lit up, the event was later referred to as the city of light. Twelve AC generators each with an output of a thousand horse power were used to power the lamps. The event was as a result of the combined efforts of Tesla and the Westinghouse Corporation. Twenty seven million people attended the event and witnessed the power and Tesla’s polyphase generators and the effectiveness of AC power. From that moment onwards, AC power rose to prominence over DC and 80% of all equipment made in the United States used alternating current (King, 2011).
Construction of commercial power plants
After defeating Thomas Edison and the GE Corporation at “The Chicago World’s Fair”, Westinghouse set forth to capitalize on Tesla’s inventions by diversifying operations from generators to power plants. The first power plant Westinghouse built was located in Telluride, Colorado in 1891. The project was financed by L. L. Nunn, a mining entrepreneur. The power from the plant was used to operate Nunn’s mines which were located 2.6 miles from the plant (Energy.gov, 2014).
Following the success of the Telluride power plant, Westinghouse won another big contract to construct a power station at the Niagara Falls. Tesla had always dreamt of tapping the immense power of the falls and through Westinghouse, his dream would be actualized. Westinghouse received the project contract in 1893. Earlier on, other bidders from around the world had presented their proposal to the Niagara Falls Commission but they were all turned down. The commission had been mandated with planning and overseeing the power project. Earlier proposals ranged from pneumatic systems to the use of ropes and pulleys. Also, there was an Edison backed proposal to produce DC power, which was also rejected (King, 2011).
At the helm of the Niagara Falls Commission was Lord Kelvin, a British physicist who had been a fierce opponent of AC power. However, he had attended the Chicago Fair and as a result had effectively converted to an AC advocate. Kelvin allowed Westinghouse to use Tesla’s invention to produce AC power at the falls. The construction process was challenging for the engineers and the workers. Also, the project investors, who included W. K. Vanderbilt, Lord Rothschild, J. P. Morgan, and John Jacob Astor were skeptic about the project as such systems had not been earlier tested and were very expensive. They therefore feared losing the heavy investments that they had committed to the project. On the other hand, Tesla, who was the brains behind project, had not reservations as he could envision the systems working smoothly in his mind (Energy.gov, 2014).
In November 16th, 1896 and after five years of construction, the project was complete and the plant was turned on. The plant operated smoothly and power reached the Buffalo District by midnight. In the next few years, the generators in the power plant were added to ten and the power from the plant was used to power New York, the railways, and the subway. Thomas Edison and the GE Company had no option but to convert their systems to AC (King, 2011).
The war of the currents consumed Westinghouse’s business both financially and psychologically. The years of litigation and merging of Edison’s company with GE to form a formidable opponent posed a serious financial threat to Westinghouse Corporation. At the same time, there arose the era of Robber Barons, who sought to increase their wealth by taking over and revamping failing businesses. One such baron was J. P. Morgan, who targeted the struggling Westinghouse Corporation. Morgan’s intention was to take over all hydropower plants in the United States in order to cut Westinghouse’s revenue stream and buy out the Tesla patents. To achieve his goal, Morgan manipulated the stock prices to bring down Westinghouse’s business (King, 2011).
Conclusion
Even though George Westinghouse was not an engineer, he played an important role in the war of the currents and elevating alternating current over direct current. Without his involvement in the competition between Tesla and Edison, Tesla would not have been able to build the Niagara and the Telluride power plants. His business acumen played a big role in ensuring that alternating current power was picked over direct current electricity for the Chicago World Fair, which showed the world the superiority of AC over DC. Westinghouse bought the alternating current patents from Tesla and formed an energy branch under the Westinghouse Corporation to compete with Edison’s systems which were already in use. At the Chicago Fair, Westinghouse was able to undercut GEs price by a half by exploiting the efficiency of alternating currents transmission lines. Therefore, it can be said that Westinghouse introduced alternating current as a major driving force of industrialization in America and saved many businesses from the high costs of DC power transmission lines.
References
Energy.gov. (2014).The war of the currents: AC vs. DC power. Retrieved from http://energy.gov/articles/war-currents-ac-vs-dc-power
King, G. (2011). Edison vs. Westinghouse: A shocking rivalry. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/edison-vs-westinghouse-a-shocking- rivalry-102146036/?no-ist
Nix, E. (2015). What was the War of the Currents? Ask History. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-was-the-war-of-the-currents
Pbs.org. (n.d.). War of the currents. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html
