Lately, I’ve been working on a Thomas Edison book. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve mentioned that to someone, only to be met with an instant mention of Tesla, and how Edison thwarted him.
It seems to be the trend to romanticize Tesla as the underdog who was held down by Edison, “the corporate giant.”
There is lots of bad info out there regarding Tesla and his AC/DC power battle with Edison. I have researched this extensively with experts in the field.
Here are the facts:
1. Tesla had a brilliant mind and devised some pretty remarkable things – his most popular contribution/invention was his polyphase system that made AC power a key part of motorization.
2. Tesla did not invent AC power – it had already existed – and there were other inventors also devising ways to use it.
3. The polyphase system was Tesla’s only invention to really take off. One of his weaknesses was that he was never able to find a way to make his often-abstract ideas and revolutionary concepts commercially viable. Tesla was a bit of an eccentric loner. He would have benefited by working with a partner more practical than himself. Even his polyphase system for AC power had its limitations until he sold it to Westinghouse, where they improved on it and made it useful.
4. Edison was promoting DC power. He had a lot at stake with his DC development and resisted AC power for a long time. He publicly “bad-mouthed” AC power.
5. But the AC/DC battle was going on long before Tesla ever got involved. And Edsion’s battle was with Westinghouse (who had improved the system that Tesla sold them.) Tesla’s name almost never came up back then when the battle was raging. It was only after the fact that people referenced him from historical papers, technical manuals and such.
6. It is also rumored that Edison publicly electrocuted animals as a way to show the dangers of AC currents. There is even film of an elephant being electrocuted which is used to support this idea. False. (more in #9)
7. In 1887, the state of NY was looking for more humane alternatives to hanging death row inmates. A member of the NY commission visited Edison to find out if electrocution was the answer. Edison’s employee, Harold P. Brown conducted some electrocution experiments on dogs. They compared 2000 volts of DC current with 2000 volts of AC current. AC current was more dangerous. Edison used this info to play up the dangers of AC current.
8. Edison even helped develop the first electric chair with Brown during this period. Yes, electrocution was the most humane way for execution back then.
9. Regarding the film of the elephant getting electrocuted: The elephant had killed a visitor at Coney Island in 1903. The owners of the elephant decided to kill it. They enlisted the help of Edison to kill it in the most humane way they had at the time. Edison’s crew did film it. The AC/DC battle had essentially ended about 10 years earlier before GE was started.
There is obviously more to this whole story, but I’m just addressing the Edison/Tesla falsities I hear way too often. So as you see, nothing is black and white. Tesla wasn’t “the good guy” and Ediaon wasn’t “the bad guy.” Both had brilliant minds as inventors. Edison was also brilliant at making his ideas practical. By the way, Tesla actually worked for Edison in the early 1880s.
