Umair Gaines
The AC electrical system has a long and complex history, with many pioneers contributing to its development. In the late 19th century, a historic feud known as the War of Currents erupted between inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, centred around the most efficient method of distributing electricity. Edison advocated for direct current (DC), which was the initial standard in the US, while Tesla believed that alternating current (AC) was a solution to the limitations of DC. The AC system was further developed by engineers such as Lucien Gaulard, John Dixon Gibbs, Galileo Ferraris, and William Stanley, who made advancements in transformers and motors. The spread of Westinghouse and other AC systems sparked a pushback from Edison, who attempted to discredit AC as dangerous. Despite this, the AC power system gained widespread adoption, and today, electricity is predominantly powered by alternating current.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date | 1880s |
| Key Inventors | Galileo Ferraris, Nikola Tesla, Lucien Gaulard, John Dixon Gibbs, William Stanley, Ottó Bláthy, Károly Zipernowsky, Miksa Déri, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse |
| Key Companies | Westinghouse Electric Company, Ganz Works of Budapest, Thomson-Houston, Edison Machine Works, General Electric |
| Key Locations | Turin, Italy; London, UK; Budapest, Austro-Hungary; Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh; US |
| Key Years | 1884: Lucien Gaulard develops transformers; 1885: Westinghouse purchases US patent rights to Gaulard-Gibbs transformer; 1886: Westinghouse Electric Company formed; 1888: Tesla demonstrates AC motor; 1892: Merger of Edison Electric and Thomson-Houston |
| AC vs DC | Alternating Current (AC) can transmit power over longer distances from large central generating stations; Direct Current (DC) was initially standard but had limited range and couldn't be easily converted to higher or lower voltages |
| War of Currents | Competition between Edison's DC and Tesla/Westinghouse's AC systems; Edison tried to discredit AC as dangerous; AC eventually prevailed but DC has seen a recent resurgence |
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What You'll Learn
The 'war of the currents'
The War of the Currents was a battle between two inventors, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, and their respective companies, Edison Electric and Westinghouse Electric, over the most efficient method to distribute electricity. Edison's direct current (DC) system was the initial standard, but it was found to be less effective over long distances. Tesla's alternating current (AC) system, on the other hand, could transmit power over longer distances from more efficient large central generating stations.
The war began when George Westinghouse bought Tesla's patent for the AC induction motor and the polyphase system. Recognizing the potential of this invention, Westinghouse decided to promote the use of AC for electric power systems. In March 1886, Westinghouse engineer William Stanley, designing a system based on the Gaulard-Gibbs transformer, demonstrated a lighting system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This system used a Siemens generator's voltage of 500 volts, which was then stepped down to 100 volts to power incandescent lamps in 23 businesses along the main street.
Edison, financially invested in DC, began a hard-hitting campaign to discredit alternating current. He claimed that AC was dangerous and could lead to accidental electrocutions due to its high voltage. To prove his point, Edison staged public demonstrations where he electrocuted stray animals using AC. He also supported the development of the electric chair using AC power as a method of execution to further emphasize the dangers of AC. In February 1888, Edison Electric president Edward Johnson published an 84-page pamphlet titled "A Warning from the Edison Electric Light Company", warning companies that purchased equipment from Edison's competitors about the dangers of AC and the safety and efficiency of DC.
Tesla chose to counter these fear-mongering tactics with demonstrations of the safety and efficiency of AC. One of his most famous displays was when he sent alternating current through his own body to produce light, demonstrating that AC was safe for humans. At the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Tesla used AC to light the entire fair, showcasing the potential and safety of AC.
The war came to an end with the merger of Edison Electric and their largest competitor, Thomson-Houston, forming General Electric in 1892. This new company now controlled three-quarters of the US electrical business. Westinghouse won the bid to supply electrical power for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and was awarded the major part of the contract to build the Niagara Falls hydroelectric project.
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Nikola Tesla's contributions
Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American engineer, inventor, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the development of the alternating current (AC) electrical system.
In 1884, Tesla immigrated to the United States, where he began working on a range of electrical and mechanical devices. He was a proponent of AC power generation, which was one of the two competing systems of electricity generation at the time, the other being direct current (DC) supported by Thomas Edison.
Tesla's most significant contribution to the AC system was his invention of the polyphase induction motor, also known as the AC motor. He filed for seven U.S. patents in 1887, describing a complete AC system based on his induction motor. This invention played a crucial role in what some have called the Second Industrial Revolution.
In 1888, Tesla demonstrated his polyphase motor to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). George Westinghouse, a pioneer in the AC system, recognised the potential of Tesla's invention and began negotiations to acquire the patent rights. Tesla's AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money.
Tesla's AC system won the "war of the currents" against Edison's DC system because it formed the basis of all modern power generation and distribution. The AC system could transmit power over longer distances from more efficient large central generating stations, which made it more suitable for widespread electricity distribution.
In addition to his work on the AC motor, Tesla also advised Westinghouse on the development of a two-phase AC generating system at Niagara Falls. This system was based on Tesla's advice and Westinghouse's successful demonstration at the Columbian Exposition.
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Thomas Edison's direct current (DC)
The late 1880s and early 1890s saw the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems, which led to the "War of the Currents". This grew out of two lighting systems developed in the late 1870s and early 1880s: arc lamp street lighting running on high-voltage alternating current (AC), and large-scale low-voltage direct current (DC) indoor incandescent lighting being marketed by Thomas Edison's company.
Thomas Edison was an advocate of direct current (DC). He allied with J.P. Morgan, the most powerful banker in the United States, to electrify the entire country with direct current. Edison's DC system was more expensive and less efficient due to the dissipation of part of the energy in the form of heat. The greater the distance, the more energy was lost along the way.
In 1886, Edison's system was faced with new competition: an alternating current (AC) system initially introduced by George Westinghouse's company. Using high voltage allowed an AC system to transmit power over longer distances from more efficient large central generating stations. As the use of AC spread rapidly with other companies deploying their own systems, the Edison Electric Light Company claimed in early 1888 that high voltages used in an alternating current system were dangerous. Edison attempted to discredit alternating current as too dangerous in a public campaign.
In June 1888, New York electrical engineer Harold P. Brown claimed that AC-based lighting companies were putting the public at risk by using high-voltage systems installed in a slipshod manner. He tried to prove this by publicly killing animals with both currents, with technical assistance from Edison Electric. Brown and Edison colluded further in their parallel goals to limit the use of AC with attempts to push through legislation to severely limit AC installations and voltages.
In 1888, alternating current systems gained further viability with the introduction of a functional AC motor, which these systems had previously lacked. The design, an induction motor, was independently invented by Galileo Ferraris and Nikola Tesla.
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Early AC power technology
The groundwork for alternating current (AC) was laid by Michael Faraday in 1831. He discovered that a changing magnetic field could induce an electric current in a conductor, a principle essential for generating AC. Building on this, in 1832, Hippolyte Pixii constructed an early generator that produced alternating current, which was often converted to direct current (DC) for use at the time. In 1855, Guillaume Duchenne was the first to apply AC in electrotherapeutic triggering of muscle contractions. However, AC power was not considered useful for anything else at the time.
In the mid-19th century, engineers like Zénobe Théophile Gramme improved dynamo machines capable of generating AC. In 1876, Russian engineer Pavel Yablochkov invented a lighting system where sets of induction coils were installed along a high-voltage AC line. In the 1870s, the Hungarian Ganz Works company further developed AC technology, and, in the 1880s, this was continued by Lucien Gaulard, Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, and Galileo Ferraris.
In 1878, the Ganz Company started working with single-phase AC power systems in Budapest, Austro-Hungary. In 1879, Walter Baily in London made a copper disc rotate using alternating current, creating a weak early AC motor that was not effective for bearing any load. In 1881, Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs exhibited an AC system powering arc and incandescent lights installed along five railway stations for the Metropolitan Railway in London. In 1884, Lucien Gaulard developed a power transmission system from Lanzo to Turin, Italy, which included a 25-mile trolley with step-down transformers that allowed low-power Edison incandescent lights and arc lamps to be lit.
In 1885, William Stanley, with Westinghouse's backing, installed the first multiple-voltage AC power system, a demonstration incandescent lighting system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This system used transformers to step down 500 AC volts at the street to 100 volts to power incandescent lamps, lighting 23 businesses along the main street with very little power loss over 4000 feet. In 1886, Sebastian de Ferranti redesigned the AC system at the Grosvenor Gallery power station in London, including alternators and open-core transformer designs with serial connections for utilization loads.
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AC induction motor
The AC induction motor, also known as an asynchronous motor, is an AC electric motor that uses a rotating magnetic field to induce an electric current in the rotor, which produces torque. This electric current is created through electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field of the stator winding. The stator is the static, non-moving part of the motor, while the rotor is the moving part. The rotor can be either a wound type or a squirrel-cage type.
The development of the AC induction motor was a significant milestone in the history of AC power. The first primitive induction motor was demonstrated by Walter Baily in 1879, but it was not effective for bearing any load. The first commutator-free single-phase AC induction motor was invented by Hungarian engineer Ottó Bláthy, who used it to power his invention, the electricity meter.
In 1885, Galileo Ferraris conceived the idea of the first polyphase AC motor, which worked without a commutator. This development made AC motors efficient and competitive with DC motors. Ferraris published his research on his AC polyphase motor in 1888, and his design was further developed into the modern practical three-phase form by Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown in Germany.
Another important contributor to the development of the AC induction motor was Nikola Tesla, who independently invented the first AC commutator-free polyphase induction motor. Tesla demonstrated a working model in 1887 and was granted US patents for his invention in May 1888. George Westinghouse licensed Tesla's patents in 1888 and purchased a US patent option on Ferraris' induction motor concept.
The introduction of the AC induction motor in 1888 provided further viability to alternating current systems, which had previously lacked a functional AC motor. The development of AC induction motors continued with the General Electric Company (GE) beginning to develop three-phase induction motors in 1891 and Westinghouse achieving its first practical induction motor in 1892.
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Frequently asked questions
The AC electrical system was developed by multiple inventors and pioneers in electrical engineering. Nikola Tesla, Galileo Ferraris, Lucien Gaulard, John Dixon Gibbs, William Stanley, Oliver Shallenberger, and Thomas Edison all contributed to the development and improvement of the AC electrical system.
One of the main challenges was the "War of the Currents" between Thomas Edison, who advocated for direct current (DC), and proponents of alternating current (AC), such as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. Edison attempted to discredit AC as dangerous and even electrocuted stray animals in public demonstrations to prove his point. However, his campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, and AC became the predominant form of electricity distribution.
The AC electrical system revolutionized power transmission and electrification. It overcame the limitations of DC systems, which could only transmit power over short distances due to power loss. AC systems could transmit power over longer distances from large central generating stations, making electricity more accessible to businesses and residences. The development of the AC motor and polyphase systems further enhanced the viability of AC technology.
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