Tesla vs Edison. La guerra de las corrientes. Documental
La guerra de las corrientes. Tesla demostró que la corriente continua de Edison era cara e ineficaz. Cuando mayor era la distancia, más energía se perdía por el camino. Como alternativa, Tesla presentó su propio sistema: la corriente alterna.
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00:00Electricity contains the power of life and death.
00:13At the end of the 19th century, revealing this force of nature is as tempting as dangerous.
00:33It is not verified, nor demonstrated, nor is it controllable.
00:38Enormous fortunes and brilliant minds will face each other in a battle engarnished by harvesting the power of electricity.
00:47Thomas Edison.
00:50Nikola Tesla.
00:52Two inventors with opposite visions, heading towards a collision between themselves and history.
01:00Gentlemen, I present to you the future of electricity.
01:08It is the epic war to give energy to the world.
01:17Edison versus Tesla.
01:21Geniuses.
01:35A group of young engineers is being pressured to find a solution to a difficult challenge.
01:50How many attempts have we had?
02:16I don't know, maybe 100.
02:26Persistence.
02:28Patience.
02:30Perseverance.
02:33When something doesn't work, there's always another solution.
02:45At just 31 years old, Thomas Edison is the most famous inventor on the planet.
02:54He has already presented to the world an amazing invention, the phonograph.
03:01And he has earned the nickname of Menlo Park Wizard.
03:06Edison represents for many people the essence of Yankee talent.
03:12He was brilliant, he was visionary.
03:16But at the same time, he was a man of business, extraordinarily determined and pragmatic.
03:33His success as an inventor has no rival.
03:36But now Edison is trying to do something that no one has ever done before.
03:42Create a safe and cheap source of light that can replace the gas lamp.
03:50And that uses electricity as a source of energy.
03:59He has carried out more than 100 failed experiments.
04:03But now, in October 1879, Edison is about to find the element that will allow his light bulb to make uniform, safe and repeatable combustion.
04:15Carbon.
04:18Carbon.
04:32The use of a carbon filament is a great advance.
04:36But the invention of the electric bulb is only half the battle.
04:42To replace the gas lamp by electricity, Edison will have to design and build a whole new industry.
04:50It was not enough to have a light bulb.
04:53Remember that in 1879, when Edison was working on this, there were no plugs, there were no generators, there was no wiring in the houses.
05:02So if you wanted to have light in your house or in your business, you would have to build it all.
05:07That means that Edison had to think in terms of a whole new system.
05:18But Edison is not the only genius who tries to solve the problem of electricity.
05:24By reversing the flow of electric current, the dynamo can function as an engine and also as a generator, giving us at least the potential to...
05:39Waste energy.
05:42Mr. Tesla?
05:44There is too much friction. If you remove the switches, it will increase the efficiency of the machine.
05:49And how do we create a rotating field without the switches?
05:54I don't know.
05:57At an Austrian university, an ambitious physics student is coming up with an idea for a radically innovative method of generating electricity.
06:08His name is Nikola Tesla.
06:13Nikola Tesla had a vision, a vision of what would come in the future.
06:19Tesla had big dreams and he had the genius to make them come true.
06:26Tesla had big dreams and he had the genius to make them come true.
06:38A generator creates an electric current that periodically reverses its flow naturally.
06:47In Tesla's time, the electric current is generated by transmitting that current in one direction.
06:53It is called direct current.
07:01But Tesla imagines the use of the alternating current that naturally produces a generator.
07:10The alternating current would be a much more powerful and efficient way of transmitting electric energy.
07:16But there is a problem.
07:20It has never been done before.
07:24It was very radical because nobody had thought about how to make an alternating current motor that could work.
07:32Everyone thought about the traditional way of designing an engine.
07:36But Tesla was a dreamer.
07:38He could imagine a technology in his mind.
07:49This will be the future of Edison Electric.
07:54Thomas Edison is about to create a system that will allow him to take his new light bulb home.
08:01Here is the first generator.
08:04And this is the second generator.
08:08Edison presents to its investors its continuous current model as safe, simple and reliable.
08:16He hopes to convince them that his system can be the new electric lighting system in people's homes.
08:23We will have more than 500 customers.
08:25Not bad for a start.
08:29Welcome to the Pearl Street station.
08:43Located in Manhattan, the Pearl Street station is the largest in the world.
08:49Located in Manhattan, the Pearl Street station is the world's first generator plant.
08:57In two years, Edison will build 18 new plants.
09:02But each of them can only supply electricity within a radius of 800 meters.
09:09You could only build power plants in very populated cities because otherwise they were not economically feasible.
09:18So right away the rural areas and the smaller towns were out of the equation.
09:33More than 4,800 kilometers away, in a Edison factory on the outskirts of Paris,
09:40Nikola Tesla has a different idea.
09:49For years, Tesla has been trying to perfect his own invention, the alternating current motor.
09:55And now, he finally has a prototype that works.
10:10The Tesla Model 3.
10:13The Tesla Model 3.
10:16The Tesla Model 3.
10:19The Tesla Model 3.
10:22The Tesla Model 3.
10:25The Tesla Model 3.
10:28The Tesla Model 3.
10:33But to demonstrate his idea, Nikola Tesla will have to travel to America and face the world's most famous scientist.
10:52Thomas Edison has begun the process of wiring the country and the world using a system called alternating current.
11:05But he is about to meet Nikola Tesla, a man convinced to know a better way to distribute energy around the world.
11:21The Tesla Model 3.
11:24The Tesla Model 3.
11:27The Tesla Model 3.
11:30The Tesla Model 3.
11:33The Tesla Model 3.
11:36The Tesla Model 3.
11:39It must have been incredible for Tesla. I think he must have seen Menlo Park as a huge playground.
11:45I'm sure Tesla thought, I've finally found my home, I've finally found a spirit.
11:49It's been three days, what's going on?
11:52We've adjusted the plugs, they must be the switches.
11:56The switches?
11:58Yes.
12:00But before Tesla can present Edison with his great idea of alternating current, he will have to earn his trust.
12:06Mr. Edison, sir, I have a letter from my supervisor.
12:10What do you do, Mr. Tesla?
12:14I am an inventor.
12:16Okay.
12:18And I can fix things.
12:24Don't tell me.
12:26Yes.
12:28I can fix anything.
12:33Look at this.
12:34Do you have any experience with generators?
12:37Yes.
12:39Edison assigns Tesla a difficult task.
12:42Fix a generator that causes a lot of trouble.
12:45The first of its kind to be installed on a ship.
13:05I think Edison did that with a lot of people he hired.
13:09He would send them out to do something that seemed very difficult or even impossible.
13:14He just wanted to see if they could handle that.
13:34TESLA
13:49A short circuit burned some of the armor coils.
13:53It was an easy fix.
13:54TESLA
14:01Tesla showed that he was able to kind of be on a problem and come up with a novel solution.
14:11I think that's something that Edison really admired.
14:14Because that was part of his own choice.
14:17TESLA
14:20The electric company Edison is growing at an incredible rate.
14:25And now it supplies energy to the magnates of the American industry.
14:36But Edison's direct current has its limits.
14:40He can only transmit electricity with efficiency in a radius of 800 meters from a generator station.
14:51Nikola Tesla believes that his alternating current can travel much faster and bring electricity to the whole world.
15:09TESLA
15:15But the power of the alternating current has a cost.
15:19They both have their dangers and their advantages in the distribution of electricity.
15:24But at that particular moment, with the voltages that were handled and the understanding that was had of the system,
15:30the high voltage alternating current clearly seemed more dangerous.
15:35NIKOLA TESLA
15:38Despite the risks, Nikola Tesla is convinced that his system is superior.
15:56It has two minutes.
15:59IMAGINE A CENTRAL GENERATOR STATION WITH A SINGLE GENERATOR
16:02What kind of generator?
16:04Alternating current.
16:06It can do the work of many alternating current generators.
16:09It's dangerous.
16:11You can't control it.
16:13It would burn the city.
16:15If you want to impress me,
16:18improve the system that we have.
16:21If you can do that, you get the system.
16:24If you can do that, you get the system.
16:27If you can do that, you get the system.
16:50Tesla decides to do Edison's challenge.
16:52And he designs the way to make Edison's alternating current more efficient.
17:02Tesla discovers that if he shortens the magnetic nuclei,
17:06he can triple the production of the generators.
17:23The solution is in the starting motor.
17:27If the units are redesigned...
17:29Send your suggestions to my assistant.
17:38And the prize?
17:40The $50,000.
17:43He said that if he improved the design of an alternating current generator,
17:47he would receive a $50,000 prize.
17:49That was a joke.
17:52How is that a joke?
17:54He obviously doesn't understand American sense of humor.
17:59Get back to work.
18:04As a result of not receiving the $50,000 from Edison,
18:08Tesla decided,
18:10you know what?
18:12I really don't need Edison.
18:14Instead of working with Edison, Tesla will work against him.
18:18He has decided to show that he is right.
18:29The war for the future of energy is about to begin.
18:45In 1885, Thomas Edison's alternating current
18:49is transforming the center of New York into a city of light.
18:54But his former employee, Nikola Tesla,
18:57believes that the alternating current is too limited
19:00and that his alternating current is the future of energy.
19:03Now he has to prove it.
19:09Nikola Tesla leaves Edison's lab
19:11and for a while is unemployed
19:14and has a hard time finding work.
19:17There's not a lot of work for experimental electricians at this time.
19:25Without a job,
19:27Tesla is forced to work digging ditches.
19:32Ditches for Edison Electric's electrical wiring.
19:41By the time it has implemented this system, it will be out of date.
19:45It can drive electricity 800 meters. Pathetic.
19:48I could design a plant with a reach 100 times higher
19:51for a fraction of the cost.
19:53Is that true?
19:56You can be sure.
19:59But he talks about it while he digs the ditches
20:02and one of the people who finds out he's got this idea
20:05is the superintendent of the ditch project
20:07and he says,
20:09you need to come and meet my friend,
20:12a Wall Street financier
20:14who has invested in a series of companies.
20:25For Tesla, it's a unique opportunity.
20:29But simply explaining the alternating current to investors
20:33won't be enough.
20:35He has to show them exactly what he can do.
20:44This is not for conversion,
20:46but it makes use of all possible voltage.
20:51No commutators,
20:53no brushes,
20:55no more pieces that can be broken,
20:57but above all, no resistance.
21:00Gentlemen,
21:02if I may,
21:04I'd like to show you something.
21:17This is one of the really important characteristics of Tesla.
21:21He was very good at coming up with simple demonstrations
21:24to show people the possibilities of the technology
21:27he was working on.
21:29A rotating magnetic field.
21:32Alternating current.
21:35Gentlemen,
21:37the future of electricity.
21:44Tesla is able to show how a spinning egg
21:48controlled by electricity
21:50is analogous to an engine.
21:53The demonstration is a success,
21:56and Tesla gets his first investors.
21:59Now he's ready to face Edison's electric empire.
22:05Tesla's opportunity may have come at the right time.
22:10In 1888, Edison's system has problems to meet the demand.
22:17But he still refuses to abandon alternating current.
22:23Five years of personal investment,
22:26and by bankers like J.P. Morgan
22:29in the development of an alternating current system,
22:31he's going to build central stations.
22:34People are going to invest in those central stations.
22:37He's going to make money with them.
22:39He knows he's going to get results.
22:46Now Edison has competition.
22:51With the money from his investor,
22:53Tesla opens a laboratory not too far from Edison's Pearl Street station.
22:57Edison has decided to show the world what alternating current can do.
23:03Tesla's idea of alternating current was a pretty popular idea.
23:08It wasn't just about a few generating plants
23:11producing power for a few big companies.
23:15It was that everyone could be electrified.
23:28He still has to find a way to increase the energy of the alternating current.
23:44The alternating current moves in waves, with pauses between the peaks.
23:51Tesla imagines a second signal, not synchronized with the first.
23:55In order to fill the gaps.
24:13Tesla does have a vision about alternating current.
24:17It comes to him in a kind of picture,
24:20and he's able to see that as the way to transmit electricity,
24:25over long distances.
24:28And from that moment on, he held fast to that,
24:32and it is demonstrated that he was correct.
24:39As the alternating current approaches reality,
24:43Edison's electric empire is about to face its greatest threat.
24:56The most famous inventor in the world, Thomas Edison,
25:00is being challenged by an unknown genius, Nikola Tesla.
25:06But in order to break Edison's monopoly on electricity,
25:10Tesla has to demonstrate that the alternating current
25:14can do more than just illuminate the world.
25:18It can also drive machines.
25:26Gentlemen, good afternoon.
25:32No conmutators. Two phases.
25:36One fifth of a horsepower.
25:42I present to you the future of electricity.
25:46The alternating current.
25:56Tesla's system can drive an engine with barely any resistance.
26:02And it transmits that energy in a more efficient way than Edison's system.
26:08Finding an alternating current motor that could be used
26:12to help compete with continuous current systems was important.
26:16The motors would be the key to the success of this industry.
26:20Now, alternating current not only allows to illuminate over long distances,
26:25but it can also drive virtually any type of machine.
26:30The motor allows to use electricity for all sorts of applications.
26:35To drive elevators, to move fans, to run dentists.
26:41When Tesla's motor appears, everything changes.
26:48Now that Tesla has perfected his idea, it's time to sell it.
26:56TESLA'S MOTOR
27:03Tesla's motor catches the attention of George Westinghouse,
27:07one of the richest men in America.
27:11Westinghouse was a kind of railroad magnate for many years,
27:16and he saw electricity as this undead market to exploit,
27:21as a way to make money.
27:24I'll pay $5,000 for a 60-day option.
27:28Then, depending on the purchase, $60,000 in total.
27:34And I'll cover legal fees.
27:41We reject his offer. Options, contingents, legal fees.
27:46These are the terms of someone investing in something that doesn't work.
27:53For the electricity you can sell.
27:56For every horsepower, you pay $2.50.
28:09Westinghouse accepts and pays the current equivalent of $2 million
28:14to ensure the right to Tesla's patents.
28:18Together, Tesla and Westinghouse will build an energy system
28:23that will compete with Edison's.
28:30But it remains to be solved a technical issue.
28:36The high voltage needed to send electricity long-distance
28:41and drive large machines can be deadly.
28:45The alternating current is great,
28:48but you have to have all the insulations and all the safety devices
28:52because 100,000 volts are deadly.
28:57To solve the problem,
29:00Tesla studies a new device developed by European engineers,
29:04called a transformer.
29:06You can have a transformer, basically,
29:09to lower the current from 100,000 volts to 110,000
29:13when you get to the point where it's going to be used.
29:17That way, the electricity in the house is safe
29:21because the transformer has a step-down function.
29:37The transformer not only makes electricity possible,
29:41it also makes it safe.
29:55But despite the advantages of alternating current,
29:59Edison has decided to build his empire with direct current.
30:03The main weakness of Edison
30:06is his inability to change his mind
30:09as the industry changes and the market changes.
30:14He wasn't going to let an advertiser prove he was wrong
30:18and that he could solve the problem.
30:21His investment was both financial and personal.
30:32If Tesla and Westinghouse want an energy war,
30:36Edison is willing to fight it.
30:45The battle lines are drawn in the war for electricity.
30:54Thomas Edison's strategy is to show that alternating current is deadly.
30:59How do you know it's so dangerous?
31:02It's not proven, it's not tested, it's not controlled.
31:06Imagine being the first person in a hot air balloon
31:09before they invented a way to land it.
31:12And what is your system?
31:14There is no danger to life or health
31:17with any current generated by Edison.
31:20Edison believed that alternating current
31:23was much more dangerous due to its higher voltage.
31:26From his standpoint, it was a crucial problem.
31:29And there were actually a lot of people
31:32in the streets of the city.
31:44To prove it, Edison's team decides a negative approach.
31:51Edison's collaborators go to see him and tell him
31:55that they are going to raise the tone of the campaign against alternating current.
31:59There is so much at stake
32:02that Edison accepts that campaign of discredit.
32:13They conduct experiments with dogs.
32:16There are demonstrations for journalists and the public
32:19where they show that large animals can also be electrocuted.
32:29To seal his case against alternating current,
32:32Edison needs to go beyond animals.
32:52It's time.
32:59New York City
33:12The state of New York asks Edison for advice
33:16on a new way to execute criminals.
33:19For the first electric chair in history,
33:22Edison recommends the system of his rival.
33:29Electric chair
33:33100,000 volts go through the condemned killer William Kembler.
33:37But his death is not instantaneous.
33:40It's not.
33:42It's not.
33:44It's not.
33:46It's not.
33:48It's not.
33:50It's not.
33:52It's not.
33:54It's not.
33:56It's not.
33:58It's not.
34:00It's not.
34:01It's not.
34:03It's not.
34:05It turns out to be quite a macabre execution,
34:08which serves Edison quite well,
34:10because that's what he wants to show.
34:12He wants to show very dramatically
34:14that alternating current is what he calls the current of death.
34:26They could have done it better with an axe.
34:32So this is how alternating current will be judged.
34:35So this is how alternating current will be judged.
35:00As the battle for energy gets dirtier,
35:03Westinghouse needs an important public victory for alternating current.
35:10The war of currents is about to pass to the last phase.
35:20But how do you know it's so dangerous?
35:22It's not verified, it's not demonstrated, it's not controllable.
35:26Thomas Edison has launched an incessant campaign
35:29to defend his direct current against Nikola Tesla
35:31and his competitor, Westinghouse Electric.
35:42The final confrontation will take place
35:45in one of the largest sources of natural energy in North America,
35:49Niagara Falls.
35:52The Niagara Falls Electric Company
35:55is looking for a way to take advantage of the fall
35:58of 6,400 cubic meters of water per second
36:01to generate an energy equivalent
36:04to that of more than one million tons of coal per year.
36:22Edison meets with his advisor
36:25in order to outline the plan
36:28for the falls to generate direct current.
36:39Gentlemen.
36:44We have a proposal
36:47we'd like to submit to the Niagara Commission.
36:50Edison Electric has already made a proposal.
36:53Edison Electric will become a new company.
36:57General Electric.
37:04Behind Edison's back,
37:07the board decides that alternating current is better.
37:10And they know that Edison will never approve it.
37:13So they shut him out of any of the proceedings.
37:20I built this company.
37:23There would be nothing without me.
37:26And you're driving it into the ground.
37:29It's time to make a profit.
37:32You're paying for it.
37:35You can't see anything but your ledgers.
37:38Leave the business to us.
37:45Edison has lost confidence in his advisor
37:47and the control of his empire.
37:53Edison is resentful.
37:55He's the brain of the company.
37:57He's technically the reason the company exists.
38:00But shareholders are only interested in what money can give them.
38:12Edison will be forced to witness
38:14the battle of the Niagara Falls from backstage.
38:18While Nikola Tesla prepares the ground for Westinghouse.
38:30Gentlemen.
38:32Mr Nikola Tesla.
38:37A pleasure.
38:45TEN GENERATORS
38:48Two thousand two hundred and fifty volts,
38:52each producing thirty-seven thousand kilowatts.
38:55Here, the current is increased to twenty-two thousand volts
38:58for transport.
39:01How far?
39:03Albania?
39:05New York City?
39:07Chicago?
39:10This will revolutionize the industry as we know it.
39:14NIAGARA FALLS
39:22The contract of Niagara is awarded to Westinghouse
39:26and Tesla's alternating current system wins the battle of the currents.
39:31NIAGARA FALLS
39:41But for Westinghouse, it could be too little and too late.
39:49Tesla's license expenses are crushing us.
39:54NIAGARA FALLS
39:59The endless legal battle with Edison and the debt with Tesla
40:03take Westinghouse Electric to the brink of bankruptcy.
40:23NIAGARA FALLS
40:40To keep Westinghouse and save its vision of the alternating current,
40:45Tesla decides to give up the millions of dollars in license costs that are due to him.
40:53NIAGARA FALLS
41:09It is a decision that costs Tesla his personal fortune.
41:14NIAGARA FALLS
41:24People don't realize it, but Tesla had a mental illness.
41:28Today we call it OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder,
41:32but back then it was not known as such.
41:35This obsession affected his work later on.
41:39When he should have been enjoying the fruits of his efforts,
41:43other people were taking advantage of his patents,
41:47other people were profiting from his work without recognizing it,
41:50and he was suffering from a mental illness.
41:53NIAGARA FALLS
41:57Tesla will spend his last years in a hotel in New York.
42:01NIAGARA FALLS
42:05In 1943 he dies alone and without a penny.
42:09NIAGARA FALLS
42:14His rival, Thomas Edison, will get more than a thousand patents throughout his career,
42:18more than any other inventor.
42:21NIAGARA FALLS
42:25But the defeat in the current war against Nikola Tesla
42:29will be the bitterest setback of his career.
42:33In the battle of electricity, we see Edison in his most human appearance.
42:38He allows his ego to take over.
42:42Edison got into his own myth a little bit.
42:45He loved being the wizard of Menlo Park.
42:48He loved being the public's acclaimed genius.
42:52And the idea of losing an important battle in electricity
42:57was just something that he didn't want to face.
43:01NIAGARA FALLS
43:05Tesla's alternating current will continue to distribute energy throughout America
43:10for the next century and beyond.
43:13The battle between Edison and the alternating current
43:17was decided in the end by Tesla.
43:21Today, 99.99% of all electricity in this country
43:26is generated and distributed by alternating current.
43:30And that's because of Tesla's ideas and vision
43:33at the end of the 1880s.
43:36Tesla is clearly the winner of the battle of currents.
43:39But how did he achieve this?
43:41TESLA
43:44TESLA
43:47TESLA
43:50TESLA
43:53TESLA
43:55TESLA
43:58TESLA
44:01TESLA
44:04TESLA
44:07Electricity contains the power of life and death.
44:11TESLA
44:14TESLA
44:17TESLA
44:20TESLA
44:23At the end of the 19th century,
44:26revealing this force of nature is as tempting as dangerous.
44:30TESLA
44:33It's neither verified nor proven nor controllable.
44:36TESLA
44:38The brilliant seeds will face each other
44:43in a battle invented to reap the power of electricity.
44:47Thomas Edison
44:50Nikola Tesla
44:53Two inventors with opposing visions
44:56heading for a collision between themselves and history.
44:59Gentlemen,
45:01here we have the future of electricity.
45:04It is the epic war to give energy to the world.
45:16Edison vs. Tesla.
45:19Geniuses.
45:21A group of young engineers is being pressured to find a solution to a difficult challenge.
45:52It was very radical because no one had thought about how to make an alternating current engine that could work.
45:58Everyone thought about the traditional way of designing an engine, but Tesla was a dreamer.
46:03He could imagine a technology in his mind.
46:15This is going to be the future of Edison Electric.
46:19Thomas Edison is about to create a system that will allow him to take his new light bulb home.
46:26Here is the first generator.
46:29And this is the second generator.
46:32Edison presents to his investors his model of continuous current as safe, simple and reliable.
46:39He hopes to convince them that his system can be the new electric lighting system in people's homes.
46:57We will have more than 500 customers.
46:59Not bad to start.
47:04Welcome to the Pearl Street station.
47:10Pearl Street Station.
47:16Located in Manhattan, the Pearl Street station is the world's first generator plant.
47:23In two years, Edison will build 18 new plants.
47:27But each of them can only supply electricity within a radius of 800 meters.
47:34You could only really build generator plants in very populated cities.
47:39It has to function as an engine and also as a generator, giving us at least the potential to...
47:45Waste energy.
47:48Mr. Tesla?
47:50There is too much friction. If you remove the converters, it will increase the efficiency of the machine.
47:55And how do we create a rotating field without the converters?
48:03I don't know.
48:06At an Austrian university, an ambitious physics student is coming up with an idea for a radically innovative electricity generation method.
48:17His name is Nikola Tesla.
48:26Nikola Tesla had a vision. A vision of what would come in the future.
48:32Tesla had big dreams, and he had the genius to make them come true.
48:45A generator creates an electric current that periodically reverses its flow in a natural way.
48:53In Tesla's time, the electric current is generated by transmitting that current in one direction.
49:00It is called direct current.
49:07But Tesla imagines the use of the alternating current that naturally produces a generator.
49:16The alternating current would be a much more powerful and efficient way of transmitting electrical energy.
49:22But there is a problem.
49:26It has never been done before.
49:30TESLA
49:53How many attempts have we made?
49:55I don't know. Maybe a hundred.
50:00TESLA
50:06Persistence.
50:08Patience.
50:10Perseverance.
50:12When something doesn't work, there's always another solution.
50:17Edison
50:24At just 31 years old, Thomas Edison is the most famous inventor on the planet.
50:33He has already presented to the world an amazing invention, the phonograph.
50:40And he has earned the nickname of Menlo Park Wizard.
50:45Edison represents for a lot of people the essence of Yankee talent.
50:51He was brilliant. He was visionary.
50:55But at the same time, he was a man of business, extraordinarily determined and pragmatic.
51:02Edison
51:12His success as an inventor has no rival.
51:16But now Edison is trying to do something that no one has ever done before.
51:22Create a safe and cheap light source that can replace the gas lamp.
51:28And use electricity as a source of energy.
51:37He has made more than 100 failed experiments.
51:41But now, in October 1879, Edison is about to find the element that will allow his light bulb to make a uniform, safe and repeatable combustion.
51:52Carbon
51:58Carbon
52:12The use of a carbon filament is a great advance.
52:16But the invention of the light bulb is only half the battle.
52:21To replace the gas lamp by electricity, Edison will have to design and build a whole new industry.
52:30It was not enough to have a light bulb.
52:33Remember that in 1879, when Edison was working on this, there were no plugs, there were no generators, there was no wiring in the houses.
52:42So if you wanted to have light in your house or in your business, you would have to build it all.
52:46That means that Edison had to think in terms of a whole new system.
52:57But Edison is not the only genius who tries to solve the problem of electricity.
53:08By reversing the flow of electric current, the dynamo can generate electricity.