I learned about Nikola Tesla a few years ago from my dad. I found out about how smart Tesla was and how useful his inventions were. I wanted to learn more about him as part of my National History Day project. During my research, I learned about Tesla's feud with Thomas Edison over different electric currents and decided to use that as my topic.
My research started with a documentary about Tesla and his time working for Edison; I featured three clips from this documentary in my project. From there, I started looking for primary and secondary sources that talked about their lives and their AC/DC feud. My favorite sources were the archives from the Thomas Edison Papers and Chronicling America. From the Edison Papers, I found primary sources that supported several claims about how Edison ruthlessly operated during his feud with Tesla, such as letters between him and Harold P. Brown working together to discredit alternating current. Chronicling America helped me find articles about Tesla's other inventions outside AC motors. My research also taught me that while Westinghouse started this "war" with Edison first, it was not until Tesla got involved that Westinghouse's AC current system became successful.
With the supporting documents from the Edison and Tesla archives, I thought a website would be the best way to present my project and provide an interactive experience. I wanted to highlight some of the videos I found to drive the point about how their feud ended up creating huge strides to break barriers in the history of electricity.
I used the NHDWebCentral to create my project. While it is new to me this year (I used Weebly last year), I was able to navigate around it efficiently.
My project argues that if it weren't for Edison's ruthlessness and Tesla' innovation, they would not have broken barriers that led to how electricity affects our lives every day. Their feud started with Edison and Westinghouse wanting to be the winning company that would provide lighting to homes, something we now take for granted, and it eventually escalated into how electricity can efficiently be provided to a large area by one power station, thanks to Tesla's inventions.
While Edison's DC system was safer, it was not efficient and would have only powered lighting systems. Because Tesla -- with the financial support of Westinghouse -- was able to prove that AC was better despite Edison’s aggressive campaigns against them, we eventually adapted AC power systems as the standard and the foundation of modern power generation being used today.
Even though Edison’s DC system did not “win” the War of the Currents, its innovation still broke barriers on how electricity distributed power and is still being used today through sub-sea electric distribution, computer servers, and alternative forms of energy, such as solar and wind.