This document provides background information on Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, comparing their contributions to the development of electricity. It describes their upbringings and early lives, highlighting Tesla's genius in mathematics and inspiration for alternating current. It discusses Edison's work on developing electric lighting and direct current systems. The document outlines Tesla's development of an alternating current motor and partnership with George Westinghouse, as well as Edison's opposition to alternating current. It concludes by describing Tesla and Westinghouse's success in illuminating the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with alternating current.

1. Thomas Edison
Vs.
Nikola Tesla

2. Which inventor had the most to do with the
invention of electricity?
Take a guess and we’ll see if you feel the same way
after this power point!
WELCOME TO THE WAR OF THE CURRENTS!
It is up to you to cast your vote for either Thomas
Edison or Nikola Tesla.

3. Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia.
His father was a stern but loving Orthodox
priest, who was also a gifted writer and poet.
At a young age, Tesla immersed himself in his
father's library.
When young “Niko” saw a steel
Tesla's mother was a hard working woman of
engraving of Niagara Falls, he
many talents who created appliances to help
imagined a huge water wheel
with home and farm responsibilities. One of
turning in the water. He told his
these was a mechanical eggbeater. Tesla
uncle he would go to America one
attributed all of his inventive instincts to his
day and capture energy in this way.
mother.
Thirty years later he did exactly
that.
Tesla was such a genius at math that his
teachers often thought he was cheating.
Tesla wanted to be an engineer but
his Dad desperately wanted him to
be a priest.
Tesla contracted cholera and almost
died and his Dad agreed to let him
go to school to study math and
science.

4. One day a teacher showed Tesla's class a
new generator that could be used as both
a motor and generator.
After watching it for a time, Tesla
suggested it might be possible to build a
perpetual motion machine.
When Tesla was twenty-four, the
For the next several years the challenge
answer came to him. He said the
obsessed Tesla, who instinctively knew
the idea came like a flash of
that the solution lay in electric currents
lightning and in an instant the truth
that alternated.
was revealed and he drew a diagram
of his plan in the sand.
This was the invention of the
induction motor, a technological
advance that would soon change
the world.

5.  Tesla tried to get investors
interested in his concept
for an AC motor, but had no
success. It was clear that in
order to realize his idea, he
would have to come to the
United States and meet the
greatest electrical engineer
in the world—Thomas Alva
Edison.
 At age 28, Nikola Tesla arrived in New
York City with four cents in his pocket
and a letter of introduction to Edison.
 When Tesla arrived he discovered
“America was a century behind Europe
in civilization.”

6. Thomas Alva Edison
 Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and
Nancy on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio.
 Edison was the youngest of seven children and
was in poor health as a child.
 Edison was a poor student. When a teacher
said he was quite slow and confused, his
mother got mad and took him out of school
and taught him at home.
 Edison said many years later, "My mother was
the making of me. She was so true, so sure of
me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some
one I must not disappoint.“
 At an early age, he showed a fascination for
mechanical things and for chemical
experiments.

7.  In 1859, Edison took a job selling
newspapers and candy on the
Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit.
 He set up a lab to do experiments
and set up a printing press where
he printed and published first
newspaper on a train.
 During one of his experiments, he
caused an accidental fire which
ended his experiments on the train.
 At about 12 years old, Edison
lost almost all of his hearing.
 He did not let his disability
discourage him, however, and
often treated it as an
asset, since it made it easier for
him to concentrate on his
experiments and research.
 His deafness was probably one
of reasons he was shy in dealing
with other people.

8. E
 Edison became involved in multiple projects and inventions.
D  In 1869, Edison moved to New York City where he worked on
numerous inventions.
I
 In 1878, he set outside his other inventions to focus on the electric
S light system.
O  He formed the Edison Electric Light Co to carry out experiments
and protect his work through patents.
N  Edison worked to devise a special light bulb as well as an entire
electrical lighting system that could be used by entire towns.
 Edison made a longer-lasting light bulb and put on a light show on
New Year’s Eve in Menlo Park.
 Edison formed several companies to develop his system and had
success with his lighting system.
 In 1882, only four hundred lamps were lit; a year later, there were
513 customers using 10,300 lamps .

9.  Many people wanted electricity even though it was not always safe.
 On the streets, single poles carried dozens of crooked crossbeams supporting
sagging wires, and the exposed electrical wiring was a constant danger.
. . .ENTER NIKOLA TESLA

10.  Edison knew little of Tesla’s alternating current and many say he was concerned about the
competition.
 Edison recognized Tesla’s talent and hired him to make improvements in his DC plants.
 Tesla claims that Edison offered him $50,000 if he succeeded but went back on his promise
when Tesla succeeded.
 Both Tesla and Edison were geniuses.
 Neither of them required much sleep. Edison could go for days, taking occasional catnaps on a
sofa in his office. Tesla claimed that his working hours at the Edison Machine Works were 10:30
a.m. till 5 a.m. the next day. Even into old age Tesla said he only slept two or three hours a
night.
 That's where the similarity ended. Tesla relied on moments of inspiration, perceiving the
invention in his brain in precise detail before moving to the construction stage. Edison was a
trial and error man.
 Edison was self-taught. Tesla had a formal European education.
 It was only a matter of time until their differences would lead to conflict.

11.  Tesla resigned when Edison refused to pay him. Investors helped him finance
his company the Tesla Electric Light Company.
 He developed a unique arc lamp that was beautiful and efficient.
 Tesla didn’t make any money on this because most of it went to the
investors.
 But his luck was about to change. Mr. A.K. Brown of the Western Union
Company, agreed to invest in Tesla's idea for an AC motor. In a small
laboratory just a short distance from Edison's office, Tesla quickly developed
all the components for the system of AC power generation and transmission
that is used universally throughout the world today.
 The battle to produce his motor was over. But the struggle to introduce it
commercially was only just beginning.

12.  George Westinghouse heard about Tesla’s invention and purchased the patents and agreed to
pay Tesla money for all the electrical power.
 Tesla spent half of his money knowing he would invent more things.
 Edison launched an attack on Tesla’s alternating current.
Westinghouse recalled:
“I remember Tom [Edison] telling them that direct current was like a river flowing peacefully to the
sea, while alternating current was like a torrent rushing violently over a precipice. Imagine that! Why
they even had a professor named Harold Brown who went around talking to audiences... and
electrocuting dogs and old horses right on stage, to show how dangerous alternating current was.”

13.  Despite the bad press, good things were happening for Westinghouse and Tesla. The
Westinghouse Corporation won the bid for illuminating The Chicago World's Fair, the first all-
electric fair in history. Westinghouse's winning bid proposed a more efficient, cost-effective AC
system.
 The Columbian Exposition opened on May 1, 1893. That evening, President Grover Cleveland
pushed a button and a hundred thousand incandescent lamps illuminated the fairground's
neoclassical buildings. This "City of Light" was the work of Tesla, Westinghouse and twelve new
thousand-horsepower AC generation units located in the Hall of Machinery.
 Twenty-seven million people attended the fair. From that point on, more than 80 percent of all the
electrical devices ordered in the United States were for alternating current.

14. Is Tesla a Hero? Click here to see what one
student thinks!
Or is Thomas Edison a Hero? Click here for
another student’s perspective.