La Guerra de las Corrientes es uno de los episodios más fascinantes de la historia de la electricidad, donde Nikola Tesla se enfrentó a Thomas Edison en una batalla por la supremacía eléctrica. Edison defendía la corriente continua (CC), un sistema que, aunque revolucionario en su tiempo, demostraba ser ineficaz y costoso en distancias largas, ya que se perdía mucha energía en el trayecto. Esta ineficiencia se convirtió en un gran obstáculo para la expansión de la electricidad a gran escala.
En respuesta a estos desafíos, Tesla introdujo la corriente alterna (CA), un sistema que revolucionó la forma en que se distribuía la energía eléctrica. A diferencia de la CC, la CA permite transmitir electricidad a largas distancias con mínimas pérdidas de energía, lo que la convirtió en la solución ideal para el suministro eléctrico en ciudades y áreas rurales. La invención del transformador y otros dispositivos por parte de Tesla fueron cruciales para el desarrollo de este sistema, lo que le permitió ganar la batalla contra Edison.
Esta guerra no solo tuvo un impacto en la industria eléctrica, sino que también moldeó el futuro de la tecnología y la vida cotidiana. La victoria de Tesla y la adopción de la corriente alterna sentaron las bases para la electrificación moderna, permitiendo el desarrollo de dispositivos que hoy damos por sentados. Así, Tesla no solo demostró que la corriente alterna era superior, sino que también se convirtió en un pionero de la electricidad tal como la conocemos hoy.
#GuerraDeLasCorrientes, #NikolaTesla, #ThomasEdison
Guerra de las Corrientes, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, corriente alterna, corriente continua, eficiencia energética, historia de la electricidad, revolucion eléctrica, energía eléctrica, batalla de inventores.
En respuesta a estos desafíos, Tesla introdujo la corriente alterna (CA), un sistema que revolucionó la forma en que se distribuía la energía eléctrica. A diferencia de la CC, la CA permite transmitir electricidad a largas distancias con mínimas pérdidas de energía, lo que la convirtió en la solución ideal para el suministro eléctrico en ciudades y áreas rurales. La invención del transformador y otros dispositivos por parte de Tesla fueron cruciales para el desarrollo de este sistema, lo que le permitió ganar la batalla contra Edison.
Esta guerra no solo tuvo un impacto en la industria eléctrica, sino que también moldeó el futuro de la tecnología y la vida cotidiana. La victoria de Tesla y la adopción de la corriente alterna sentaron las bases para la electrificación moderna, permitiendo el desarrollo de dispositivos que hoy damos por sentados. Así, Tesla no solo demostró que la corriente alterna era superior, sino que también se convirtió en un pionero de la electricidad tal como la conocemos hoy.
#GuerraDeLasCorrientes, #NikolaTesla, #ThomasEdison
Guerra de las Corrientes, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, corriente alterna, corriente continua, eficiencia energética, historia de la electricidad, revolucion eléctrica, energía eléctrica, batalla de inventores.
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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.