War of Currents

American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison established

the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882, basing its infras-
tructure on DC power. The American entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse
introduced a rival AC based power distribution network in 1886.

The War of Currents (sometimes called, War of the

Currents or Battle of Currents) was a series of events
surrounding the introduction of competing electric power The introduction of large scale outdoor arc lighting sys-
transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s in- tems in the mid to late 1870s,[3][4] some of them powered
cluding commercial competition, a debate over electrical by high-voltage alternating current, was followed in 1882
safety, and a media/propaganda campaign that grew out by Thomas Edison's low voltage DC electric distribution
of it, with the main players being the direct current (DC) "utility" designed for indoor business and residential use
based Edison Electric Light Company and the alternating as an alternative to gas and oil-based lighting. In 1886
current (AC) based Westinghouse Electric Company. It George Westinghouse began building an alternating cur-
took place during the introduction and rapid expansion rent system that used a transformer to step up voltage for
of the alternating current standard (already in use and ad- long-distance transmission and then stepped it back down
vocated by several US and European companies[1] ) and for indoor lighting, a more efficient and less expensive
its eventual adoption over the direct current distribution system that directly competed for the market the Edison
system. Three aspects have been conflated together into system was designed to serve. As many other electric
the “war": open competition involving large electric com- companies joined in and the use of AC spread rapidly,
panies and their developing systems, a general fear in Edison’s company made claims in early 1888 that alter-
the public’s mind of death by accidental electrocution nating current was hazardous and inferior to the patented
from high voltage AC leading to a debate over its safety direct current system.
and regulation, and the debate and behind-the-scene ma- In the spring of 1888, a media furor arose over a series
neuvers associated with the introduction of the electric of deaths caused by pole-mounted high-voltage AC lines
chair.[2] in New York City and around the country, attributed to

1
2 1 BACKGROUND

the greed and callousness of the local AC-based lighting less costly.
companies. In June of that year a New York electrical The lower cost of AC power distribution prevailed,
engineer named Harold P. Brown came to prominence as though DC systems persisted in some urban areas
an opponent of the use of alternating current, claiming throughout the 20th century.[7] While DC power is not
the AC-based lighting companies were putting the pub- used generally for the transmission of energy from power
lic at risk using high-voltages and installing it in a slip- plants into homes as Edison and others intended, it is still
shod manner. Brown’s campaign immediately gained the common when distances are small. It is used widely in all
assistance of Edison and his company, aiding Brown in modern electronic devices such as computers, telephones,
his public electrocution of animals with AC trying to a
and automotive systems.
claim that AC was more dangerous than DC. Historians
noted, and documents from the period seem to show, that
there grew to be collusion between the Edison company
and Brown in their parallel attempts to limit the use of
AC: assisting Brown’s attempt to push through legislation 1 Background
to control and severely limit AC installations and volt-
ages (to the point of making it an ineffective power de-
livery system), providing technical assistance in Brown’s Further information: History of electric power transmis-
tests to show AC would be the best current to power the sion
new electric chair, and colluding with Brown and West- The war of currents grew out of the development of
inghouse’s chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric
Company, to make sure the first electric chair was pow-
ered by a Westinghouse AC generator.
This was a period of industrial consolidation and by 1890
over a dozen electric companies had merged down to
three; Edison (now Edison General Electric), Thomson-
Houston, and Westinghouse. By the early 1890s the
latter two were generating profits far in advance of the
DC-based Edison company. During this period Thomas
Edison left the electric power business and the company
he founded was beginning to add AC technology to its
system. Edison Electric’s institutional opposition to al-
ternating current came to an end in 1892 when they
merged with what had become their biggest competi-
tor, the Thomson-Houston company, a merger that put
the managers of Thomson-Houston in control of the new
company, now called General Electric. The merger of the
Edison company (along with its strong lighting patents)
with Thomson-Houston (and its AC patents) created a
company that now controlled three quarters of the US
electrical business.[5][6] Westinghouse won the bid to sup-
ply electrical power for the World’s Columbian Exposi-
tion in 1893 and would go on that year to win the first
contract at Niagara Falls. Their lead in the field quickly
diminished with later contracts being split with General
Electric.
There were several technical factors that drove the adop-
tion of alternating-current over direct-current. The
direct-current system generated and distributed electrical Very bright arc lighting (such as this one in 1882 New York) could
power at the same voltage as used by the customer’s lamps only be used outdoors or in large indoor spaces where they could
and motors. This required the use of large, costly distri- be mounted high out of people’s sight line.
bution wires and forced generating plants to be near the
loads. With the development of a practical transformer,
alternating-current power could be sent long distances two lighting systems; arc lighting running on alternat-
over relatively small wires at a conveniently high volt- ing current and incandescent lighting running on direct
age, then reduced in voltage to that used by a customer. current.[8] Both were supplanting gas lighting systems,
Alternating-current generating stations could be larger, with arc lighting taking over large area/street lighting, and
more efficient, and the distribution wires were relatively incandescent lighting replacing gas for business and resi-
dential lighting.
1.3 AC transformer development 3

1.1 Arc lighting York City. Edison designed his “utility” to compete with
the then established gas lighting utilities, basing it on a rel-
The first type of widely used electric light was the arc atively low 110 volt direct current supply to power a high
lamp. These lamps had been around for most of the 19th resistance incandescent lamp he had invented for the sys-
century but by the late 1870s were beginning to be in- tem. Edison direct current systems would be sold to cities
stalled in cities in large scale systems powered by central throughout the United States, making it a standard with
generating plants. Arc lighting systems were extremely Edison controlling all technical development and hold-
brilliant and capable of lighting whole streets, factory ing all the key patents.[16] Direct current worked well
yards, or the interior of large buildings. They needed high with incandescent lamps, which were the principal load
voltages (above 3000 volts) and some ran better on alter- of the day. Direct-current systems could be directly used
nating current.[9] Alternating current had been under de- with storage batteries, providing valuable load-leveling
velopment for a while in Europe with contributions being and backup power during interruptions of generator op-
made to the field by Guillaume Duchenne (1850s), the eration. Direct-current generators could be easily par-
dynamo work of Zénobe Gramme, Ganz Works (1870s), alleled, allowing economical operation by using smaller
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti (1880s), Lucien Gaulard, and machines during periods of light load and improving re-
Galileo Ferraris. The high voltages allowed a central gen- liability. Edison had invented a meter to allow customers
erating station to supply a large area, up to 7-mile (11 to be billed for energy proportional to consumption, but
km) long circuits[10] since the capacity of a wire is pro- this meter worked only with direct current. Direct cur-
portional to the square of the current traveling on it, each rent also worked well with electric motors, an advantage
doubling of the voltage would allow the same size cable DC would hold throughout the 1880s. The primary draw-
to transmit the same amount of power four times the dis- back with the Edison direct current system was that it ran
tance. 1880 saw the installation of large-scale arc light- at 110 volts from generation to its final destination giving
ing systems in several US cites including a central sta- it a relatively short useful transmission range: to keep the
tion set up by the Brush Electric Company in December size of the expensive copper conductors down generat-
1880 to supply a 2-mile (3.2 km) length of Broadway in ing plants had to be situated in the middle of population
New York City with a 3500 volt demonstration arc light- centers and could only supply customers less than a mile
ing system.[11][12] The disadvantages of arc lighting were: from the plant.
it was maintenance intensive, buzzed, flickered, consti-
tuted a fire hazard, was really only suitable for outdoor
lighting, and, at the high voltages used, was dangerous to 1.3 AC transformer development
work with.[13]
Further information: Transformer § History
Starting in the 1880s alternating current gained its key
1.2 Edison’s DC company

The Hungarian “ZBD” Team (Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy,

Miksa Déri). They were the inventors of the first high efficiency,
closed core shunt connection transformer. The three also in-
Workmen burying Edison DC power lines under the streets in New vented the modern power distribution system: Instead of former
York City in 1882. This costly practice would play to Edison’s series connection they connect transformers that supply the appli-
favor in public perceptions after several deaths were caused by ances in parallel to the main line.
overhead high voltage AC lines.[14]
advantage over direct current with the development of
In 1878 inventor Thomas Edison saw a market for a functional transformers that allowed the voltage to be
system that could bring electric lighting directly into a “stepped up” to much higher transmission voltages and
customer’s business or home, a niche not served by arc then dropped down to a lower end user voltage for busi-
lighting systems.[15] By 1882 the investor-owned utility ness and residential use.[17] Using induction coils to trans-
Edison Illuminating Company was established in New fer power between electrical circuits had been around for
4 1 BACKGROUND

40 years with Pavel Yablochkov using them in his light- AC power.

ing system in 1876 and Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon
Gibbs using the principle to create a “step down” trans-
former in 1882, but the design was not very efficient.[18]
A prototype of the high efficiency, closed core shunt
connection transformer was made by the Hungarian
“Z.B.D.” team (composed of Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó
Bláthy and Miksa Déri) at Ganz Works in 1884.[19][20]
The new Z.B.D. transformers were 3.4 times more ef-
ficient than the open core bipolar devices of Gaulard
and Gibbs.[21] Transformers in use today are designed
based on principles discovered by the three engineers.[22]
Their patents included another major related innovation:
the use of parallel connected (as opposed to series con-
nected) power distribution.[23][24] Ottó Bláthy also in-
vented the first AC electricity meter.[25][26][27][28] The re-
liability of this type of AC technology received impe-
tus after the Ganz Works electrified a large European
metropolis: Rome in 1886.[29]

1.4 Westinghouse enters the AC business

William Stanley developed the first practical AC transformer for

Westinghouse and helped build the first AC systems

Westinghouse purchased the US patents rights to the

Gaulard-Gibbs transformer and imported several of those
as well as Siemens AC generators to begin experiment-
ing with an AC based lighting system in Pittsburgh.
William Stanley used the Gaulard-Gibbs design and de-
signs from the ZBD Transformer to develop the first
practical transformer. The Westinghouse Electric Com-
Westinghouse Electric Company 1888 catalog advertising their pany was formed at the beginning of 1886. In March
“Alternating System” 1886 Stanley, with Westinghouse’s backing, installed the
first multiple-voltage AC power system, a demonstra-
In North America the inventor and entrepreneur George tion incandescent lighting system, in Great Barrington,
Westinghouse entered the electric lighting business in Massachusetts.[32] Expanded to the point where it could
1884 when he started to develop a DC system and hired light 23 businesses along main street with very little power
William Stanley, Jr. to work on it. Westinghouse became loss over 4000 feet, the system used transformers to step
aware of the new European transformer based AC sys- 500 AC volts at the street down to 100 volts to power
tems in 1885 when he read about them in the UK techni- incandescent lamps at each location.[33] By fall of 1886
cal journal Engineering.[30] He grasped that AC combined Westinghouse, Stanley, and Oliver B. Shallenberger had
with transformers meant greater economies of scale could built the first commercial AC power system in the US in
be achieved with large centralized power plants transmit- Buffalo, New York.
ting stepped up voltage very long distances to be used in
arc lighting as well lower voltage home and commercial
incandescent lighting supplied via a “step down” trans- 1.5 The spread of AC
former at the other end. Westinghouse saw a way to
build a truly competitive system instead of simply build- By the end of 1887 Westinghouse had 68 alternating cur-
ing another barely competitive DC lighting system us- rent power stations to Edison’s 121 DC based stations. To
ing patents just different enough to get around the Edi- make matters worse for Edison, the Thomson-Houston
son patents.[31] The Edison DC system of centralized DC Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts (another com-
plants with their short transmission range also meant there petitor offering AC and DC based systems) had built
was a patchwork of un-supplied customers between Edi- 22 power stations.[14] Thomson-Houston was expanding
son’s plants that Westinghouse could easily supply with their business while trying to avoid patent conflicts with
1.7 Edison’s anti-AC stance 5

Westinghouse, arranging deals such as coming to agree- US required them to be buried underground.[37] The City
ments over lighting company territory, paying a royalty of New York did not require burying and had little in the
to use the Stanley AC transformer patent, and allowing way of regulation so by the end of 1887 the mishmash of
Westinghouse to use their Sawyer-Man incandescent bulb overhead wires for telephone, telegraph, fire and burglar
patent. Besides Thomson-Houston and Brush there were alarm systems in Manhattan were now mixed with hap-
other competitors at the time included the United States hazardly strung AC lighting system wires carrying up to
Illuminating Company and the Waterhouse Electric Light 6000 volts.[38] Insulation on power lines was rudimentary,
Company. All of the companies had their own electric with one electrician referring to it as having as much value
power systems, arc lighting systems, and even incandes- “as a molasses covered rag”, and exposure to the elements
cent lamp designs for domestic lighting, leading to con- was eroding it over time.[37] A third of the wires were
stant lawsuits and patent battles between themselves and simply abandoned by defunct companies and slowly de-
with Edison.[34] teriorating, causing damage to, and shorting out the other
lines. Besides being an eyesore, New Yorkers were an-
noyed when a large March 1888 snowstorm (the Great
1.6 Safety concerns Blizzard of 1888) tore down a large number of the lines,
cutting off utilities in the city. This spurred on the idea of
having these lines moved underground but it was stopped
by a court injunction obtained by Western Union. Leg-
islation that would give all the utilities 90 days to move
their lines into underground conduits supplied by the city
was slowly making its way through the government but
that was also being fought in court by the United States
Illuminating Company, who claimed their AC lines were
perfectly safe.[38][39]

1.7 Edison’s anti-AC stance

As AC systems continued to spread into territories cov-

ered by DC systems, with the companies seeming to im-
pinge on Edison patents including incandescent lighting,
things got worse for the company. The price of cop-
per was rising, adding to the expense of Edison’s low
voltage DC system, which required much heavier copper
wires than higher voltage AC systems. Thomas Edison’s
own colleagues and engineers were trying to get him to
consider AC. Edison’s sales force was continually losing
bids in municipalities that opted for cheaper AC systems
[40]
and Edison Electric Illuminating Company president
The myriad of telephone, telegraph, and power lines over the
streets of New York City in a photo of the Great Blizzard of 1888. Edward Hibberd Johnson pointed out that if the company
An AC charged broken wire from the storm would lead to the stuck with an all DC system it would not be able to do
electrocution of a boy that spring business in small towns and even mid-sized cities.[41] Edi-
son Electric had a patent option on the ZBD transformer,
Elihu Thomson of Thomson-Houston was concerned and a confidential in house report recommended that the
about AC safety and put a great deal of effort into de- company go AC, but Thomas Edison was against the idea.
veloping a lightning arrestor for high-tension power lines After Westinghouse installed his first large scale system
as well as a magnetic blowout switch that could shut the Edison wrote in a November 1886 private letter to Ed-
system down in a power surge, a safety feature the West- ward Johnson, "Just as certain as death Westinghouse will
inghouse system did not have.[35] Thomson also worried kill a customer within six months after he puts in a sys-
what would happen with the equipment after they sold it, tem of any size, He has got a new thing and it will re-
assuming customers would follow a risky practice of in- quire a great deal of experimenting to get it working practi-
stalling as many lights and generators as they could get cally."[42] Edison seemed to hold a view that the very high
away with. He also thought the idea of using AC lighting voltages used in AC systems was too dangerous and that
in residential homes was too dangerous and had the com- it would take many years to develop a safe and workable
pany hold back on that type of installations until a safer system.[43] Safety and avoiding the bad press of killing a
transformer could be developed.[36] customer had been one of the goals in designing his DC
Due to the hazards presented by high voltage electrical system[44] and he worried that a death caused by a mis-
lines most European cities and the city of Chicago in the installed AC system could hold back the use of electricity
6 2 ANTI-AC BACKLASH

in general,[43] Edison’s understanding of how AC systems George E. Fell and the head of the Buffalo ASPCA and,
worked seemed to be extensive. He noted what he saw as after electrocuting hundreds of dogs to work out volt-
inefficiencies and that, combined with the capital costs in ages and conducting methods, came up with a repeatable
trying to finance very large generating plants, led him to method to euthanize animals via electricity.[50] Published
believe there would be very little cost savings in an AC in 1882 and 1883, his idea was that this method could be
venture.[45] Edison was also of the opinion that DC was a used as a replacement for execution by hanging, using a
superior system (a fact that he was sure the public would restraint similar to a dental chair that would come to be
come to recognize) and inferior AC technology was be- known as the electric chair.[51] This caught the attention
ing used by other companies as a way to get around his of New York State politicians who, following a series of
DC patents.[46] botched executions, were desperately seeking an alterna-
tive to hanging. New York governor David B. Hill set
In February 1888 Edison Electric president Edward John-
son published an 84-page pamphlet titled "A Warn- up a three-member death penalty commission in 1886,
headed by the reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry, and in-
ing from the Edison Electric Light Company" and sent
it to newspapers and to companies that had purchased cluding Southwick and New York lawyer and politician
Matthew Hale, to find an execution method that would not
or were planning to purchase electrical equipment from
Edison competitors, including Westinghouse and Thom- be seen as "cruel and unusual punishment".[52] In 1888
son Houston, stating that the competitors were infring- the Commission recommended execution by electricity
ing on Edison’s incandescent light and other electrical using Southwick’s electric chair, and a bill was passed by
patents.[47] It warned that purchasers could find them- the legislature and signed by Governor Hill on June 4,
selves on the losing side of a court case if those patents 1888, set to go into effect on January 1, 1889.
were upheld. The pamphlet also emphasized the safety There were early indications that this new form of execu-
and efficiency of direct current, with the claim DC had tion would become mixed up with the War of Currents.
not caused a single death, and included newspaper storiesAs part of their fact-finding, the commission sent out sur-
of accidental electrocutions caused by alternating current.
veys to hundreds of experts on law and medicine, seek-
ing their opinions.[53] The commissioners also contacted
electrical experts, including Elihu Thomson and Thomas
1.8 Execution by electricity Edison.[54] In late 1887, when death penalty commission
member Southwick contacted Edison, the inventor stated
Further information: Electric chair he was against capital punishment and wanted nothing to
As arc lighting systems spread, one story after another do with the matter. After further prompting, Edison hit
out at his chief electric power competitor, George West-
inghouse, in what may have been the opening salvo in
the War of Currents, stating in a December 1887 letter
to Southwick that it would be best to use current gener-
ated by "'alternating machines,' manufactured principally
in this country by Geo. Westinghouse”.[55] Soon after the
execution by electricity bill passed, Edison was asked by
a New York government official what means would be
the best way to implement the state’s new form of exe-
cution. “Hire out your criminals as linemen to the New
York electric lighting companies” was Edison’s tongue in
cheek answer.[56][57]

2 Anti-AC backlash
A June 30, 1888 Scientific American illustration of what the
Gerry Commission’s electric chair might look like. As the number of deaths attributed to high voltage light-
ing around the country continued to mount a cluster of
in newspapers seemed to show that the high voltages in- deaths in New York City in the spring of 1888 related to
volved were killing people, usually unwary linemen, a AC arc lighting set off a media frenzy against the “deadly
strange new phenomenon that seemed to instantaneously arc-lighting current”[58] and the seemingly callous light-
strike a victim dead.[48] In 1881 one of these incidents, ing companies that used it.[59][60] These included a 15-
in which a drunken dock worker died after he grabbed a year-old boy killed on April 15 by a broken telegraph line
large electric dynamo at a Buffalo, New York, Brush arc that had energized with alternating current from a United
lighting power house, led a local dentist named Alfred States Illuminating Company line,[61] a clerk killed two
P. Southwick to seek some application for the curi- weeks later by an AC line, and a Brush Electric Company
ous phenomenon.[49] He teamed up with local physician lineman killed in May by the AC line he was cutting. The
2.1 Harold Brown’s crusade 7

press in New York seemed to switch overnight from sto- for transmission. There were many rebuttals to Browns
ries about electric lights vs gas lighting to “death by wire” claims in the newspapers and letters to the board, with
incidents, with each new report seeming to fan public re- people pointing out he was showing no scientific evidence
sentment against high voltage AC and the dangerously that AC was more dangerous than DC. Westinghouse
tangled overhead electrical wires in the city.[59][62] would point out in letters to various newspapers the num-
ber of fires caused by DC equipment and that Brown was
obviously being controlled by Edison, something Brown
2.1 Harold Brown’s crusade would continually deny.
A July edition of The Electrical Journal covered Brown’s
appearance before the New York Board of Electrical
Control and the debate in technical societies over the mer-
its of DC and AC and noted that:[47][65]
At a July meeting Board of Electrical Control Brown’s
views and even his knowledge of electricity was chal-
lenged by other electrical engineers, some of whom
worked for Westinghouse. At this meeting the opposite
claim was made with anecdotal stories from electricians
on how they had survived shocks from alternating current
at voltages up to 1000 volts and claims that direct current
was the more dangerous of the two.[66]

2.1.1 Brown’s demonstrations

Brown, determined to prove alternating current was more

dangerous than direct current, at some point contacted
Thomas Edison to see if he could make use of equipment
to conduct experiments.[67] Edison immediately offered
to assist Brown in his crusade against alternating current
companies and before long Brown was loaned space and
Electrical engineer Harold Pitney Brown emerged in June 1888 equipment at Edison’s West Orange, New Jersey labora-
as an anti-AC crusader tory, as well as laboratory assistant Arthur Kennelly.
Brown paid local children to collect stray dogs off the
At this point an electrical engineer named Harold P. street for their experiments with direct and alternating
Brown, who at that time seemed to have no connection current[68] After much experimentation killing a series
to the Edison company,[63] sent a June 5, 1888 letter to of dogs Brown held a public demonstration on July 30 in
the editor of the New York Post claiming the root of the a lecture room at Columbia College.[69] With many par-
problem was the alternating current system being used, ticipants shouting for the demonstration to stop and oth-
stating it was inherently dangerous and “damnable” and ers walking out Brown subjected a caged dog to several
asking why the "public must submit to constant danger shocks with increasing levels of direct current up to 1000
from sudden death" just so utilities could use a cheaper volts, which the dog survived. Brown then applied 330
AC system. volts of alternating current which killed the dog. Four
At the beginning of attacks on AC, Westinghouse, in a days later he held a second demonstration to answer crit-
June 7, 1888 letter, tried to defuse the situation, invit- ics claims that the DC probably weakened the dog be-
ing Edison to visit him in Pittsburgh and saying "I believe fore it died, this time killing three dogs in succession
there has been a systemic attempt on the part of some peo- with 300 volts of AC.[70] Brown wrote to a college that
ple to do a great deal of mischief and create as great a he was sure this demonstration would get the New York
difference as possible between the Edison Company and Board of Electrical Control to limit AC installations to
The Westinghouse Electric Co., when there ought to be an 300 volts. Brown’s campaign to restrict AC to 300 volts
entirely different condition of affairs". Edison thanked went nowhere but legislation did come close to passing in
him but said “My laboratory work consumes the whole Ohio and Virginia.[71]
of my time”[64]
On June 8 Brown was lobbying in person before the New 2.1.2 Collusion with Edison
York Board of Electrical Control, asking that his letter to
the paper be read into the meeting’s record and demand- What brought Brown to the forefront of the debate over
ing severe regulations on AC including limiting power to AC and his motives remain unclear[63] but historians note
300 volts, a level that would make AC next to useless there grew to be some form of collusion between the
8 4 THE PEAK OF THE WAR

Edison company and Brown.[63][72] Edison records seem meter that used a rotating magnetic field for measuring
to show it was Edison Electric Light treasurer Francis alternating current giving the company a way to calculate
S. Hastings who came up with the idea of using Brown how much electricity a customer used.[76] In July 1888
and several New York physicians to attack Westinghouse Westinghouse paid a substantial amount to license Nikola
and the other AC companies in retaliation for what Hast- Tesla's US patents for a poly-phase AC induction mo-
ings thought were unscrupulous bids by Westinghouse for tor[77] and obtained a patent option on Galileo Ferraris’
lighting contracts in Denver and Minneapolis.[71] Hasting induction motor design.[78] Although the acquisition of
brought Brown and Edison together[73] and was in con- a feasible AC motor gave Westinghouse a key patent in
tinual contact with Brown.[71] Edison Electric seemed to building a completely integrated AC system, the general
be footing the bill for some of Browns publications on shortage of cash the company was going through by 1890
the dangers of AC[74] and Thomas Edison himself sent meant development had to be put on hold for a while.[79]
a letter to the city government of Scranton, PA recom- The difficulties of obtaining funding for such a capital in-
mending Brown as an expert on the dangers of AC.[70] tensive business was becoming a serious problem for the
Some of this collusion would be exposed in letters stolen company and 1890 saw the first of several attempts by
from Brown’s office and published in August 1889. investor J. P. Morgan to takeover Westinghouse Electric
.[80][81]
Thomson-Houston was continuing to expand, buying
3 Patents and mergers seven smaller electric companies including a purchase
of the Brush Electric Company in 1889.[82] By 1890
Thomson-Houston controlled the majority of the arc
lighting systems in the US and a collection of its own
US AC patents. Several of the business deals between
Thomson-Houston and Westinghouse fell apart and in
April 1888 a judge rolled back part of Westinghouse’s
original Gaulard Gibbs patent, stating it only covered
transformers linked in series.[82]
With the help of the financier Henry Villard the Edi-
son group of companies also went through a series of
mergers: Edison Lamp Company, a lamp manufacturer
in East Newark, New Jersey; Edison Machine Works, a
manufacturer of dynamos and large electric motors in
Schenectady, New York; Bergmann & Company, a man-
ufacturer of electric lighting fixtures, sockets, and other
electric lighting devices; and Edison Electric Light Com-
pany, the patent-holding company and the financial arm
backed by J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family for
Edison’s lighting experiments, merged.[83] The new com-
pany, Edison General Electric Company, was formed in
January 1889 with the help of Drexel, Morgan & Co.
and Grosvenor Lowrey with Villard as president.[84][85] It
would later include the Sprague Electric Railway & Mo-
tor Company.

Nikola Tesla's induction motor patent was acquired by Westing-

house in July 1888 with plans to incorporate it in a completely
integrated AC system

During this period Westinghouse continued to pour 4 The peak of the war
money and engineering resources into the goal of build-
ing a completely integrated AC system. To gain control
of the Sawyer-Man lamp patents he bought Consolidated Through the fall of 1888 a battle of words with Brown
Electric Light in 1887. He would go on to buy the Wa- specifically attacking Westinghouse continued to esca-
terhouse Electric Light Company in 1888 and the United late. In November George Westinghouse challenged
States Illuminating Company in 1890, giving Westing- Brown’s assertion in the pages of the Electrical Engineer
house their own arc lighting systems as well as control that the Westinghouse AC systems had caused 30 deaths.
over all the major incandescent lamp patents not con- The magazine investigated the claim and found at most
trolled by Edison.[75] In April 1888 Westinghouse en- only two of the deaths could be attributed to Westing-
gineer Oliver B. Shallenberger developed an induction house installations.[86]
4.1 Associating AC and Westinghouse with the electric chair 9

4.1 Associating AC and Westinghouse AC.[89] Based on these results the Medico-Legal Society’s
with the electric chair December meeting recommended the use of 1000–1500
volts of alternating current for executions and newspapers
Although New York had a criminal procedure code that noted the AC used was half the voltage used in the power
specified electrocution via an electric chair, it did not spell lines over the streets of American cities.
out the type of electricity, the amount of current, or ex- Westinghouse criticized these test as a skewed self-
actly how it would be supplied, since these were still rela- serving demonstration designed to be a direct attack
tive unknowns.[87] The New York Medico-Legal Society, on alternating current.[90] On December 13 in a let-
an informal society composed of doctors and lawyers, ter to the New York Times, Westinghouse spelled out
was given the task of working out the details and in late where Brown’s experiments were wrong and claimed
1888 through early 1889 conducted a series of animal again that Brown was being employed by the Edison com-
experiments on voltage amounts, electrode design and pany. Brown’s December 18 letter refuted the claims
placement, and skin conductivity. During this time they and Brown even challenged Westinghouse to an electri-
sought the advice of Harold Brown as a consultant. This cal duel, with Brown agreeing to be shocked by ever-
ended up expanding the War of Currents into the devel- increasing amounts of DC power if Westinghouse would
opment of the chair and the general debate over capital submit himself to the same amount of increasing AC
punishment in the US.[56] power, first to quit loses.[90] Westinghouse declined the
After the Medico-Legal Society formed their committee offer.
in September 1888 chairman Frederick Peterson, who In March 1889 when members of the Medico-Legal So-
had been an assistant at Brown’s July 1888 public electro- ciety embarked on another series of tests to work out
cution of dogs with AC at Columbia College,[88] had the the details of electrode composition and placement they
results of those experiments submitted to the committee. turned to Brown for technical assistance.[56][91] Edison
The claims that AC was more deadly than DC and was treasurer Hastings tried unsuccessfully to obtain a West-
the best current to use was questioned with some com- inghouse AC generator for the test.[56] They ended up us-
mittee members, pointing out that Brown’s experiments ing Edison’s West Orange laboratory for the animal tests.
were not scientifically carried out and were on animals
smaller than a human being. At their November meet- Also in March, Superintendent of Prisons Austin Lathrop
ing the committee recommended 3000 volts although the asked Brown if he could supply the equipment needed
type of electricity, direct current or alternating current, for the executions as well as design the electric chair.
was not determined.[88] Brown turned down the job of designing the chair but
did agree to fulfill the contract to supply the necessary
electrical equipment.[56] The state would not pay upfront
and Brown apparently turned to Edison Electric as well
as Thomson-Houston Electric Company to help obtain-
ing the equipment. This became another behind-the-
scenes maneuver to acquire Westinghouse AC genera-
tors to supply the current, apparently with the help of
the Edison company and Westinghouse’s chief AC rival,
Thomson-Houston.[56][92] Thomson-Houston arranged to
acquire three Westinghouse AC generators by replacing
them with new Thomson-Houston AC generators and
Edison Electric probably put up the money to acquire
them for Brown. Thomson-Houston president Charles
Coffin had at least two reasons for obtaining the Westing-
house generators; he did not want his company’s equip-
Harold Brown demonstrating the killing power of AC to the New
York Medico-Legal Society by electrocuting a horse at Thomas
ment to be associated with the death penalty and he
Edison’s West Orange laboratory. wanted to use one to prove a point, paying Brown to set
up a public efficiency test to show that Westinghouse’s
In order to more conclusively prove to the committee that sales claim of [93] manufacturing 50% more efficient genera-
AC was more deadly than DC, Brown contacted Edison tors was false.
Electric Light treasurer Francis S. Hastings to arrange the That spring Brown published “The Comparative Dan-
use of the West Orange laboratory.[56] There on Decem- ger to Life of the Alternating and Continuous Electrical
ber 5, 1888 Brown set up an experiment with members Current” detailing the animal experiments done at Edi-
of the press, members of the Medico-Legal Society, the son’s lab and claiming they showed AC was far deadlier
chairman of the death penalty commission, and Thomas then DC.[94] This 61-page professionally printed book-
Edison looking on. Brown used alternating current for all let (probably paid for by the Edison company) was sent
of his tests on animals larger than a human, including 4 to government officials, newspapers, and businessmen in
calves and a lame horse, all dispatched with 750 volts of
10 4 THE PEAK OF THE WAR

towns with populations greater than 5000 inhabitants.[74] tion to the Westinghouse company, obviously paying for
[98]
In May 1889 when New York had its first criminal his services.
sentenced to be executed in the electric chair, a street During fact-finding hearings held around the state begin-
merchant named William Kemmler, there was a great ning on July 9 in New York City, Cockran used his con-
deal of discussion in the editorial column of the New siderable skills as a cross-examiner and orator to attack
York Times as to what to call the then-new form of ex- Brown, Edison, and their supporters. His strategy was to
ecution. The term "Westinghoused” was put forward show that Brown had falsified his test on the killing power
as well as "Gerrycide” (after death penalty commission of AC and to prove that electricity would not cause cer-
head Elbridge Gerry), and "Browned”.[95] The Times tain death and simply lead to torturing the condemned. In
hated the word that was eventually adopted, electrocution, cross examination he questioned Brown’s lack of creden-
describing it as being pushed forward by “pretentious tials in the electrical field and brought up possible col-
ignoramuses”.[96] One of Edison’s lawyers wrote to his lusion between Brown and Edison, which Brown again
colleague expressing an opinion that Edison’s preference denied. Many witnesses were called by both sides to give
for dynamort, ampermort and electromort were not good firsthand anecdotal accounts on encounters with electric-
terms but thought Westinghoused was the best choice.[97] ity and evidence was given by medical professionals on
the human body’s nervous system and the electrical con-
ductivity of skin. Brown was accused of fudging his
4.1.1 The Kemmler appeal tests on animals, hiding the fact that he was using lower
amperage DC and high amperage AC.[99] When the hear-
ing convened for a day at Edison’s West Orange lab to
witness demonstrations of skin resistance to electricity,
Brown almost got in a fight with a Westinghouse rep-
resentative, accusing him of being in the Edison labo-
ratory to conduct industrial espionage.[100] Newspapers
noted the often contradictory testimony was raising pub-
lic doubts about the electrocution law but after Edison
took the stand many accepted assurances from the “wiz-
ard of Menlo Park” that 1000 volts of AC would easily
kill any man.[101]
After the gathered testimony was submitted and the two
sides presented their case, Judge Edwin Day ruled against
Kemmler’s appeal on October 9 and US Supreme Court
denied Kemmler’s appeal on May 23, 1890.[102]
When the chair was first used, on August 6, 1890, the
technicians on hand misjudged the voltage needed to
kill William Kemmler. After the first jolt of electricity
Kemmler was found to be still breathing. The procedure
had to be repeated and a reporter on hand described it
as “an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging.” George
Westinghouse commented: “They would have done bet-
ter using an axe.”[103]

4.2 Brown’s collusion exposed

After William Kemmler was sentenced to death in the electric On August 25, 1889 the New York Sun ran a story head-
chair his appeal was financed by Westinghouse, an attempt to
lined:
prevent Westinghouse AC generators from being used in an exe-
cution, by repealing the electrocution law. The story was based on 45 letters stolen from Brown’s
office that spelled out Brown’s collusion with Thomson-
William Kemmler was sentenced to die in the electric Houston and Edison Electric. The majority of the let-
chair around June 24, 1889, but before the sentence could ters were correspondence between Brown and Thomson-
be carried out an appeal was filed on the grounds that it Houston on the topic of acquiring the three Westing-
constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the US house generators for the state of New York as well as us-
Constitution. It became obvious to the press and every- ing one of them in an efficiency test. They also showed
one involved that the politically connected (and expen- that Brown had received $5,000 from Edison Electric
sive) lawyer who filed the appeal, William Bourke Cock- to purchase the surplus Westinghouse generators from
ran, had no connection to the case but did have connec- Thomson-Houston. Further Edison involvement was
4.3 The “Electric Wire Panic” 11

contained in letters from Edison treasurer Hastings asking

graph lines in a busy Manhattan district. As the lunchtime
Brown to send anti-AC pamphlets to all the legislators in
crowd below looked on he grabbed a nearby line that, un-
the state of Missouri (at the company’s expense), Brown known to him, had been shorted many blocks away with
requesting that a letter of recommendation from Thomas a high-voltage AC line. The jolt entered through his bare
Edison be sent to Scranton, PA, as well as Edison and right hand and exited his left steel studded climbing boot.
Arthur Kennelly coaching Brown in his upcoming testi- Feeks was killed almost instantly, his body falling into the
mony in the Kemmler appeal trial.[92][104][105] tangle of wire, sparking, burning, and smoldering for the
Brown was not slowed down by this revelation and char- better part of an hour while a horrified crowd of thou-
sands gathered below. Where the power came from that
acterized his efforts to expose Westinghouse as the same
as going after a grocer who sells poison and calls it killed Feeks was not determined although United States
[92][104][105] Illuminating Company lines ran near by.[106]
sugar.
Feeks’ public death sparked a new round of people fearing
the electric lines over their heads in what has been called
4.3 The “Electric Wire Panic” the “Electric Wire Panic”.[107] The blame seemed to settle
on Westinghouse since, having bought many of the light-
ing companies involved, people assumed Feeks’ death
was the fault of a Westinghouse subsidiary.[108] Newspa-
pers joined into the public outcry following Feeks’ death
pointing out men’s lives “were cheaper to this monopoly
than insulated wires” and calling for the executives of AC
companies to be charged with manslaughter. The Octo-
ber 13, 1889 New Orleans Times-Picayune noted “Death
does not stop at the door, but comes right into the house,
and perhaps as you are closing a door or turning on the
gas you are killed.”[109] Harold Brown’s reputation was re-
habilitated almost over night with newspapers and mag-
azines seeking his opinion and reporters following him
around New York City where he measured how much
current was leaking from AC power lines.[110]
At what became the peak of the War of Currents, Thomas
Edison himself joined the public debate for the first time,
denounced AC current in a November 1889 article in
the North American Review titled “The Dangers of Elec-
tric Lighting”. Edison put forward the view that burying
the high-voltage lines was not a solution, it would simply
move the deaths underground and be a “constant men-
ace” that could short with other lines threatening people’s
homes and lives.[106][111] He stated the only way to make
AC safe was to limit its voltage and vowed Edison Electric
would never adopt AC as long as he was in charge.[106]
George Westinghouse was suddenly put in the role of a
The death of Western Union Lineman John Feeks led to laws “villain” trying to defend pole-mounted AC installations
finally being passed to move AC lines underground in New York that he knew were unsafe and fumbled at reporters’ ques-
City. tions trying to point out all the other things in a large
city that were more dangerous.[106][108] The next month
1889 saw another round of deaths attributed to alternat- he did better in his response printed in the North Ameri-
ing current including a lineman in Buffalo, New York, can Review, pointing out that his AC/transformer system
four linemen in New York City, and a New York fruit actually used lower household voltages than the Edison
merchant who was killed when the display he was using DC system. He also pointed out 87 deaths in one year
came in contact with an overhead line. NYC Mayor Hugh caused by street cars and gas lighting vs only 5 acciden-
J. Grant, in a meeting with the Board of Electrical Con- tal electrocutions and no in-home deaths attributed to AC
trol and the AC electric companies rejected the claims current.[106]
that the AC lines were perfectly safe saying "we get news The crowd that watched Feeks contained many New York
of all who touch them through the coroners office".[38] On aldermen due to the site of the accident being near the
October 11, 1889 John Feeks, a Western Union lineman, New York government offices and the horrifying affair
was high up in the tangle of overhead electrical wires galvanized them into the action of passing the law on
working on what were supposed to be low-voltage tele-
12 5 THE CURRENT WAR ENDS

ues were no longer controlling the company. By 1889

Edison’s Electric’s own subsidiaries were lobbying to add
AC power transmission to their systems and in October
1890 Edison Machine Works began developing AC based
equipment.
With Thomas Edison no longer in charge Edison General
Electric’s institutional War of Currents would come to a
close in a financial merger.[115] Edison president Henry
Villard, who had engineered the merger that formed Edi-
son General Electric, was continually working on the
idea of merging that company with Thomson-Houston or
Westinghouse. He saw a real opportunity in 1891. The
market was in a general downturn causing cash short-
ages for all the companies concerned and Villard was
in talks with Thomson-Houston, which was now Edi-
son General Electric’s biggest competitor. Thomson-
Houston had a habit of saving money on development
by buying, or sometimes stealing, patents. Patent con-
flicts were stymieing the growth of both companies and
the idea of saving on some 60 ongoing lawsuits as well
as saving on profit losses of trying to undercut each other
by selling generating plants below cost pushed forward
the idea of this merger in financial circles.[6][114] Edi-
son hated the idea and tried to hold it off but Villard
thought his company, now winning its incandescent light
patent lawsuits in the courts, would be in position to dic-
tate the terms of any merger.[6] As a committee of fi-
The death of Feeks marked the first time Edison publicly de- nanciers, which included J.P. Morgan, worked on the deal
nounced alternating current. in early 1892 things went against Villard. In Morgan’s
view Thomson-Houston looked on the books to be the
stronger of the two companies and engineered a behind
moving utilities underground.[112] The electric compa- the scenes deal announced on April 15, 1892 that put the
nies involved obtained an injunction preventing their lines management of Thomson-Houston in control of the new
from being cut down immediately but shut down most company, now called General Electric (dropping Edison’s
of their lighting until the situation was settled, plunging name). Thomas Edison was not aware of the deal until the
many New York streets into darkness.[82] The legislation day before it happened.
ordering the cutting down of all of the utility lines was
The fifteen electric companies that existed 5 years before
finally upheld by the New York Supreme Court in De-
had merged down to two; General Electric and Westing-
cember. The AC lines were cut down keeping many New
house. The War of Currents came to an end and this
York City streets in darkness for the rest of the winter
merger of the Edison company, along with its lighting
since little had been done by the overpaid Tammany Hall
patents, and the Thomson-Houston, with its AC patents,
city supervisors who were supposed to see to building the
created a company that controlled three quarters of the
underground “subways” to house them.[111]
US electrical business.[5][6] From this point on General
Electric and Westinghouse were both marketing alternat-
ing current systems.[116] Edison put on a brave face noting
5 The current war ends to the media how his stock had gained value in the deal
but privately he was bitter that his company and all of his
patents had been turned over to the competition.[5]
Even with the Westinghouse propaganda losses the War
of Currents itself was winding down with direct current
on the losing side. This was due in part to Thomas Edison 5.1 Aftermath
himself leaving the electric power business.[113] Edison
was becoming marginalized in his own company having Even though the institutional War of Currents had ended
lost majority control in the 1889 merger that formed Edi- in a financial merger the technical difference between di-
son General Electric.[114] In 1890 he told president Henry rect and alternating current systems would follow a much
Villard he thought it was time to retire from the lighting longer technical merger.[115] Due to innovation in the US
business and moved on to an iron ore refining project that and Europe, alternating current’s economy of scale with
preoccupied his time.[6] Edison’s dogmatic anti-AC val- very large generating plants linked to loads via long dis-
6.2 Willamette Falls to Niagara Falls 13

tance transmission was slowly being combined with the tors and lights at the fair. When the exhibition closed, the
ability to link it up with all of the existing systems that power station at Lauffen continued in operation, provid-
needed to be supplied. These included single phase AC ing electricity for the administrative capital, Heilbronn,
systems, poly-phase AC systems, low voltage incandes- making it the first place to be equipped with three-phase
cent lighting, high voltage arc lighting, and existing DC AC power. Many corporate technical representatives (in-
motors in factories and street cars. In the engineered uni- cluding E.W. Rice of Thomson-Houston Electric Com-
versal system these technological differences were tem- pany (what became General Electric)) attended.[121] The
porarily being bridged via the development of rotary con- technical advisers and representatives were impressed.
verters and motor–generators that would allow the large As a result of the successful field trial, three-phase cur-
number of legacy systems to be connected to the AC rent, as far as Germany was concerned, became the most
grid.[115][116] These stopgaps would slowly be replaced as economical means of transmitting electrical energy.
older systems were retired or upgraded. In Europe, Siemens and Halske became the dominant
In May 1892 Westinghouse Electric managed to underbid force. Three phase 60 Hz at 120 volts became the domi-
General Electric on the contract to electrify the World’s nant system in North America while 220-240 volts at 50
Columbian Exposition in Chicago and, although they Hz became the standard in Europe.
made no profit, their demonstration of a safe and effective Alternating current power transmission networks today
highly flexible universal alternating current system pow- provide redundant paths and lines for power routing from
ering all of the disparate electrical systems at the Expo- any power plant to any load center, based on the eco-
sition led to them winning the bid at the end of that year nomics of the transmission path, the cost of power, and
to build an AC power station at Niagara Falls. General the importance of keeping a particular load center pow-
Electric was awarded contracts to build AC transmission ered at all times. High voltage power transmission allows
lines and transformers in that project and further bids at generators (such as hydroelectric sites) to be located far
Niagara were split with GE who were quickly catching from the loads.
up in the AC field[5] due partly to Charles Proteus Stein-
metz, a Prussian mathematician who was the first person
to fully understand AC power from a solid mathematical 6.2 Willamette Falls to Niagara Falls
standpoint. General Electric hired many talented new en-
gineers to improve its design of transformers, generators, In 1882, the German Miesbach–Munich Power Trans-
motors and other apparatus.[117] mission used 2kV DV over a distance of 57km. In
Patent lawsuits were still hampering both companies and 1889, the first long distance transmission of DC electric-
bleeding off cash, so in 1896, J. P. Morgan engineered ity in the United States was switched on at Willamette
a patent sharing agreement between the two companies Falls Station, in Oregon City, Oregon.[122] In 1890, a
that remained in force for 11 years.[118] flood destroyed the power station. This unfortunate event
paved the way for the first long distance transmission of
In 1897 Edison sold his remaining stock in Edison Elec-
AC electricity in the world when Willamette Falls Elec-
tric Illuminating of New York to finance his iron ore re-
tric company installed experimental AC generators from
fining prototype plant.[119] In 1908 Edison said to George
Westinghouse in 1890. That same year, the Niagara
Stanley, son of AC transformer inventor William Stanley,
Falls Power Company (NFPC) and its subsidiary Cataract
Jr., "Tell your father I was wrong", probably admitting he
Company formed the International Niagara Commission
had underestimated the developmental potential of alter-
composed of experts, to analyze proposals to harness
nating current.[120]
Niagara Falls to generate electricity. The commission
was led by Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and
included Eleuthère Mascart from France, William Un-
6 Larger developments win from England, Coleman Sellers from the US, and
Théodore Turrettini from Switzerland. It was backed by
entrepreneurs such as J. P. Morgan, Lord Rothschild, and
6.1 International Electro-Technical Exhi- John Jacob Astor IV. Among 19 proposals, they even
bition briefly considered compressed air as a power transmis-
sion medium, but preferred electricity. They could not
The International Electro-Technical Exhibition of 1891, decide which method would be best overall.
in Frankfurt, Germany, featured the long distance trans-
mission of high-power, three-phase electric current. It
was held between 16 May and 19 October on the disused 6.3 AC deployment at Niagara
site of the three former “Westbahnhöfe” (Western Rail-
way Stations) in Frankfurt am Main. The exhibition fea- By 1893 the NFPC had rejected the remaining propos-
tured the first long distance transmission of high-power, als from a half dozen companies and awarded the gen-
three-phase electric current, which was generated 175 km erating contract to Westinghouse with further transmis-
away at Lauffen am Neckar. It successfully operated mo- sion lines and transformer contracts awarded to General
14 7 ELECTRIC POWER TRANSMISSION

Electric.[123][124] Work began in 1893 on the Niagara could be constructed to withstand 100 volts, and to pro-
Falls generation project: power was to be generated and vide lighting performance economically competitive with
transmitted as alternating current, at a frequency of 25 Hz gas lighting. At the time it was felt that 100 volts was not
to minimize impedance losses in transmission (changed likely to present a severe hazard of fatal electric shock.
to 60 Hz in the 1950s). To save on the cost of copper conductors, a three-wire
Some doubted that the system would generate enough distribution system was used. The three wires were at
electricity to power industry in Buffalo. The inventor +110 volts, 0 volts and −110 volts relative potential. 100-
Nikola Tesla was sure it would work, saying that Niagara volt lamps could be operated between either the +110
Falls could power the entire eastern United States. None or −110 volt legs of the system and the 0-volt “neutral”
of the previous polyphase alternating current transmis- conductor, which carried only the unbalanced current be-
sion demonstration projects were on the scale of power tween the + and − sources. The resulting three-wire sys-
available from Niagara: tem used less copper wire for a given quantity of electric
power transmitted, while still maintaining (relatively) low
• The German Lauffen-Neckar demonstration in 1891 voltages. Even with this innovation, the voltage drop due
had a capacity of 225 kW over 175 km to the resistance of the system conductors was so high
that generating plants had to be located within a mile (1–
• Westinghouse successfully used AC in the commer- 2 km) or so of the load. Higher voltages could not so
cial Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant in 1891 easily be used with the DC system because there was no
at 75 kW (Single phase) efficient low-cost technology that would allow reduction
of a high transmission voltage to a low utilization voltage.
• The Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 exhibited a com-
plete 11,000 kW polyphase generation and distri-
bution system with multiple generators, installed by
Westinghouse [125]

• Almirian Decker designed a three-phase 250 kW

AC system at Mill Creek, California in 1893 [126]

Westinghouse also had to develop a system that could be

converted to all the needed power standards including sin-
gle phase and polyphase AC and DC for street cars and
factory motors. Westinghouse’s initial customer for the
hydroelectric generators at the Edward Dean Adams Sta-
tion at Niagara in 1895 were the plants of the Pittsburgh
Reduction Company which needed large quantities of
Westinghouse early AC system 1887 (U.S. Patent 373,035)
cheap electricity for smelting aluminum.[127] On Novem-
ber 16, 1896, electrical power transmitted to Buffalo be-
In the alternating current system, a transformer was used
gan powering its street cars. The generators were built by
between the (relatively) high voltage distribution system
Westinghouse Electric Corporation with generators that
and the customer loads. Lamps and small motors could
bore Tesla’s name. The scale of the project soon had Gen-
still be operated at some convenient low voltage, but the
eral Electric contributing equally, building transmission
transformer would allow power to be transmitted at much
equipment, plants, and generators.[127]
higher voltages, say, ten times that of the loads. For
a given quantity of power transmitted, the wire cross-
sectional area would be inversely proportional to the volt-
7 Electric power transmission age used. Alternatively, the allowable length of a cir-
cuit, given a wire size and allowable voltage drop, would
7.1 The competing systems increase approximately as the square of the distribution
voltage. This meant that fewer, larger generating plants
Edison’s DC distribution system consisted of generating could serve the load in a given area. Large loads, such as
plants feeding heavy distribution conductors, with cus- industrial motors or converters for electric railway power,
tomer loads (lighting and motors) tapped off them. The could be served by the same distribution network that fed
system operated at the same voltage level throughout; for lighting, by using a transformer with a suitable secondary
example, 100 volt lamps at the customer’s location would voltage.
be connected to a generator supplying 110 volts, to allow Edison’s response to the limitations of direct current was
for some voltage drop in the wires between the generator to generate power close to where it was consumed (to-
and load. The voltage level was chosen for convenience in day called distributed generation) and install large con-
lamp manufacture; high-resistance carbon filament lamps ductors to handle the growing demand for electricity, but
7.2 Transmission loss 15

this solution proved to be costly (especially for rural ar- 7.2 Transmission loss
eas which could not afford to build a local station[128]
or to pay for large amounts of very thick copper wire), The advantage of AC for distributing power over a dis-
impractical (including inefficient voltage conversion) and tance is due to the ease of changing voltages using a
unmanageable. transformer. Available power is the product of current
× voltage at the load. For a given amount of power, a
Direct current could not easily be converted to higher or
low voltage requires a higher current and a higher voltage
lower voltages. This meant that separate electrical lines
requires a lower current. Since metal conducting wires
had to be installed to supply power to appliances that used
have an almost fixed electrical resistance, some power
different voltages, for example, lighting and electric mo-
will be wasted as heat in the wires. This power loss is
tors. This required more wires to lay and maintain, wast-
given by Joule’s laws and is proportional to the square
ing money and introducing unnecessary hazards.
of the current. Thus, if the overall transmitted power is
Low-frequency (50–60 Hz) alternating currents can be the same, and given the constraints of practical conductor
more dangerous than similar levels of DC since the al- sizes, high-current, low-voltage transmissions will suffer
ternating fluctuations can cause the heart to lose coor- a much greater power loss than low-current, high-voltage
dination, inducing ventricular fibrillation, a deadly loss ones. This holds whether DC or AC is used.
of heart rhythm that must be corrected immediately.[129]
Converting DC power from one voltage to another
Any practical distribution system will use voltage lev-
required a large spinning rotary converter or motor-
els sufficient for a dangerous amount of current to flow,
generator set, which was difficult, expensive, inefficient,
whether it uses alternating or direct current. As precau-
and required maintenance, whereas with AC the voltage
tions against electrocution are similar for both AC and
can be changed with simple and efficient transformers
DC, the technical and economic advantages of AC power
that have no moving parts and require very little mainte-
transmission outweighed this theoretical risk, and it was
nance. This was the key to the success of the AC system.
eventually adopted as the standard worldwide.
Modern transmission grids regularly use AC voltages up
to 765,000 volts.[130] Power electronic devices such as the
mercury-arc valve and thyristor made high-voltage direct
current transmission practical by improving the reliabil-
ity and efficiency of conversion between alternating and
direct current, but such technology only became possible
on an industrial scale starting in the 1960s.
Alternating-current transmission lines have losses that do
not occur with direct current. Due to the skin effect, a
conductor will have a higher resistance to alternating cur-
rent than to direct current; the effect is measurable and of
practical significance for large conductors carrying thou-
sands of amperes. The increased resistance due to the
skin effect can be offset by changing the shape of conduc-
tors from a solid core to a braid of many small (isolated)
wires. Total losses in systems using high-voltage trans-
mission and transformers to reduce (or increase) the volt-
age are very much lower than DC transmission at working
voltage.

7.3 Remnant and existent DC systems

Some cities continued to use DC well into the 20th cen-
tury. For example, central Helsinki had a DC network
until the late 1940s, and Stockholm lost its dwindling DC
network as late as the 1970s. A mercury-arc valve rec-
tifier station could convert AC to DC where networks
were still used. Parts of Boston, Massachusetts along
Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue still used 110
volts DC in the 1960s, causing the destruction of many
small appliances (typically hair dryers and phonographs)
Tesla’s US390721 patent for a “Dynamo Electric Machine”
used by Boston University students, who ignored warn-
ings about the electricity supply. New York City’s elec-
tric utility company, Consolidated Edison, continued to
16 9 REFERENCES

supply direct current to customers who had adopted it small, and especially when energy storage or conversion
early in the twentieth century, mainly for elevators. The uses batteries or fuel cells. These applications include:
New Yorker Hotel, constructed in 1929, had a large
direct-current power plant and did not convert fully to • Electronics, including integrated circuits, high-
alternating-current service until well into the 1960s.[131] power transmitters and computers
This was the building in which AC pioneer Nikola Tesla
spent his last years, and where he died in 1943. In • Vehicle starting, lighting, and ignition systems
January 1998, Consolidated Edison started to eliminate
DC service. At that time there were 4,600 DC cus- • Hybrid and all-electric vehicle propulsion with in-
tomers. By 2006, there were only 60 customers using ternal power-supply
DC service, and on November 14, 2007, the last direct- • Telecommunication plant power (wired and cellular
current distribution by Con Edison was shut down. Cus- mobile) use a −48 volt DC battery supply
tomers still using DC were provided with on-site AC to
DC rectifiers.[132] Pacific Gas and Electric Company still • Electric Utility electrical substations continue to use
provided DC power to some locations in San Francisco a 125 volt DC “Station Battery” to operate control
through at least 2012, primarily for elevators, supplied equipment
by close to 200 rectifiers each providing power for 7-10
customers.[133] • Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for computer
systems
The last DC commercial power distribution system in the
United States was decommissioned in 2007.[7] The Cen- • Utility-scale battery systems
tral Electricity Generating Board in the UK continued to
maintain a 200 volt DC generating station at Bankside • "Off-grid" isolated power installations using wind or
Power Station on the River Thames in London as late as solar power
1981. It exclusively powered DC printing machinery in
Fleet Street, then the heart of the UK’s newspaper indus- In these applications, direct current may be used directly
try. It was decommissioned later in 1981 when the news- or converted to alternating current using power electronic
paper industry moved into the developing docklands area devices. In the future, this may provide a way to supply
further down the river (using modern AC-powered equip- energy to a grid from distributed sources. For example,
ment). The building was converted into an art gallery, the hybrid vehicle owners may rent the capacity of their ve-
Tate Modern. hicle’s batteries for load-levelling purposes by the local
electrical utility company.
Electric railways that use a third-rail system exclusively
employ DC power between 110 and 1500 volts. Railways
with overhead catenary lines use various power schemes
including both high-voltage AC and low voltage DC. Low 8 See also
voltage in this context is 5 kV or below.
• Format war
High-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems are used
for bulk transmission of energy from distant generating • History of electronic engineering
stations or for interconnection of separate alternating-
current systems. These HVDC systems use electronic • Timeline of electrical and electronic engineering
devices like mercury-arc valves, thyristors or IGBTs that
were unavailable during the War of Currents era. Power • Topsy (elephant) - in popular culture associated with
is still converted to and from alternating current at each the War of Currents
side of the modern HVDC link. The advantages of
HVDC over AC systems for bulk transmission include
higher power ratings for a given line (important since 9 References
installing new lines and even upgrading old ones is ex-
tremely expensive) and better control of power flows, es- [1] AC Power History. Edison Tech Center.
pecially in transient and emergency conditions that can
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[4] Dobson, John M. (1 January 2007). “Bulls, Bears, Boom,
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[58] Randall E. Stross, The Wizard of Menlo Park: How [76] Seifer, Marc (1 May 1998). “Wizard: The Life And
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How Pittsburgh’s East Enders Forged American Industry, can History page 119
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 20 11 EXTERNAL LINKS

[120] Patrice L. R. Higonnet, David S. Landes, Henry • Edquist, Charles, Hommen, Leif, & Tsipouri, Lena
Rosovsky, Favorites of Fortune: Technology, Growth, J. (2000). Public technology procurement and inno-
and Economic Development Since the Industrial Revolu- vation. Economics of science, technology, and in-
tion, Harvard University Press - 1991, page 113 novation, v. 16. Boston: Kluwer Academic.
[121] The Schenectady Museum • The Electrical Engineer, "A new system of alternat-
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Mill_Creek_No._1_Hydroelectric_Plant,_1893 Mill • Tom McNichol AC/DC: the savage tale of the first
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7879-8267-9
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Light and Death, Bloomsbury Publishing USA - 2009, • Reynolds, Terry S., and Bernstein, Theodore. "Edi-
page 274 son and the Chair,” IEEE Technology and Society
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[128] H. W. Brands, Reckless Decade. Page 50.
• Seifer, Marc J. (1998). Wizard: the life and times
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New York, 1978, ISBN 0-07-020974-X, chapter 14, page “The Chair”, Technology and Society Magazine,
14-3 “Overhead power transmission” IEEE (Volume 8, Issue 1) March 1989
[131] Tom Blalock, “Powering the New Yorker: A Hotel’s
Unique Direct Current System”, in IEEE Power and En-
ergy Magazine, Jan/Feb 2006 11 External links
[132] Jennifer Lee, New York Times November 16, 2007, "Off • Thomas Edison Hates Cats - AC vs DC an online
Goes the Power Current Started by Thomas Edison" (re- video mini-history.
trieved November 16, 2007)
• War of the Currents. PBS.
[133] “San Francisco’s Secret DC Grid”.
• War of the Currents. nuc.berkeley.edu.

10 Further reading
• Berton, Pierre (1997). Niagara: a history of the
Falls. New York: Kodansha International.

• Bordeau, Sanford P. (1982). Volts to Hertz—the

rise of electricity: from the compass to the radio
through the works of sixteen great men of science
whose names are used in measuring electricity and
magnetism. Minneapolis, Minn: Burgess Pub. Co.

• Brandon, Craig (1999). The Electric Chair: An Un-

natural American History. Jefferson, N.C.: McFar-
land & Co.
 21

12 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

12.1 Text
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Geary, Furrykef, LMB, Omegatron, Joy, Frazzydee, Pollinator, Robbot, Fredrik, Donreed, Drago9034, Bkell, Xanzzibar, David Gerard,
Philwelch, Karn, Ryjaz, Guanaco, Matthead, JillandJack, Toytoy, Beland, Grauw, DragonflySixtyseven, Joyous!, BrianWilloughby, Icd,
Rich Farmbrough, Rupertslander, Edibobb, ArnoldReinhold, Antaeus Feldspar, Jeff schiller, Evice, El C, Juppiter, Aaronbrick, WhiteTim-
berwolf, Jpgordon, Smalljim, Shenme, Defsac, Bert Hickman, Apostrophe, Carlb, Jiminy Krikkitt, Gary, PaulHanson, Macho, ABCD,
Jaardon, Messlo, Cromwellt, Wtshymanski, Cburnett, Gpvos, Dzhim, Ghirlandajo, Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), Woohookitty, Mind-
matrix, DonPMitchell, Scjessey, Pol098, Tabletop, SCEhardt, SDC, Plrk, Cataclysm, MassGalactusUniversum, Pmj, Edison, Cander-
son7, Ketiltrout, Rjwilmsi, Lockley, Tim Eliseo, TheRingess, Gudeldar, Aveekbh, Titoxd, SchuminWeb, RobertG, CarolGray, Alfred
Centauri, Tiedau, BjKa, Srleffler, Chobot, Frappyjohn, Costas Skarlatos, Benlisquare, Bgwhite, Wavelength, Jamesmorrison, DMahalko,
Stian, Ikar.us, Lavenderbunny, Juhanson, Grafen, Afiler, Lomn, Elkman, Yabbadab, EAderhold, Th1rt3en, De Administrando Imperio,
Petri Krohn, Geoffrey.landis, Solarusdude, Curpsbot-unicodify, Poculum, Tobi Kellner, JDspeeder1, Williampoetra, SailorAlphaCentauri,
SmackBot, Monkeyblue, Ulterior19802005, Prodego, KnowledgeOfSelf, Hydrogen Iodide, Rouenpucelle, Gilliam, Carbonrodney, Tim-
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siebush, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, WillMak050389, AgentPeppermint, Oosh, J Clear, AntiVandalBot, Widefox, Guy Macon, Autoc-
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zoB, Dontdoit, MartinBot, Erbear, R'n'B, Rbrewer42, Cspan64, Foetusized, Sethgodin, Skier Dude, Fountains of Bryn Mawr, Jmatxx,
Shoessss, Tweisbach, Remember the dot, Eddy Kurentz, Squids and Chips, Hugo999, VolkovBot, Thedjatclubrock, Philip Trueman, TXiK-
iBoT, Liamoliver, Davehood, M84a4, Leafyplant, SpecMode, Monsieurdl, SoopahMan, Rickdl, AdRock, Coffee, Pkurzweil, Stakhanov,
WereSpielChequers, Wheljam, Pawebster, Perspectoff, Palatar, AlphaCent, MaynardClark, RUReady2Testify, Techman224, Moletrouser,
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Binksternet, CasualObserver'48, California123123, Elegie, David W. Glessner, Boing! said Zebedee, Excirial, Dr. Stantz, Thingg, MW-
Stowe, DumZiBoT, EastTN, Little Mountain 5, Lwalkera, MystBot, Addbot, Olli Niemitalo, Npalumbo58, Ironholds, Zarcadia, Cana-
dianLinuxUser, Aktsu, Tassedethe, Numbo3-bot, Ehrenkater, Shekure, Lightbot, Maurilbert, Teles, Fragtion, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Akim
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bach, Full-date unlinking bot, Paganscientist, Niri.M, Trappist the monk, Sheogorath, Zolika76, DragonofFire, Scrummymatt, Dongsuk,
Onel5969, Algotruneman, Jack.a.stein, Steve03Mills, EmausBot, John of Reading, Helium4, RA0808, Minimac’s Clone, Slightsmile,
Wikipelli, K6ka, Tanner Swett, Solomonfromfinland, Dewie04, Stubes99, ZéroBot, Kudlaczov, Tarkul, M3tro, Atlantictire, Chuispaston-
Bot, Rocketrod1960, ClueBot NG, This lousy T-shirt, Lyla1205, DieSwartzPunkt, Widr, Helpful Pixie Bot, BG19bot, PearlSt82, Wiki13,
RaulRavndra, Mitrik, Zedshort, Vanischenu, BattyBot, ChrisGualtieri, Fishicus, Mogism, Cameroncoleman, Sailee5, Prometheus360, Th-
eyconpoo, Yolo1116, Michipedian, Zanski, MrScorch6200, Bloggerss, John Prost, Kelm Templars, Monkbot, Powertech190, Garfield
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Jgonos, Nr344, Jfraumen, Qeeii, Joshualouie711, IzzyFuzzy, Trevor00smith, TheDasherLegendXD, Maxwell11798, GreenC bot, Marvel-
lous Spider-Man, Enginerfactories, Bender the Bot, ACleaningPerson, Guy101988, Jimmeans, WikiGEK and Anonymous: 449

12.2 Images
• File:Blizzard_1888_01.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Blizzard_1888_01.jpg License: Public do-
main Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Brush_Company_arc_light_madison_square_new_york_1882.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
7/7e/Brush_Company_arc_light_madison_square_new_york_1882.png License: Public domain Contributors: Harper’s Weekly, January
14, 1882 Original artist: Charles Graham
• File:Crystal_energy.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Crystal_energy.svg License: LGPL Contribu-
tors: Own work conversion of Image:Crystal_128_energy.png Original artist: Dhatfield
• File:EXECUTION_BY_ELECTRICITY_electric_chair_illustration_Scientific_American_Volumes_58-59_June_30_1888.png
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/EXECUTION_BY_ELECTRICITY_electric_chair_illustration_
Scientific_American_Volumes_58-59_June_30_1888.png License: Public domain Contributors: Scientific American, Vol-
umes 58-59, Munn & Company, 1888, page 407 Original artist: Unknown<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718'
title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/
Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20' height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/
Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050' data-file-height='590' /></a>
• File:George_Westinghouse.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/George_Westinghouse.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [1], call number “BIOG FILE - Westinghouse, George,
1846-1914 <item> [P&P]" Original artist: Joseph G. Gessford
• File:Harold_Pitney_Brown_edison_electrocute_horse_1888_New_York_Medico-Legal_Journal_vol_6_issue_4.png Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Harold_Pitney_Brown_edison_electrocute_horse_1888_New_York_
Medico-Legal_Journal_vol_6_issue_4.png License: Public domain Contributors: New York Medico-Legal Journal, vol. 6, issue 4
1889 page 389 Original artist: Unknown<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:
Q4233718' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png'
width='20' height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.
svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x'
data-file-width='1050' data-file-height='590' /></a>
22 12 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

• File:Harold_Pitney_Brown_engineer_1857_1932.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Harold_

Pitney_Brown_engineer_1857_1932.png License: Public domain Contributors: Electric Railway Review, Volume 5 - 1895 Orig-
inal artist: Unknown<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20'
height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050'
data-file-height='590' /></a>
• File:John_Feeks_Western_Union_lineman_killed_by_AC_October_11_1889.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/c/cf/John_Feeks_Western_Union_lineman_killed_by_AC_October_11_1889.png License: Public domain Contributors:
Physique Populaire by Emile Desbeaux 1891 Original artist: D. Dumon
• File:Laying_the_electrical_Tubes_electric_lines_under_street_Edison_Pearl_Street_Utility_June_21_1882_Harpers_Weekly_
-_detail.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Laying_the_electrical_Tubes_electric_lines_under_street_
Edison_Pearl_Street_Utility_June_21_1882_Harpers_Weekly_-_detail.png License: Public domain Contributors: June 21, 1882 Harper’s
Weekly Original artist: W. P. Snyder
• File:N.Tesla.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/N.Tesla.JPG License: Public domain Contribu-
tors: Downloaded from: https://historyrat.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/lighting-the-1893-worlds-fair-the-race-to-light-the-world/
Original artist: Unknown<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20'
height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050'
data-file-height='590' /></a>
• File:Office-book.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Office-book.svg License: Public domain Contribu-
tors: This and myself. Original artist: Chris Down/Tango project
• File:Thomas_Edison_1.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Thomas_Edison_1.png License: Public do-
main Contributors: This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital
ID cph.3b44155.
This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
Original artist: J.M. White & Co., photographer.
• File:Thomas_Edison_c1882.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Thomas_Edison_c1882.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: Heritage Auction Gallery Original artist: unattributed; verso reads Please Return to Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• File:US390721.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/US390721.png License: Public domain Contributors:
? Original artist: ?
• File:WestinghouseEarlyACSystem1887-USP373035.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/
WestinghouseEarlyACSystem1887-USP373035.png License: Public domain Contributors: US Patent 373035 Original artist: George
Westinghouse

• File:Westinghouse_Electric_Company_(1888_catalogue).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

a/a9/Westinghouse_Electric_Company_%281888_catalogue%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: 1888 West-
inghouse Catalogue p. 1, http://catalogdemo.antiquesockets.com/cdemo/demo/1888-Westinghouse-Demo.pdf Original
artist: Unknown<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20'
height='11' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050'
data-file-height='590' /></a>
• File:William-Stanley_jr.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/William-Stanley_jr.jpg
License: Public domain Contributors: http://edisontechcenter.org/WilliamStanley.html Original artist: Unknown<a
href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718' src='https://upload.
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20' height='11'
srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050'
data-file-height='590' /></a>
• File:William_Kemmler.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/William_Kemmler.jpg License: Public do-
main Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:ZBD_team.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/ZBD_team.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Scanned from an old newspaper (1901) Original artist: Zolika76

12.3 Content license

• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0