It was Nikola Tesla’s invention of the brushless poly-phase alternating current (AC) induction motor and associated equipment that changed the whole world, industrially and domestically. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area. Tesla took the risk to demonstrate the safety of AC. One set is stationary (called the stator) and the other is mounted on a rotating shaft (called the rotor). As the magnetic field in the stator rotated, it would induce an opposing electric field in the rotor, thus causing it to turn. In doing so, he was a maverick since engineers at Westinghouse Electric and elsewhere used only one alternating current in their systems. It is true that Edison gave us many modern devices such as the incandescent light bulb, the motion pictures (Hollywood), voice recording, the phonograph and other different DC devices, but it was Tesla who towered far above Edison in terms of the overall worldwide larger picture of AC power production and transmission which accelerated the pace of the second industrial revolution.Tesla’s inventions range from all kinds of AC motors to the fluorescent light bulbs, high voltage AC devices, high frequency transmitters and devices, transformers, transmission lines, switch gear, the radio, the TV, radar, X-ray, cell phone, remote control devices, the ray gun, to mention a few. Seizing on Faradayâs principle of electromagnetic induction, ingenious instrument makers began fashioning new machines that could be cranked by hand or powered by a steam engine to produce a strong electric current. Teslaâs insight was a reverse of standard practice. Indeed, determined to catch up with Edison, Westinghouse frequently offered to build new power stations below cost.The Westinghouse tactics appalled Edison. It wasn’t until 1893 that his dream became a reality when Westinghouse was awarded the contract to develop the plant. For several months in 1879, Edison and his team tried dozens of materials, only to find that the lampblack carbon Edison had been using in his telephone transmitters was the ideal material. In 1884, a 28 year old Serbian-born inventor named Nikola Tesla immigrated to America from Paris. Google founders Karma would eventually bite back at Thomas Edison. 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. This was the the first World's Fair with electricity and would prove that alternating current was the electrical system of … Over the next decade, Alternating Current wiped out Direct Current and became the standard electrical system across the world. Edison had quite a reputation as an inventor and was a fighter. Rather than changing the magnetic poles in the rotor, he envisioned the idea of using a rotating magnetic field in his motor.Before Tesla, inventors had always designed electric motors so that the magnetic field of the stator was kept constant and the magnetic field in the rotor was changed by means of a commutator.
He was involved in a handful of very expensive and very public failed electrical projects between 1920 and 1935. Visitors not only were enthralled by the beauty of the nighttime illumination but also grew convinced that AC was the future.Second, in parallel with the Worldâs Fair, Tesla worked behind the scenes to convince the Wall Street financiers of a giant hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls that they should use AC to transmit power to cities across New York State. This invention attracted the attention of Charles F. Peck and Alfred S. Brown, who had made a fortune on Wall Street. To get the right âbuzzâ going about Teslaâs motor, Peck and Brown arranged for Tesla to give a lecture in 1888 at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Rather than build an actual motor, Tesla pictured everything in his mind. Intentionally losing money to undercut a rival seemed unfair. By New Yearâs Eve, Edison was demonstrating lamps using carbonized cardboard filaments to large crowds at his Menlo Park laboratory. Its innovative design and resulting efficiency would revolutionize the power industry in the late 19th century.Because AC current was more efficient than DC for transmitting over long distances , Westinghouse could use his power plants, like the one above, to serve more people over larger areas than was possible for Edisonâs system.The Worldâs Columbian Exposition took place in Chicago in 1893. In doing so, they continue to rely on the multiphase AC technology pioneered by Tesla and Westinghouse. As you may know, General Electric is still a thriving company today that owns thousands of businesses and has a market cap of $244 billion. Adjusting the current fed to each set can create similar magnetic poles facing each other in the stator and rotor. To Westinghouse's amazement, In retrospect, Tesla may have been a brilliant inventor but he was a terrible capitalist. Over the next decade, their heated rivalry set off an electrical revolution that drastically changed the lives of every human being on earth. In his motor, Tesla got exactly the right sequence by switching the current on and off in the individual electromagnets in the stator, thus creating a rotating magnetic field. Further experiments were made, with altered forms and composition of the substance, each experiment demonstrating that the inventor was upon the right track.In October 1879 Edison and his staff conducted their first successful experiments by putting a carbon filament in a vacuum, and they were able to bring it to incandescence since there was no oxygen to cause the filament to burn. Because this metal has a high melting point, Edison assumed that he could pass a current through a platinum filament, and the heat would cause the filament to incandesce. In Nikola Tesla's original contract with George Westinghouse, the inventor was promised a bonus of $2.50 for every horsepower of alternating current sold.