AC Triumph and Niagara Falls Power
- Date
- 1893-1896
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- United States
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
The War of the Currents pitted Thomas Edison's direct-current (DC) system against the alternating-current (AC) system championed by George Westinghouse and the inventor Nikola Tesla, whose polyphase AC induction motor and patents Westinghouse licensed in 1888.
AC's decisive advantage was its ability to be stepped up to high voltage by transformers for efficient long-distance transmission and then stepped down for local use, overcoming the short range of DC distribution. A turning point came in 1893, when Westinghouse won the contract to light the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with AC, a spectacular public demonstration. Westinghouse then secured the contract to harness Niagara Falls, and in 1896 the hydroelectric plant there began transmitting AC power some twenty-six miles to Buffalo, New York, proving large-scale, long-distance electrical transmission. The victory of AC established the technical standard for electric power systems that persists worldwide and made possible the construction of vast interconnected grids drawing on distant generating stations, including hydroelectric resources. Niagara became a symbol of the new electrical age and of the harnessing of natural forces for industrial and domestic power.
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Empires active in 1893-1896
- German Empire1871 CE – 1918 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
Related science, technology & invention events
- The Wright Brothers' Powered Flight17 December 1903
- Edison's Electric Light and Central Power1879 (Pearl Street 1882)
- Bell Patents the Telephone1876
- KDKA Launches Commercial Radio Broadcasting2 November 1920
- Morse Opens the Electric Telegraph24 May 1844
- Discovery of X-rays and radioactivity1895–1898
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
Warm, jargon-free tour of discovery from Babylonian stargazers to the genome.
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