system to begin with. 26
In the same year, in America, after creating the WestinghouseElectric Company, Westinghouse placed William Stanley in charge of the Gaulard-Gibbs modifications. Simultaneously, he brought to America Reginald Belfield, the engineer who had helped install the Gaulard-Gibbs system at the Inventions Exhibition in London two years earlier. Stanley, a frail, thin-faced temperamental “little man” 27 with piercing eyes, aquiline nose, wispy mustache, and Alfalfa hairdo, was a native of Brooklyn who had worked for Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun. Although it was Westinghouse’s idea to place Stanley in charge of the Gaulard-Gibbs apparatus, Stanley would later maintain that Westinghouse never fully understood the system until he got it in working order. 28 This appears unlikely, for it was a private joke among the upper echelon of the Westinghouse Company that Stanley had a penchant for claiming new discoveries when they became such to him. In any case, Westinghouse hedged his bets by establishing numerous DC central stations as well while research on AC was in progress. 29
“Nervous and agile,” 30 Stanley was a hypersensitive individual who never really got along with Westinghouse. Due to ill health, and on the advice of the general manager, Col. Henry Byllesby, who proposed that success might be more forthcoming if Stanley separated himself from the pressures of the company, the inventor returned to his childhood summer retreat in the Berkshires in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to work on the Gaulard-Gibbs system in private, taking Reginald Belfield with him. Stanley converted the Gaulard-Gibbs arrangement to parallel circuitry and independent control of separate fixtures and at the same time created a transformer which stepped up the AC from 500 volts to 3,000 when delivered along a transmission line and stepped them back down to original levels when entering households. This invention, although very similar to the ZBD configuration, was nevertheless patentable. It enabled AC to be sent three-quarters of a mile, or approximately one-quarter of a mile farther than the lower voltages of the prevailing DC systems. 31
On April 6, 1886, George Westinghouse, along with Col. Henry Byllesby, traveled up to New Hampshire to witness the landmark apparatus for themselves. Prior to coming to Westinghouse, Byllesby had been employed at the Edison Machine Works as a mechanical engineer and was one of the designers of the Pearl Street station. 32 “From that time on,” Byllesby said, “we progressed with amazing speed.” 33 By the time of Tesla’s lecture, Westinghouse noted that his company had “sold more central station[s]…on the alternating current system than all of the other electric companies in the country put together on the direct current system,” 34 but few engineers understood the principles involved.
In fierce competition with Westinghouse and a third player, Elihu Thomson of Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Thomas Edison had received a report on his own alternating current ZBD system. His engineersin Berlin indicated that the use of such high voltages was exceedingly dangerous. 35 Thomson, who himself had lectured at the AIEE a year before on the topic of AC, supported Edison’s contention that AC was too risky. 36 Thus, at the time Tesla spoke, the battle of the currents had already begun, but the makeup of the contenders was complex. In 1886, fully two years before Tesla’s high-voltage AC system became manifest, Edison had written to his manager, “Just as certain as death Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in a system of any size. He has got a new thing and it will require a great deal of experimenting to get it working practically. It will never be free from danger.” 37
Tesla’s lecture began with a brief description of the “existing diversity of opinion regarding the relative merits of the alternate and continuous current
In the same year, in America, after creating the WestinghouseElectric Company, Westinghouse placed William Stanley in charge of the Gaulard-Gibbs modifications. Simultaneously, he brought to America Reginald Belfield, the engineer who had helped install the Gaulard-Gibbs system at the Inventions Exhibition in London two years earlier. Stanley, a frail, thin-faced temperamental “little man” 27 with piercing eyes, aquiline nose, wispy mustache, and Alfalfa hairdo, was a native of Brooklyn who had worked for Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun. Although it was Westinghouse’s idea to place Stanley in charge of the Gaulard-Gibbs apparatus, Stanley would later maintain that Westinghouse never fully understood the system until he got it in working order. 28 This appears unlikely, for it was a private joke among the upper echelon of the Westinghouse Company that Stanley had a penchant for claiming new discoveries when they became such to him. In any case, Westinghouse hedged his bets by establishing numerous DC central stations as well while research on AC was in progress. 29
“Nervous and agile,” 30 Stanley was a hypersensitive individual who never really got along with Westinghouse. Due to ill health, and on the advice of the general manager, Col. Henry Byllesby, who proposed that success might be more forthcoming if Stanley separated himself from the pressures of the company, the inventor returned to his childhood summer retreat in the Berkshires in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to work on the Gaulard-Gibbs system in private, taking Reginald Belfield with him. Stanley converted the Gaulard-Gibbs arrangement to parallel circuitry and independent control of separate fixtures and at the same time created a transformer which stepped up the AC from 500 volts to 3,000 when delivered along a transmission line and stepped them back down to original levels when entering households. This invention, although very similar to the ZBD configuration, was nevertheless patentable. It enabled AC to be sent three-quarters of a mile, or approximately one-quarter of a mile farther than the lower voltages of the prevailing DC systems. 31
On April 6, 1886, George Westinghouse, along with Col. Henry Byllesby, traveled up to New Hampshire to witness the landmark apparatus for themselves. Prior to coming to Westinghouse, Byllesby had been employed at the Edison Machine Works as a mechanical engineer and was one of the designers of the Pearl Street station. 32 “From that time on,” Byllesby said, “we progressed with amazing speed.” 33 By the time of Tesla’s lecture, Westinghouse noted that his company had “sold more central station[s]…on the alternating current system than all of the other electric companies in the country put together on the direct current system,” 34 but few engineers understood the principles involved.
In fierce competition with Westinghouse and a third player, Elihu Thomson of Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Thomas Edison had received a report on his own alternating current ZBD system. His engineersin Berlin indicated that the use of such high voltages was exceedingly dangerous. 35 Thomson, who himself had lectured at the AIEE a year before on the topic of AC, supported Edison’s contention that AC was too risky. 36 Thus, at the time Tesla spoke, the battle of the currents had already begun, but the makeup of the contenders was complex. In 1886, fully two years before Tesla’s high-voltage AC system became manifest, Edison had written to his manager, “Just as certain as death Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in a system of any size. He has got a new thing and it will require a great deal of experimenting to get it working practically. It will never be free from danger.” 37
Tesla’s lecture began with a brief description of the “existing diversity of opinion regarding the relative merits of the alternate and continuous current
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