Program Information

One of the great struggles in the history of technology was that between Thomas Alva Edison and George Westinghouse.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

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. As a means of moving the power from generating power plants to consumers, 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 light bulbs awaiting 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 inherent in 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, which was a system of transformers. Power would leave the station at 500 volts, hit transformers along the line and be reduced to the 100-volt level 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 Wire's 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.

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