Who won the “War of the Currents,” what other famous man lost, and how was an elephant involved?
In the “War of Currents” era in the late 1880s, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison’s promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the alternating current (AC) advocated by Tesla. Edison’s series of animal executions peaked with the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant. Tesla’s AC replaced DC in many instances of generation and power distribution, enormously extending the range and improving the safety and efficiency of power distribution. Edison’s inventions using DC ultimately lost to AC devices proposed by others: primarily Tesla’s polyphase systems, and also other contributors, such as Charles Proteus Steinmetz (of General Electric).
