TESLA
Energising
History
Two engineers, two temperaments, one commercial struggle over how to distribute electricity — without the internet folklore.
Transformers make it trivial to raise AC voltage for transmission and lower it for use. Resistive loss scales with the square of current, so higher voltage means dramatically cheaper long-distance distribution — the decisive economic argument.
Tesla and Edison worked together only from 1884 to 1885. The war of currents was a corporate contest between Edison Electric and Westinghouse, in which Tesla’s role was patent-holder and licensor. Neither man was ruined by the other, and Tesla accepted the Edison Medal in 1917.
Free energy, a completed death ray, a block-shaking earthquake machine and the $50,000 story are not supported by the historical record. The documented work — polyphase AC, the induction motor, high-frequency experiments, tuned circuits, radio remote control — is remarkable enough without them.