The Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.
In June 1752, Benjamin Franklin attached a metal key to a kite that flew during a thunderstorm. When a spark flew from the key after lightning hit it, he proceeded to use the key to charge a Leyden jar. His goal was to show “the sameness of electrical matter with that of lightning.” Franklin went on to invent the lightning rod and persuaded much of Philadelphia to install the device on their homes and other buildings to protect them from lightning strikes. Franklin had two bells in his own home that would ring when a gathering storm electrified attached lightning rods.
While Franklin gained worldwide notoriety for his work on electricity and many other inventions and experiments, he likely could not have foreseen the effect electricity would have on America and the world. The story of modern electricity begins with two men – Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
Ohio native Thomas Edison is generally regarded as the greatest inventor of all time. He invented the phonograph, the first machine for recording sound, new kinds of batteries, improved the telephone, and the motion-picture camera, among many other inventions. In all, he collected over a thousand patents. But it is one invention that most people associate with Edison – the electric lightbulb.
In 1878, Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company in Menlo Park, New Jersey, to conquer the challenge of creating a lightbulb. At the time, kerosene lamps lit most homes in the country, an industry dominated by John D. Rockefeller and his company Standard Oil. But Edison took steps to change this. In October 1879, he used a platinum filament in a bulb that successfully sustained electric light. By 1880, he replaced the filament with carbonized bamboo, making his bulb longer-lasting and more affordable. The lightbulb as we know it today began to take shape.
Edison was financed in his work by legendary business titan J.P. Morgan. Morgan recognized the lightbulb’s true potential to change the world. He soon set out on projects with Edison to get electricity into large portions of Manhattan through power grids, the same general system used today. Thomas Edison installed the first set of lights in human history in Morgan’s home.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison
But while the lightbulb is Edison’s, another man gave electricity the innovation it needed. Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia, in 1856, the son of a Serbian Orthodox priest and a mother who often invented small household appliances in her spare time. Brilliant as a boy, Tesla studied math and physics at the Technical University of Graz and philosophy at the University of Prague. To reach his full potential, he immigrated to the United States in 1884 with little money and few possessions. He became a U.S. citizen in 1891.
Upon reaching the United States, Telsa was introduced to Thomas Edison by a mutual acquaintance familiar with Tesla’s genius and Edison hired Tesla to work at his lab in Menlo Park. The two men weren’t destined to work together for long. Edison’s lightbulb design used direct current (DC), or a current that flows continuously in one direction. He reportedly offered $50,000 to Tesla if he could improve this design. Telsa did just that in only a few months.
Using the principle of rotating magnetic fields, Telsa developed the first alternating current (AC) design, the standard still used today. This design carried an advantage over DC in that higher voltage levels could be carried over longer distances due to currents that changed direction 50 to 60 times per second.
When he tried to collect his money, Edison is said to have told Tesla, “You don’t understand our American humor.” Tesla left shortly after that to try and establish AC as the design that would carry electricity forward.
Both Edison and Telsa championed their electrical designs at the expense of the other. A period known as the “Battle of the Currents” occurred regarding whether DC or AC electricity would reign supreme. Edison, backed by the powerful J.P. Morgan, had the name and the funding advantages in such a battle. Tesla, more of an engineer than a savvy businessman, needed help if he was going to compete.
After getting funding from some investors in 1885, Tesla established the Tesla Electric Light Company. However, the venture failed and Tesla went to work digging ditches for $2 a day. He persevered and continued to promote his AC design wherever he could. Tesla successfully gained patents for his work and went around giving presentations on its potential. After one such presentation to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, he licensed his patents and went to work for George Westinghouse, a fellow inventor and businessman.
What followed were not Edison’s finest moments. He went on a negative press campaign to portray the AC electrical system as dangerous. This included electrocuting animals and human beings. The electric chair for executing prisoners was first offered to the New York prison system by Edison using AC electricity. His goal was to give AC electricity a negative connotation with the public.
However, the advantages of the AC design began to prove superior to its DC counterpart. In 1893, after Westinghouse intentionally underbid the project to keep it away from Edison and Morgan, Tesla’s AC electrical system was chosen to power the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. It was like nothing the world had ever seen.
In 1895, word came that a hydroelectric power plant was being built near Niagara Falls, New York. Edison and Tesla wanted their electric currents to be used for the project. In the end, Tesla’s AC design was chosen. To much fanfare around the world, the plant was used to power the city of Buffalo, New York, and showed the transformational nature of electric power.
The awesome power of the Niagra Falls power plant.
Electricity use in America and worldwide grew rapidly in the 20th century. Both Edison and Telsa continued to try and innovate but each took different paths. While Edison found much financial success, Telsa could never capitalize on his many inventions while alive.
His problems started in the 1890s when George Westinghouse faced financial difficulty. To help him, Tesla agreed to cancel their agreement to pay Telsa royalty rights, including millions of dollars already owed him. Those royalty rights would have made Tesla one of the wealthiest men in the world. For Tesla, proving the benefits of his inventions and his AC electrical design became his all-consuming focus.
Nikola Tesla sits near his “Tesla Coil.”
Nikola Telsa was a pioneer in several technologies. He developed a high-voltage transformer known as the “Tesla Coil,” which is still used in radio and television today. Through his coil, he studied fluorescence, X-rays, electromagnetism, and radio communications, among others. In fact, Tesla was giving demonstrations of short-range radio two years before the credited inventor of the radio, Italian Guglielmo Marconi. It wasn’t until 1943, the year of Tesla’s death, that the United States Supreme Court voided four of Marconi’s patents on the radio, crediting Tesla’s work instead. Tesla died before the Court’s decision was released.
Telsa’s last major public work was an ambitious project to provide free energy throughout the world. He wanted to build a series of large electrical towers that housed large magnifying transmitters to send wireless signals and energy. Wireless electricity was to be used to power industry, transportation, and potentially a wide variety of endeavors.
Wardenclyffe Tower
He received the backing of J.P. Morgan for the project and construction began on a tower in Long Island, New York, in 1901. Known as the Wardenclyffe Tower, the project never came to fruition. Morgan lost confidence and pulled his financial backing. He reportedly said, “If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?” The tower was eventually dismantled in 1917 during World War I but it still captures the imagination.
Nikola Tesla spent his later years living in a hotel room in New York City. As he grew older, he battled mental health challenges that took him away from the public spotlight. The name “Tesla” lives on not only for the man but also as the name given to the electric car company, Tesla Motors, founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The harnessing of electricity has had incalculable effects on modern life. One only needs to look around to know this. But like every consequential invention, it starts in the brilliant minds of individuals driven to push the bounds of what we think is possible. The American system allows these individuals to take risks, compete against others, and profit from their hard work and innovation. Electricity is another example of what can be created when the human mind is left unencumbered.