Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were two giants of electrical engineering, whose inventions completely changed history. However, these two brilliant inventors were arch-rivals, and their rivalry, known as the “War of Currents”, is one of the most popular rivalries in scientific history.
Thomas Edison created the direct current (DC) system for electric power transmission, whereas Nikola Tesla created the alternating current (AC) system of electric power transmission. This led to the War of Currents in the 1880s over which system would be used to power the world. Let us take a look at their history with one another.
In 1884, Tesla arrived to the USA with a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison. Edison’s DC electrical works was growing popular. Edison hired Tesla and the two worked alongside each other. Edison described Tesla’s ideas as “splendid” but “utterly impractical”. Edison disliked Tesla’s concept of using alternating current to bring electricity to the people and insisted that his direct current system, in which the flow of current was unidirectional, maintained a lower voltage from the power system to the consumer and was, therefore, safer. However, in the alternating current system, the flow of electrical energy changed direction periodically, which allowed the transmission of large amounts of energy, which is required by a large city or an industry, whereas DC technology only allowed for a power grid with a one-mile radius from the power source.
Tesla insisted that he could increase the efficiency of Edison’s prototypical dynamos. Edison promised to reward him with $55,000 if he was successful. However, when Tesla achieved success and demanded his reward, Edison claimed that it was a joke. Tesla quit the job and eventually raised enough money to open the Tesla Electric Company. He partnered with George Westinghouse, an engineer and inventor who himself was feuding with Edison. He later fulfilled Tesla’s dream and built a power plant at Niagara Falls to power New York City and the system of power grids we use today, based on the principles of the power plant. This event marked the end of the War of Currents, with Tesla and his AC system eventually winning the battle. However, as most plug-in devices convert AC to DC which wastes energy, scientists are trying to find ways by which AC and DC can work together by which the modern power grid can be made more efficient.
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