Edison and Tesla?

Question:

Edison and Tesla?

What were the dynamics at play in the case of Edison and Tesla eg American machinations against an 'alien' threat to mutual discoveries?( I am not lazy but reading several books at once ). I just saw "The Prestige",the movie and am curious about covert politics even at that time.Thank you.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: First off, to understand the problems between Edison and Tesla, you need to understand a bit about their personalities and skill sets.

Edison was a prolific inventor, but a lot of what he did he did through simple trial and error. Tesla, on the other hand, understood the science better, was a skilled mathematician, and used his skills to first formulate theories, and then put them into practice. There is also the fact that Edison was very interested in self-promotion, while Tesla was more comfortable allowing his inventions and contributions to simply speak for themselves.

One of the very first problems that came up happened when Tesla was working with Edison. Edison did not realize that Tesla was a genius, so he dismissed Tesla's ideas out of hand, generally stating that they were too complicated to be able to work effectively. That just underscores the fact that Edison did not really understand what Tesla was doing. To add insult to injury, Tesla worked for Edison, but Edison did not pay him for either the work he did, or the ideas he contributed to their work. Edison did, however, appropriate the ideas he found useful, and simply take the credit for himself.

Their most basic disagreement was about Edison's designs for DC, or direct current electricity, and Tesla's belief in AC, or alternating current electricity. The fact is that both systems work okay, but AC works better, which is why it is what is in use today. The biggest problem with the DC system is that it requires a lot of different cables, all carrying different voltages, while AC can be carried by one line. Additionally, DC requires the power plant to be closer to the delivery point, while AC can work effectively over great distances.

Things really started rockin' and rollin' when towns started to convert to electrical power. Edison wanted to "win", because that desire for fame was part of his makeup. Tesla, on the other hand, felt that the usefulness of his system would eventually prove itself, and didn't feel the need for constant self-promotion. Edison did all sorts of goofy things trying to prove that AC is a lot more dangerous than DC--he had his assistants use AC in a lot of experiments done for the press, where they electrocuted animals. He would then expose animals to DC currents, showing that while AC killed a dog that weighed 50 lbs., DC would only give a similar dog a bad burn and a hell of a shock. He did an awful lot of those shows. His work culminated in him creating an electric chair for human executions, and using AC with it to prove it was lethal. He basically used smear campaign tactics to try and prove that his system was superior to Tesla's. He wanted Tesla to be associated with an execution machine, in hopes that it would damage Tesla's reputation.

There was also the matter of a competition to generate power using the power of Niagra Falls. Edison campaigned heavily for the contract, and did a lot of talking about the dangers of Tesla's system, but Tesla was eventually the one who got the contract. Edison stated repeatedly that it would not work, but Tesla proved him wrong. The project, your basic hydroelectric plant, took about five or six years to get up and running, but it was successful. The choice of Niagra Falls was based on the fact that Buffalo, NY, was a large industrial center, and they were trying to find a way to power all that industry. Edison said, even after Tesla won the contract, that his design wouldn't be able to power anything, but Tesla's design ended up powering industries in Buffalo just fine. That whole episode was tremendously frustrating for Edison, and even after Tesla had been awarded the contract and started work, Edison kept up a fairly steady stream of negative comments. He wasn't even smart enough to keep his mouth shut once Tesla's plant was in place and powering Buffalo--he just couldn't let it go.

Finally, Edison and his company, General Electric, recognized that the AC system was, in fact, better, and they started building machines using the AC system. It is still the system which is used in the US.

It is worth noting that Edison was so obsessed with "winning" the AC vs. DC debate that he actually drew attention to the fact that while he himself was an all-American homegrown genius, Tesla was actually an immigrant from Europe. That whole bit is really ridiculous, since Tesla became a naturalized American citizen, and he never showed any loyalties to another country, but Edison did what desperate people do all the time--he scraped the very bottom of the barrel looking for ways to drag Tesla through the mud.

In my opinion, the greatest irony of all is that while every kid learns about Thomas Edison in grade school, Tesla's name rarely comes up. If it does, it's usually a lot later in a person's education. I didn't study him until college, but had been hearing about Edison's miraculous genius mind for years and years before that. Yes, Edison was a really sharp guy, but I am not sure about genius. Tesla, however, definitely was a genius, and it's his contributions which continue to power our homes, for example, feeding juice to my PC so I can write this answer :)

I do apologize for not being able to explain the technical details of the science better--I only have a rudimentary understanding myself. It does, if you are inclined that way, make interesting reading though.

I hope that helps.