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50 The electrical engineering industry of the USA played an important role in
the construction of an economical and powerful electricity system at that
time. One of the leading electrical engineering companies, the Westinghouse
Company, along with its advisor Tesla, developed a functioning polyphase cur-
rent system and introduced it to the market. Commercial success was initially
hampered by the fact that a large number of industrial branches were already
being supplied with DC, and large-scale DC power stations had been and were
being built. This circumstance complicated and delayed the overall conversion
to alternating current. Triggered off by the more than 40 patents which had
been granted to Tesla up to 1891, an economic battle got under way between
the proponents of the DC and AC systems.
In particular, the Edison Company and the Thomson-Houston Electric Com-
pany – both merged to form General Electric in 1892 – offered fierce resist-
ance against alternating current in a one-sided, dirty propaganda war /3/. This
occurred against their better judgment for Edison knew that only AC can be
transformed and that electrical energy can only be transmitted over great
distances using very high voltages at low loss.
Tesla designed AC generators, AC motors and transformers for the Westing-
house Company, which were mass produced and in 1891 also used in the mines
of Colorado. Despite many years of bad press for AC, George Westinghouse
and Nicola Tesla celebrated the final triumph over DC at the Chicago World Fair
in 1893. There was a public comparison test to find out whether direct current
or alternating current should be used to power the first all-electric world ex-
hibition. This was impressively won by the Westinghouse Company due to the
work of Tesla. Tesla introduced a two-phase induction motor with a capacity
of some 220 kW while a generator produced electricity at the frequency of 30
Hz adapted to the motor.
Another prestige project in the War of the Currents between direct current
and alternating current was the use of the Niagara Falls for electricity gen-
eration and supply to the city of Buffalo some 32 km away. After intensive
discussions about the available technical solutions, those responsible decid-
ed in favour of Tesla’s polyphase alternating current system. In October 1893,
the Niagara Commission awarded the Westinghouse Company the contract to
develop a hydro-electric power station to utilise the energy of Niagara Falls
using the alternating current system.
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book Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech"
Table of contents
- Editor’s foreword 8
- Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech 11
- The Graz Tech: A tradition of innovation 12
- Nikola Tesla: Milestones in his life 14
- Nikola Tesla: Student at the Graz Tech 20
- Nikola Tesla: Honorary doctor of technical sciences 28
- People shape the development of the Tech 37
- References 38
- Nikola Tesla: Visionary and Inventor Contributions to scientific and industrial development 41
- Development of electrical engineering from 1850 to 1950 42
- The problem of the commutator 43
- The rotating magnetic field: Polyphase alternating current system 43
- The Niagara Falls power station: Direct current or alternating current? 44
- High frequency, the Tesla transformer and Wardenclyffe Tower 54
- Remote-controlled ships and robots 62
- Hotel room 3327 in New York 64
- Tesla’s innovations: visible in the 21st century 65
- References 65
- Constant development and unrelenting progress is the goal… Stages in the development of the Universalmuseum Joanneum 67
- The main reasons behind its establishment and their classification in the history of museums 70
- Original scope 72
- Outline of the course of development 73
- The early Joanneum (1811 to 1887) 75
- The Joanneum from 1888 to 2002 82
- The State Museum or Universalmuseum Joanneum GmbH: Stepping out into the Future 87
- References 90
- The architecture of the high-voltage laboratory: An exciting architectural monument to technology 91
- Design principle 94
- Tasks and test facilities 97
- Postscript 98
- References 98
- ‘ Technology is the pride of our age’ (Peter Rosegger) A technological history of Graz in the 19th century 99
- References 118
- List of authors 120