history
Carl L. Sulzberger
triumph of ac, part 2
the battle of the currents
T
THIS IS THE SECOND PART OF A
two-part article on the early develop-
ment of electric power systems and the
competition between advocates of direct
current (dc) and of alternating current
(ac) for the generation, transmission,
distribution, and utilization of electrical
energy. The first part appeared in the
May/June issue and discussed the inven-
tion of the practical incandescent light;
the development, chiefly by Thomas
Edison, of low-voltage dc power sys-
tems; and the work of Nicola Tesla,
William Stanley, George Westinghouse,
and others in Europe and in North
America that led to the advent of ac
power systems. This second part of the
article discusses what became known as
“the battle of the currents.”
Westinghouse AC
Power Systems
The seven U.S. patent appli-
cations filed by Nicola Tesla
in late 1887 comprised a
comprehensive ac system of
generators, transformers,
transmission lines, polyphase
motors, and lighting. When
the enterprising Pittsburgh
industrialist George Westing-
house, recognizing the value
of Tesla’s work, purchased
the seven patents and
employed Tesla to further
develop ac power systems,
the Westinghouse Electric
Company equipped itself to
manufacture and market
advanced, complete ac power George Westinghouse. (Photo courtesy of Westinghouse.)
70 IEEE power & energy magazine
systems. This set the stage for an indus- ✔ the suitability of dc for battery
trial war to determine whether Edison’s charging and electroplating
dc or Westinghouse’s ac would be the applications
electric supply technology to power the ✔ the perceived “absolute safety”
massive industrial development that of 110- and 240-volt dc as com-
began in the last years of the 19th centu- pared to the higher ac transmis-
ry and continues to the present. sion and distribution voltages.
The Battle of the Currents In 1888, Oliver B. Shallenberger, a
When the Edison companies took the Westinghouse staff engineer, developed
offensive in 1888, they identified the a magnetic disk meter for ac power. This
advantages of dc as the following: direct-reading meter was superior to the
electrolytic meter used by Edison in his
✔ superior reliability since dc gener- dc system and defeated one of the argu-
ators could work in parallel, a ments of the dc advocates. Further, while
technique not then available for ac it took the Westinghouse engineering
✔ the lack of an ac energy meter team until 1892 to perfect Tesla’s ac
✔ the lack of an ac motor induction motor and to fully develop
two- and three-phase sys-
tems for transmitting and
distributing ac power, the
progress made eliminated
Edison’s claim of a lack of
an ac motor.
In the summer of 1888,
the Edison interests concen-
trated their efforts on the
claimed unsafe nature of ac.
Harold P. Brown, a self-
taught engineer assuming
the title “professor,”
appeared as a supposed
advocate for public safety. It
is now apparent that he
received some help and
encouragement from the dc
proponents. As part of his
effort, Brown appeared
before audiences in Virginia
and Ohio and electrocuted
july/august 2003
animals to demonstrate
the effects of ac. He Westinghouse had made history by installing a
also urged the New
York Board of Electri-
13-mile long ac transmission line in Oregon from
cal Control to prohibit waterwheel driven single-phase generators at
ac voltages of more
than 300 V. While Willamette Falls to the City of Portland.
maintaining that low-
voltage dc was perfectly
safe, he condemned ac
voltages over 300 V as
being “damnable.” Edi-
son himself spoke in
favor of banning the use
of ac altogether or at
least limiting voltages
to no more than 300 V.
At about the same
time, Brown was instru-
mental in causing New
York State to replace
hanging with electrocu-
tion by ac as its method
of carrying out capital
punishment. While it
was argued that electro-
cution would be pain- The 3-kV transmission line, left, and the ac
less and instant because generator, above, used to supply power to
electric energy travels at the Gold King Ore Mill, Telluride, Colorado,
the speed of light, it was as they appeared in the early 1890s.
not known how high a
voltage or current was
needed to kill or the
mechanism and speed
of electricity passing through a human as a synonym for electrocution, but the ac transmission line in Oregon from
body. One of the first electric chairs was term did not stick. waterwheel driven single-phase genera-
installed at the Auburn State Prison in By 1891, the claim of the Edison tors at Willamette Falls to the City of
upstate New York. It utilized a used West- interests that dc is inherently safer than Portland. This line operated at 4 kV. The
inghouse generator clandestinely ac had subsided. George Westinghouse first industrial use of ac transmission
acquired by Brown with the financial would later recall: took place in 1891 when Westinghouse
backing of the Edison interests. Westing- installed a 3-kV single-phase line
house would not willingly or knowingly I remember Tom [Edison] approximately three miles from a water-
supply the generators for the New York telling them that dc was like a wheel generator to the Gold King Ore
electric chairs. The first electrocution, river flowing peacefully to the Mill in Telluride, Colorado, at an eleva-
that of convicted axe-murderer William sea, while ac was like a torrent tion of over 9,000 feet. The ore crusher
Kemmler, was conducted on 6 August rushing violently over a precipice. was powered by a 100-horsepower syn-
1890. Because of poor voltage regula- Imagine that! Why they even had chronous motor. The opportunity for
tion, the execution was reportedly a gris- a professor named Harold Brown electric power in the Telluride applica-
ly affair. Kemmler was first subjected to who went around talking to audi- tion arose from the lack of firewood
1,300 V ac for a period of 17 seconds. ences … and electrocuting dogs above the timberline and the high cost to
When it was discovered that he was still and old horses right on stage, to transport coal for making steam power to
alive, he was then administered about show how dangerous ac was. this remote location. The Telluride
2,000 V ac until his body began to smol- installation has been designated an IEEE
der and burn. This second charge proved In the meantime, Westinghouse had Milestone. This program recognizes,
lethal. “Westinghousing” was suggested made history by installing a 13-mile long commemorates, and publicizes histori-

july/august 2003 IEEE power & energy magazine 71

 cally significant electrical engineering
achievements. The year 1891 also saw
the installation of a 100-mile long ac line
from Lauffen to Frankfurt, Germany.
This three-phase line operated at 30 kV
and was installed by the Oerlikon Com-
pany. In 1892, a 40-kV ac transmission
line was built a distance of 70 miles from
a remote hydroelectric generating station
to Sacramento, California.
Edison’s firm, The Edison General
Electric Company, held valuable lamp
patents but had no participation in or
access to the ac equipment market. The
Thomson-Houston Company had long
participated in the development of ac
technology and the manufacture of ac
equipment. Business sense prevailed, and
these two companies merged in 1892 to
form the General Electric Company. Edi-
son was reportedly unhappy that his
name was not included in the name of the
new company. General Electric actively
and immediately entered the ac
manufacturing and installation
business. Edison was named a
director of the merged company,
but he did not take an active part
and resigned after a time.
After launching an industry
that essentially ushered in the
20th century and created the mod-
ern world, Edison exerted little
further influence in the electric
power field. Rather, he turned his
far-ranging inventive genius to a
number of other fields, most
notably the invention, develop-
ment, and commercialization of
motion picture and storage battery
technologies and the further per-
fection of the phonograph. It is
noteworthy that the man who labored
long and hard to develop a successful
high-resistance lamp filament to reduce
line losses so vigorously resisted the
advent of ac and high transmission and
distribution voltages, the very means by
which line losses could be effectively
reduced.
Polyphase AC Systems
Come of Age
As the “battle of the currents” cooled in
the early 1890s, Westinghouse continued
72 IEEE power & energy magazine
to develop Tesla’s polyphase system
technology. One important development
was the production of a rotating magnet-
ic field for the induction motor by cou-
pling two single-phase alternators on a
single shaft with the field windings dis-
placed by 90 degrees. This system was
used at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair,
also known as the Colombian Exposi-
tion, which celebrated the 400th Anniver-
sary of the first voyage of Christopher
Columbus to the new world.
When the directors of the Exposition
asked for bids for lighting the fair
grounds, both Westinghouse and the
newly formed General Electric Compa-
ny were bidders. Westinghouse was able
to underbid the General Electric propos-
al by more than one half. Reportedly,
much of General Electric’s estimated
cost was related to the amount of copper
wire needed for its planned dc system.
Powered by 12 750-kW two-phase, 60-
Hz alternators located in the Hall of
Machinery, more than 100,000 incandes-
cent light bulbs based on an 1880
Sawyer-Man patent, the rights to which
Westinghouse had acquired, were lit by
President Grover Cleveland when the
Exposition opened on 1 May 1893. In
addition, a complete Tesla polyphase
system of generation, transmission, and
400- to 1,200-V step-up and step-down
transformers was displayed and demon-
strated in the Great Hall of Electricity for
the benefit of the Exposition’s 27 million
visitors. Overall, the 8,000 arc lights and
approximately 130,000 incandescent
lamps installed by Westinghouse turned
the neoclassical World’s Fair buildings
and fairgrounds into a “city of light” and
demonstrated that ac systems were both
practical and available. From that point
forward, ac quickly eclipsed the dc
power system technology espoused by
Edison and others.
The 1892-1893 period saw the
invention of the synchronous rotary con-
verter with ac slip rings at one end and a
dc commutator at the other end. This
development allowed for the supply of
dc to street car traction systems from
polyphase ac systems. Also, C.F. Scott,
a Westinghouse engineer, developed the
“T” transformer design that allowed for
static conversion between two-phase
and three-phase power.
Finally, the ascendancy of ac power
systems was further confirmed by the
Westinghouse
turned the 1893
World’s Fair
buildings and
fairgrounds into
a “city of light,”
demonstrating
that ac systems
were both practi-
cal and avail-
able.
development of the Niagara Falls Pro-
ject. Man had long sought to harness the
vast power of the Niagara River at Nia-
gara Falls. In 1886, the Cataract Con-
struction Company was granted a charter
to use the equivalent of 120,000 horse-
power of the Niagara flow. Plans to cre-
ate an industrial city along the river bank
to utilize the water power were aban-
doned because of the lack of sufficient
available land for such purpose.
In 1890, the International Niagara
Commission was formed with Sir
july/august 2003
William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin)
as its chairman. The Commission was The brief but intense “battle of
instructed to investigate and evaluate
means to put Niagara’s immense power the currents” between ac and dc
to useful work, and $22,000 in prize
money was offered in connection with a
conclusively determined the
call for proposals. Seventeen proposals direction of future development
were received from representatives of
six countries. In addition to proposals to throughout the world.
transmit energy by compressed air,
manila and wire rope, water pressure,
and other mechanical and hydraulic
means, there were four proposals using
dc and two using ac. Ultimately, a
polyphase ac generation and transmis-
sion system was selected in 1893, and
Westinghouse provided the first three
5,000-horsepower, two-phase alterna-
tors operating at 25 Hz and 2,250 V.
These largest alternators yet built had to
be designed from scratch. In 18 months,
the first was completed. It was installed
in April 1895, and the first power was
delivered in August of that year to the
Pittsburgh Reduction Company, now the
Aluminum Company of America, for
the production of aluminum at Niagara
Falls near the Niagara Falls Power Sta-
tion. By November 1895, all three of the
first alternators were completed, and on
16 November 1896, a 20-mile-long, 11-
kV transmission line to carry ac power
to Buffalo, New York, was energized. In
the following years, the Niagara Project Niagara Falls Power Station no. 2, ca. 1905. (Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian
was greatly expanded, and by 1905 Institution.)
there were 21 generators in operation in
two power stations.
The application of ac for long-dis- the prime mover, reigned supreme. In the Progress. New York; IEEE Press, 1984.
tance power transmission was critical to quarter century following 1880, the A.M. McMahon, The Making of a
developing and utilizing the power of development of electric generation, Profession: A Century of Electrical
Niagara Falls. This project, now desig- transmission, and distribution systems Engineering in America. New York:
nated an IEEE Milestone, was, at the and the invention and continual improve- IEEE Press, 1984.
time, the largest and most spectacular ment of motor drives, switchgear, con- C.S. Derganc, “Thomas Edison and
use of ac in America. By integrating and trols, and other electrical devices his electric lighting system,” IEEE Spec-
applying advances in electrical science profoundly transformed everyday life trum, vol. 16, pp. 50-59, Feb. 1979.
and technology then occurring on both and industry, thereby making modern “Creating the electric age,” EPRI J.,
sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Niagara society possible. The brief but intense vol. 4, no. 2, March 1979.
Project helped set the stage for the uni- “battle of the currents” between ac and “The Electric century, 1874-1974,”
versal electrification that was to come. dc conclusively determined the direction Electrical World, June 1974.
of future development throughout the “Pearl Street, A Centennial Com-
Epilogue world. memoration,” IEEE Power Engineering
In the industrial world of 1880, the use Society, 1982.
of electrical energy was virtually Further Reading H. Freitag, ed., Electrical Engineer-
unknown. Mechanical power, generally J.D. Ryder and D. G. Fink, Engineers ing: The Second Century Begins. New
using muscle power, water, or steam as and Electrons; A Century of Electrical York: IEEE Press, 1986. p&e

july/august 2003 IEEE power & energy magazine 73