Edison VS Tesla

The large dog trembled as it was led onto the stage. A black Newfoundland, muzzled, with electrodes trailing from his limbs–one at the front, another to the rear. The cage door creaked shut, and the crowd waited. Harold P Brown thread the wires into a generator, and flipped the switch. The dog yelped and stiffened as Brown turned the dial. He increased the voltage until 1,000 volts of direct current were coursing through the animal’s body. But when the switch was flipped again, the poor creature was still alive.

“We shall make him feel better,” Brown announced, taking the wires and connecting them to a different generator at the front of the hall. This time, the prescribed dose was 300 volts of alternating current. The switch was flicked, the dog twitched and then it died. “Alternating current is suitable only for the dog pound, the slaughterhouse and the state prison,” he declared, triumphantly.

The year was 1888. The War of Currents was under way, and the American inventor was trying to prove a point to his shocked audience. The country needed