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2-009 George Westinghouse - III
Vol. 2- No. 9
2004
Lead: One of the great struggles in the history of technology was that between Thomas Alva Edison and George Westinghouse. Intro: A Moment In Time with Dan Roberts. Content: The use of electricity as a means of lighting homes, businesses and streets was in its infancy in the early 1880s. Thomas Edison had improved the incandescent light bulb and was hard at work constructing the power system for the City of New York. To get the energy from generating power plants out to the customers he used direct current, which can be compared to water flowing in a pipe. Power goes in one direction over expensive wiring at a constantly low voltage to avoid blowing out the light bulbs waiting for power down the circuit. Enter George Westinghouse the inventor of the railroad air brake. On a trip from New York to Boston, Westinghouse had a conversation with William Stanley who had perfected a new type of electrical system that solved some of the problems of Edison's direct current. He called it alternating current where, unlike direct current, electricity moves back and forth along two lines at very high voltage between generator and appliance. To solve the high voltage problem Westinghouse acquired the invention of two European engineers, Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon, who had created a system of transformers. Power would leave the station at 500 volts, hit transformers along the line, and be reduced to 100 volts sufficient for home use Edison, threatened with the loss of his huge investment, struck back with a propaganda campaign amplifying some unfortunate early accidents with his rival's system. The public was treated to sensational headlines condemning Westinghouse, such as "The Electric Murderer" and "The Wires Fatal Grasp." Eventually, however, the Electric Light Association determined that alternating current was no more dangerous than direct, and by the 1890s Westinghouse had won the battle. Soon even New York, long wedded to Edison's concept, shifted over to alternating current. The producer of A Moment In Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts. Resources Leupp, Francis Ellington. George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1918. Millard, A.J. Edison and the Business of Innovation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Wohleber, Curt. "'St. George' Westinghouse," American Heritage of Invention and Technology 12 (3 Winter, 1997): 28-42. Copyright 1997 by Educational Broadcast, Inc. - LAC113004
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