6th August, 1890 — a very bright, early morning in Auburn prison, U.S.A., a man of the name of William Kemmler was to be given the death penalty by using the most novel way of that time. He was to become the first and also the last person to be awarded death by this method. The method was electrocution. Kemmler was strapped to the electric chair, developed by an inventor Harold Brown, who was allegedly funded by an illustrious scientist of that time, and the chair was wired to an AC dynamo. When the current hit him, Kemmler’s fist clenched so tight that blood began to trickle from his palm down the arm of the chair. His face contorted, and after 17 seconds, the power was shut down. But as the power receded, everyone observed to their horror that Kemmler began to shriek for air. The current was turned on again, but the dynamo needed time to build its current, and Kemmler wheezed and gasped before the horrified witnesses as the electricity began to course through his body. Some witnesses fainted while others vomited, as it appeared that Kemmler was on the verge of regaining consciousness. The back of his coat briefly caught fire. Minutes passed until Kemmler finally went rigid. The current stopped and he was pronounced dead by Dr. Edward Spitzka, who predicted, “There will never be another electrocution.”
This atrocious incident was probably the pinnacle of the greatest feud between two of the most glorified scientists of their time, Thomas Alva Edison, who was the one to have allegedly funded the development of the electric chair and a staunch supporter of DC current and Nikola Tesla, the pioneer of AC current. This “cold-war” started from the time Tesla left his job as an assistant to Edison as he believed he was not given the recognition for his work, till Edison’s death in 1931. The main cause of this war was the strong allegiance of both the scientists to their respective philosophy regarding “current”, with Edison supporting DC power systems and Tesla backing up the then revolutionary AC power system. Hence, this feud is well known in history as the “War of Currents”.
In the 1860’s one of the leading bankers of US, J.P. Morgan decided to get into the power business and partnered with a budding inventor of that time, Edison, thus establishing the Edison Electric Company, now famously known as General Electric (GE). Edison designed power systems for various cities in US such as New York, Boston, etc. on the basis of DC power. At the same time, Tesla, a Serbian Mathematician and Engineer, was employed by Edison for his research work. Tesla, with his engineering background, depended highly on theoretical calculations and had a photographic memory, could memorize entire books, and used to have literal flashes of genius where he’d conceive the solution to a problem, or visualize the detailed schematics of a device he’d yet to invent, while Edison depended more on experimentation of his inventions. This contrasting work ethics gave rise to their differences.
Fuelling this quarrel further, Edison backed out of paying Tesla $50,000 to fix his DC motor – which Tesla did with great ease. He managed to turn an inefficient device into something incredibly efficient that saved Edison all sorts of money (well more than he agreed to pay Tesla). All he said was that Tesla failed to “understand the American sense of humor” (Tesla was a Serbian immigrant). More like he failed to realize how much of a stingy two-timer Edison was. Edison offered to up his pay from $18 a week to all of $25. Tesla, tired of this indifferent attitude towards him, resigned and set up his own company from the little money he had. Tables then turned on Tesla’s side. George Westinghouse, another leading industrialist of that time, had full faith in AC power systems and brought Tesla’s patents for AC power distribution for a whooping $1 million.
Owing to the precocious business acumen of Westinghouse, Edison Electric began to lose their clients. One of the major disadvantages of DC power distribution was that it was inefficient and costly though it operated at a lower voltage than AC. Westinghouse pounced on this disadvantage, thus flourishing his business. Morgan warned Edison of this impending danger, and Edison (which he expressed publicly only 2 months before his death in 1931) knew somewhere inside his mind that AC power was better than DC. In this desperation, he decided to use spineless scare tactics against to convince the public of the danger of using AC power and to turn the tide in his favour. In order to “prove” this “fact,” he had a number of animals electrocuted, including a circus elephant (which was to be put to death for killing some people). And his intimidation tactics reached its summit when he funded the design of the electric chair working on AC power source. He thought he would successfully turn people against AC current, but it happened the other way around. The public, instead of criticising Tesla, criticised the inventors of the chair i.e., Harold Brown and Thomas Edison. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t succeed in belittling Tesla. The major jolt for Edison came when Westinghouse grabbed the order for lighting the Chicago World Fair in the year 1893 and also the contract for lightning up New Orleans.
The demise of Edison’s company had begun; J.P Morgan, frustrated with the bitter criticism Edison faced from the public and the high losses his company incurred, decided to remove Edison as his partner and re-established the company under the new name of “General Electric”.
It was a very simple fact that Edison failed to understand; no matter what he did, AC system was just better than the DC one. It was inexpensive, more efficient, and more importantly could be used for wide range power transmission. In the end, as expected, Tesla’s technology prevailed. His revolutionary idea had profoundly beaten the system developed by a scientist who had over 1000 patents in his name. Edison never accepted Tesla’s technology as superior to him till 2 months before his death. He repented for using menacing scare tactics against Tesla. Tesla, too, never left an opportunity to show his despise for his former employer publicly. Tesla once criticized Edison by saying in a New York Times interview,
“He had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor’s instinct and practical American sense.”
The feud, which started on the basis of differing work ethics and due to the egoistic nature of both the scientists, culminated into a ghastly and nasty public spat, accounting for numerous animals and a human life, between two of the most celebrated scientist in the world history.
ThothSpeaks 