The current wars are almost always described as Edison vs Tesla. For some reason Westinghouse is barely mentioned, so I'm glad the author put the war in proper prospective. Westinghouse was a brilliant inventor and unlike other business men of his time, he really seemed to have morals.
My Great Grandfather was an inventor of some great successes back then, he met and got to know Edison...Greatgrand Dad owned the patents to many electric motors and electrical switches of interest to Edison. My Grandmother later told me her father despised Edison once he knew him a bit and ended up doing business with Westinghouse very happily for many years.
@@FortuneZer0 - And a dick. In other words, he was self-satisfied. And his "inventions" were empirical: he just kept trying stuff until something worked. Westinghouse was more of an engineer than inventor, and his breakthrough air brake is still used today.
If this was a Blaze episode, it would be three times as long as Simon would go off on tangents about animal cruelty and sticking forks into power outlets. Allegedly
That Topsy electrocution is mostly a myth. It happened, but in 1903, a decade after Edison already sold his electric company, the Edison Company, and the current war ended. The electrocution was organised by the owners of the Coney Island who first tried to have the elephant publicly hanged, but that was prevented by the authorities. So they decided to use electricity. While the engineers who built the contraption used to kill the elephant were from the Edison Company, he had noting to do with them, as I said before, because he didn't own the company anymore. Edison's closer association with the electrocution is that it was filmed by his Edison Manufacturing movie company, but again, it was just one of many movies they shot for their kinetoscopes.
Westinghouse: Lets not go overboard? Edison: To demistrate how evil Westinghouse is.... I electrocuted these animals!!!!! Westinghouse:......WTF? Edison: I also electrocuted this man in half!!!!! Westinghouse: .-. Edison: See how evil he is!!!!
yeah, I did a biography on Edison a while back thinking how cool it would be. Edison was a real jerk to everyone. any patents and work his employees did was only put down with Edison's name. never gave his employees a bonus even if an invention/innovation made tons of money. great example: Edison tasked his employees with improving DC and were promised a huge bonus. Tesla pulled it off and some other stuff along with it. when Tesla asked about the bonus Edison said something to the extent of "can't you take a joke, there was never going to be a bonus". I am sorry to not remember the references but that line stuck in my head because at that moment I started to dislike Edison and start researching Tesla. I have no idea why schools never taught about Tesla, he was a real genius, a little kooky though
Sounds like the Democrat campaign strategy! 1. (after shutting down the economy) Look how Trump f---ed up the economy! 2. (after moving COVID patients into nursing homes with the vulnerable elderly) Look how Trump mishandled COVID! 3. (after encouraging rioting, looting, and arson) Look how Trump is creating chaos! 4. (after implementing "anti-racism" trainings to tell white people that non-white people are incapable of being rational, forward-thinking, hard-working, and punctual and therefore white people need to dumb it down a little so that non-white people don't feel bad about themselves) Look what a racist Trump is!
I am not sure where I first heard about the fight between Edison and Westinghouse about DC vs AC, I knew Tesla worked with Westinghouse on it. I didn't know to what lengths Edison would go to win. It shows what money will drive people to do. The land what was the Westinghouse estate has been a public park here in Pittsburgh for over 100 years. It was stipulated in his will that his property was to be donated to the city for a park as long as the house, known as Solitude, was torn down. I have taken my sons to play there for 15 years. Archeologists have worked on the site and have found some of the tunnels are still there, including equipment Westinghouse used.
I have a good idea for a video that is surprising but interesting. How the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the railroad wars and the Italian Hall Fire really transformed the US. So many people were working there in the early 1900s but now it's a haven in the woods, nestled inside the Great Lakes. The French, British, Americans, and many indigenous tribes fought for a long time over the rarities there, especially copper and fur.
Mr. Whistler: Content: extraordinarily presented. Technical / Titling: Excellent, b/c the bold gold stroke is vigorous, the font is likewise clean and no-nonsense. >> Photos: on point and well used to show the point and reinforce it. --Sorry-- editor crashed. >>Your use of dismayed humor re: Electrocution as humane linked to Edison was clean cutting and appropriate to the point. >>You deserve A+ (Content suggestion: Royals in modernity; satiric or serious) Warmly Yada, Yada, Yada.
Edison was largely a fraudster. Most of his effort went into self-promotion, while his lackeys randomly stabbed at whatever project he set for them. It was very telling that he had to tear Westinghouse down to his level when he couldn't match him. Still, we are stuck to this day with Edison base lamps in the US.
@@deadfreightwest5956 from what i hear, (and i dont know if it's mentioned as i just began) he offered tesla $50 000 to get his DC generator or something working. Then, when tesla was done and asked for the money, edison said it was "just a joke" and that "Tesla didnt understand the 'American sense of humour'.". What a dick. 🤷♂️
Because that was his real side. A creul CEO, who make money out of great scientist and destroyed competition. In the end he bankrupted Westinghouse with a law sue over Tesla's free invention to Westinghouse.
I did a school project about Edison back in the day, but none of the books I read mentioned the animal cruelty. We even did a tour of his vacation property here in Florida (where Henry Ford moved in right next door). His vacation home is not the only legacy he left here in Florida - the electric chair was for a while the primary form of capital punishment and is still an option, though if you did choose it (or committed the crime before lethal injection was an option), there is a good chance of it setting you ablaze. Allegedly.
I really feel a warm sense from being part of Simons society...he makes it feel so personal...like I could get a heart or reply by grabbing the first video I find after being off computer for a couple of weeks and making a comment.
What really makes this whole conflict confusing is that so many US power providers -that provide AC power- are named (placename) Edison, like Southern California Edison, and Detroit Edison. Why weren't those named for Westinghouse?
Much better than thoughty2's clickbait af vid yesterday. I know the scripts are written and generally recorded to be put out, kinda cool to see how you both approached the content. Great video.
I grade school they taught us that Edison was a hero and an inventor. I later learned about Tesla and the truth. Edison wasn't a bit of dick, he was probably one of the worst persons of his time! Thanks for this excellent vid!
I've made this suggestion before on another channel (megaprojects) but I didn't know about this channel so I think it is more suitable for it since it isn't that big of a project, how about a video focusing on the military plane A10 Thunderbolt II (commonly referred as the A10 Warthog), it's one of the most interesting air to ground airplanes because of its precision without the need of laser guided missiles, its durability and redundancy systems, as well as its history since it is in use since the 70s, and particular design since it was basically build around its main weapon, a 30mm rotary cannon with an extreme high fire rate and recognizable firing sound
This story's been told many times so at first I thought, "Oh, not again" - Yet, your refreshening of the tale was pleasantly entertaining! Best Wishes to you, Simon - and of course, your mother too!
Hi Simon I know it's more megqproject but can you do the Manchester ship canal? There's a business blaze in there about Manchester liners. ..love your shit best wishes and take care
yeah, I did a biography on Edison a while back (roughly 13 years ago now) thinking how cool it would be. the more I learned the more I realized Edison was a real jerk to everyone. any patents and work his employees did was only put down with Edison's name. never gave his employees a bonus even if an invention/innovation made tons of money. I can understand work made on company time is property of the company, but to not give credit to your employees, worse yet tell everyone it was solely your work is a real dirt-bag move. great example: Edison tasked his employees with improving something important to Edison, I want to say it was to the DC grid, and were promised a huge bonus, I want to say it was like a 2 year salary bonus. Tesla pulled it off and some other stuff along with it. when Tesla asked about the bonus Edison said something to the extent of "can't you take a joke, there was never going to be a bonus". I am sorry to not remember the references but that line stuck in my head because at that moment I started to dislike Edison and start researching Tesla. I have no idea why schools never taught about Tesla, he was a real genius, a little kooky though
Fun thing is, Edison's DC was a far, far nastier way to be electrocuted, as DC causes your muscles to clamp up hard*, and the current runs through the tissues burning them as it goes, so you are basically cooked alive along whatever path the current takes through your body, far more horrific than AC... (*as opposed to AC where muscles contract and release as per the AC frequency alternating between positive and negative with reference to neutral/ground)
"I hope Edison decided to be less of a dick, but he probably didn't.' - Simon The Westinghouse mess was a bit of a high for Edison's prickishness, but far from the only part. The man was a POS through and through, a thief, conman of epic proportions, completely unethical, and his biggest regrets were more about times he couldn't screw people than anything he actually did. His biggest regret with A/C was that he didn't take Tesla's advice which was followed closely by his failure to stop Westinghouse, not the smear campaign, animal cruelty, viciousness, or brutality. His "invention factory" promised a new minor discovery every week and a breakthrough once a month. To work there, you needed to be a brilliant scientist, agree to give Edison all patent rights, forgo any payments for profit from your work, and agree to let Edison publicly claim he did it himself. Edison tinkered with stuff, but almost all "his inventions" were made by his staff. Edison was great at marketing, a decent inventor, and horrible person.
There is no winner. They both coexist quite nicely today. To transmit large amounts of electricity over long distances and run high power motors, AC is the best alternative. Electricity runs into your house as AC and runs your large appliances and turns on the lights. For emergencies, your generator is AC. (win: Westinghouse/Tesla) But to run/charge your computer, cellphone, and other electronic devices you need a DC feed, hence all of these need an AC/DC converter which you plug into an AC wall socket. The output is DC which runs to your electronics device. In large data centers, they have huge generators that turn AC from the power grid to DC for the computers. Other things you use run on DC such as your are car batteries or flashlights among a myriad of others. How many DC converters do you have in your house? (win: Edison).
How about a side projects video about the worlds biggest industrial parks? I'd like a mega projects video about GE's Appliance Park but I doubt you'd do that so this side projects idea I think would be interesting. I mean some of these industrial parks are so big they have their own zip codes.
The transmission problem isn't AC vs. DC (which is used in a lot of places these days). It's that to minimise losses, you need high voltage, i.e. (tens of) kilovolts. But for domestic use you need to step the voltage back down to a few hundred volts. Which is easy to do if you start off with AC, using big dumb transformers. To step up/down DC, you need to chop it up into AC first, which was prohibitively difficult back in the day I presume.
It's funny how the story goes that AC is more efficient at power distribution when actually DC is slightly more efficient. What governs efficiency is actually the voltage, with a higher voltage losing less power. The trick with AC was that it works with devices called transformers to boost the voltage up for transmission and then down again at the other end for use. Since transformers don't work with DC there was no way to change the voltage, so it had to be low enough for appliances to use which meant large losses in transmission. It wasn't until the 1980s that DC-DC converters first started to become practical, and now some of today's largest power transmission links in the world use DC because of its higher efficiency.
I thought Westinghouse financed Tesla and that financing enabled Tesla to develop AC. You reported that Westinghouse was already working on AC and that's when Tesla worked for Edison. I also thought that Edison and Tesla fell out before this war started and it was Tesla and Westinghouse that developed ac, unveiling it at the world fair. So, who discovered ac... Tesla or Westinghouse?
One part of Edison's dogged refusal to use AC current, stems from this lack of education in mathematics. He was unable to comprehend the formulae that describe AC characteristic, especially in inductors and capacitors.
I always knew I was right to be suspicious of dentists. Also, Edison v Tesla/Westinghouse would make a good Silicon Valley type show. Even has a dead elephant in the story.
I've started to notice this. Tech, gaming, guns, food, history, lots of channels putting out content on the same subject less than a week apart. Makes me think there's someone higher up telling them all what to do and all these channels aren't as independent as we think they are.
Simon shall henceforth be known as OCTOSIMON: Simon Whistler’s channels: Megaprojects Sideprojects TodayIFoundOut TopTenz Biographics Highlight History Geographics Business Blaze
@@sandybarnes887 Thoughty was talking about Tesla vs Edison grudge contest and Simon was talking about Edison vs Westinghouse competition, part of thoughty2 video and Simon's video talked about same thing but Simon was shorter and more focused on one thing, both are good videos and i would recomend both to watch
The biggest issue with Edison was his profound hubris. He was no doubt very intelligent but perhaps brilliant might be misapplied. He was clearly inventive but that takes a different kind of intelligence than what we usually consider as brilliant. A film exists of the execution of the elephant. it is perhaps the most shameful example of human treatment of animals.
As I watch this hours after it was posted, I notice that there is a lone dislike vote. Can't help but figure that it must be from an Edison descendant.
###strange one for you hows about a video about how the most northern part of the UK 🇬🇧 the shetland islands was given as a gift to the UK from Norway 🇳🇴 ###
I still think it's ironic that, for modern tech, we need both. Got to get power to customers with ac first (not including renewable power) , then power electronics with dc. Edison does seem like a real dick.
The distinction between Edison and Westinghouse/Tesla has now become as clear as mud. There is no winner but a symbiosis between AC and DC. I watch RU-vid on a TV whose power is converted from AC to DC. The AC electricity to my home is generated by dams hundreds of miles away via high power lines and to my house as a 120 watt power from a transformer on a power line pole. This is where Westinghouse/Tesla had the advantage. DC would have required booster stations every 10 miles! In my home, many of the devices (lights, refrigerator, microwave, heater, air conditioner) are AC. But all of my electronics are DC and use an AC/DC converters to DC (cell phone, tablets, music pods, computers, TV set, sleep apnea machine, a table lamp, handheld vacuum). A third source are DC batteries (diabetic blood meter, flashlight, motion detectors). This is were Edison had the advantage. Cars are started from DC batteries but the spark plugs on run and AC via the alternator. The new electric cars are powered with DC batteries which are charged from charging stations which are AC/DC converters as they get their power.
No, I did not miss the point. I actually mentioned the transmission of AC over long distance. By ramping up the voltage, the current can be sent over long distances; DC would require repeaters every 10 miles or so. Hence the advantage of AC. I am also aware of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition where people were awed by the use of AC power to light the exposition. But this is not 1893. My career has been in main frame data centers. I am aware that AC is fed into the data center but it is used for three things, 1) lighting, 2) air conditioning, and 3) conversion to DC for the mainframe computers, equipment, and peripheral devices. I have even designed the underfloor cabling in these data centers. Today, many of the largest companies in the world depend upon the symbiosis of AC and DC. Every company in the world uses portable, desktop, mainframe computers, server farms or supercomputers. IBM, Dell, Miocrosoft, Google, Apple, and many more companies rely on this symbiosis to earn their income. Trillions of dollars each year are spent on electronic equipment that rely on this symbiosis. By the way, if you need an industrial strength DC generator or AC/DC converter, you can by them from Westinghouse.
Yes, Edison was a bit of a dick. Legendarily so, it seems. Though I will also confess that I was thinking about the Epic Rap Battle between Edison and Tesla this entire time as well. Great video, and I too appreciate the correct couching that Edison was fixated on Westinghouse and not Tesla so much.
"Edison's a bit of a dick isn't he" Tesla fans around the world: Yes..... yes. he. is. People usually point out the 1893 World's Fair as the "end" of the current war, I think it was more so in the public eye anyway.
