The internet loves to portray the battle as one between rival inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. It makes for a good story of the hero, Tesla, defeating his rival, Edison. Both Edison and Tesla were well known at the time, and both a bit crazy.Thomas Edison was a well known inventor riding his success and media attention for inventing the phonograph. Edison leveraged his name and fame to start building DC power plants in New York City. Westinghouse, unlike his rival Edison, did not seek media attention, and was a very private person.

George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla defeat Edison in Currents WarThe War of Currents was a great science and technology feud in the late 1800s between the Edison Electric Light Company and Westinghouse Electric Company over what electric power transmission system should be used. The Westinghouse Electric Company supported AC (alternating current) and the Edison Electric Light Company supported DC (direct current).

The battle for public opinion over which system should be used to power America turned into a nasty smear campaign by Edison. An inventor and electrical engineer named Harold Brown became the front man for a campaign to show the world the dangers of alternating current. Stories are told of how Brown paid local children to collect stray dogs off the street that he used for experiments showing the dangers of alternating current. Despite publicly denouncing capital punishment, Edison secretly financed the alternating current electric chair developed by Brown. Edison launched a media campaign telling the world AC was deadly, using the word “Westinghoused” to describe an execution by electrocution.

The concept of AC power distribution was not a new concept for Westinghouse, he was also an inventor in the gas industry. Westinghouse believed that AC was a better method of power distribution, and believed that electric company founded by his rival Thomas Edison was structurally flawed in its beliefs of using DC power. In 1885 Westinghouse became interested in the inventions of European Inventors Gaulard and Gibbs and purchased the American rights to their patents for AC current transformers. Westinghouse and his staff worked on improving and redesigning the transformers, and the Westinghouse Electric Company was started in 1886.

The Tesla and Westinghouse partnership

In 1888 Nikola Tesla presented to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers his polyphase alternating current system in the report A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers. When Westinghouse heard of Nikola Tesla and the Tesla Polyphase System, he knew that could be the final piece he needed in building a better system than Edison's.

George Westinghouse was working with AC for years before meeting up with Tesla. Westinghouse was a systems thinker, he also had a knack for spotting good ideas and people and bringing them into his fold, and he knew AC power distribution was a good idea. Westinghouse was impressed with Tesla's work and approached him about joining forces. Westinghouse purchased Tesla's alternating current patents on the electric systems and paid Tesla to work with him until they were fully implemented.

The first major event in Tesla's victory over Edison in the War of Currents happened when Tesla joined forces with George Westinghouse. Over the next few years Tesla and Westinghouse would work together and two major accomplishments would mark their victory in the War of Currents over Edison.

In 1892, after a fierce battle versus Edison, Westinghouse won the contract to power the Columbian Exposition. On May 1, 1893, President Grover Cleveland pushed a button and a hundred thousand incandescent lamps illuminated the Columbian Exposition. The success of the Tesla Polyphase System installed at the exposition would help Westinghouse in their next major victory in being awarded the initial Niagara Falls contract.

Adding insult to his defeat in the War of Currents, Edison would also lose control of his electric power business in 1892. Notorious financier J.P. Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric.

George Westinghouse was involved in the founding of many companies using the Westinghouse name. Many of the original Westinghouse companies have merged with various other companies over the years. The company that started out as the Westinghouse Electric Corporation founded in 1886 has evolved into two large global companies,CBS, an American broadcast network, and Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, a nuclear power business.

The ultimate irony

Thomas Edison's greatest defeat in business and technology was losing the “War of Currents” to George Westinghouse. In 1911 George Westinghouse received the AIEE's Edison Medal “For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system.”

The IEEE Edison Medal is presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is most coveted medal in this field of engineering in the United States and is named after the inventor Thomas Edison.

From the realms of geek history is George Westinghouse receiving the Edison Medal is the ultimate irony.