preview

Nikola Tesla Comparison

Decent Essays

Much of what we know about science and the electrical world around us is primarily due to two men, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Each man invented a way of using electricity, while both conflicted against each other, both of their inventions of current, as well as others, are used today.
First, Nikola Tesla's history explains his interests in inventions. Tesla was born what is now Smiljan, Croatia, on July 10, 1856. Tesla's drive for invention was greatly influenced by his mother, Djuka Mandic. She was a small household appliances inventor, in her spare time. Tesla's father however was a Orthodox priest and a writer who pushed his son to also become a priest himself, but Tesla's fondness of the sciences took him through many institutes and …show more content…

Edison was the most famous of the three as he had developed the first practical light bulb in the late 1870's. Although Edison and Tesla had worked together, Tesla helping to perfect Edison's designs while also promoting his own, they conflicted and eventually separated. This was partly due to Edison's concerning thoughts about Tesla's alternating current system. Using propaganda tactics as Edison felt threatened by Tesla's alternating current system as it could distribute current over longer distances more economically, Edison slandered alternating current by saying it was more dangerous by publically electrocuting animals and suggesting that Tesla's system should be used as the new form of execution for inmates on death row rather than the traditional hanging as it was the faster, more deadly option compared to its predecessor. In the end Edison lost the "war" as Westinghouse, the company using the alternating current systems, won the contract to supply electricity to the "1893 World's Fair in Chicago". This showcase became the launching pad for Tesla's system as it allowed for the accomplishment of building a hydro-electric power plant at Niagara Falls in 1896. This achievement is informally know as the end of the "War of Currents" as alternating current became the official electric power for all industries. w as the end of the "War of Currents" as alternating current became the official electric power for all

Get Access