In 1882, Edison attempted to parlay his invention of the light bulb by creating the Edison Electric Light Company to provide direct current to homes and businesses. The problem was direct current lost voltage over distance so the power plants had to be located near the customers. Edison had a monopoly on providing power for NYC, but it required over 100 power stations scattered throughout the city. Edison’s big competitor was George Westinghouse. Westinghouse felt alternating current was the future of electric power. In 1885, he bought a patent for a transformer that would boost the current to a very high voltage and then transformers located on poles would reduce the power before it entered homes. Now power plants could be located outside of cities and near coal supplies and/or water sources. Westinghouse set up plants in Buffalo, New York and in the South and West, but he wanted NYC. As early as 1888, Edison put out a pamphlet warning about the dangers of AC. That same year, Nicolo Tesla invented an AC motor that Westinghouse bought the rights to. Edison’s next move was to hire “Professor” H.P. Brown, a self-proclaimed expert on electricity. He preached that AC was dangerous and there should be a law against any voltage above 300 traveling through wires. To prove their claim, Brown and Edison’s top engineer Arthur Kennelly conducted experiments electrocuting animals. They would pay neighborhood kids $.25 for every pet they brought in. They brought the press in for a gruesome electrocution of a large dog. Around this time New York was looking for an alternative to lynching condemned criminals. Hangings could go wrong with too loose a noose resulting in long moments of strangulation or too tight a noose resulting in decapitation. Edison suggested electrocution by way of AC thinking the horror of seeing a human being electrocuted by something that could be coming into their homes would cause the public to turn against AC. New York passed a law in 1888 switching the death penalty to electrocution via AC. On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler (who had murdered his girlfriend with the blunt end of an axe) was the first to be put in the electric chair. His lawyers had argued that electrocution was “cruel and unusual punishment”, but Edison had convinced the judge that it was “humane”. Kemmler was hit with 17 seconds of current, but was still alive. It took another 72 seconds to complete the job in front of a horrified audience. However, the public just shrugged about the danger and decided they wanted the cheaper, more efficient AC coming into their homes. In 1893, Westinghouse was awarded the contract to light the Chicago World’s Fair and the next year he got the contract to construct the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls. And that’s why we have AC and not DC powering our electric appliances. Uncle Lost pp. 548-550, 591-593, 647-649
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