Aquila Children's Magazine The Electric Issue | Page 14
A REAL DING-DONG:
EDISON, TESLA AND THE WAR
OF CURRENTS
In the late 19th century two great inventors engaged in a heated battle of wits,
but who came out on top? Let’s take a look.
EDISON
One of these inventors was Thomas Edison.
Born in the United States in 1847, he had
already fallen out with another inventor, the
Englishman Joseph Swan, over which of
them had invented the electric light bulb*.
But in 1883, the two joined forces to form
the Edison and Swan Electric Light
Company. One rivalry was settled, but
another was just beginning. Enter Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). Tesla had
been born in a village in present-day
Croatia and his early life had been
challenging, not least because of illness. He
was still in his twenties when he arrived in
the US in 1884, carrying only his own
engineering genius and a letter of
introduction to none other than, yep! You
guessed it: Thomas Edison.
The burning question of the day was this:
How should we supply all the electric
power that people need for lighting
their towns, streets and homes? To his credit, Edison recognised the
younger man’s brilliance. Here was
someone who could work on an idea
without needing to make models first, or
conduct experiments, or even put pen to
paper. Looking back, Tesla himself said: ‘I
could do it all in my mind’. This was the best
way, Tesla thought, because then he never
lost sight of his inspiration, ‘the great
underlying principle’ of what he wanted to
create. For his part, Tesla admired Edison’s
drive and determination, and worked with
him during his early days in the US. And yet,
when it came to the urgent problem – how
to supply an efficient amount of energy
– the two men disagreed completely.
EDISON AND DIRECT
CURRENT
Edison wanted electricity to be distributed
on the direct current (or DC) system. This is
the kind produced by batteries. When they
were first invented, these were the only
sources of electric power. DC comes from a
reaction that is easily contained. It is still
used today for everything from torches to
mobile phones but it has some
disadvantages. Batteries produce a certain
fixed amount of energy and then run out:
they die, and need to be replaced or
recharged. When Edison started building
power plants on his system, he needed to
use thick copper cables to conduct the
electricity, and even then the current
only ran for a short distance. Worse still,
there was no way to vary the amount
of power to suit different purposes.
TESLA AND
ALTERNATING
CURRENT
Tesla, on the other hand, supported
the large-scale use of an
alternating current (or AC) system
of transmitting electrical energy.
This involves a charge of electricity
that changes back and forth
regularly, flowing out along a circuit.
This may sound more complicated
but it is actually easier to run. The
power can speed along thin wires
for much greater distances. What is
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