Lineman’s Electrocution- Aysha R

Dear Editor,

The horrible accident that took place the other day was truly a tragedy, but it was not George Westinghouse’s fault. In 1888, 64 people were killed in streetcar accidents, 55 people were killed by omnibuses and wagons, 23 people were killed by illuminating gas, and five people were killed by electricity. Thomas Edison’s request to abolish the AC power system is pointless. If he is truly worried about people dying, then he should try to improve streetcars, gas, and the other high killers of people in the year 1888. Edison’s ploy to become the number one supplier of electricity again will not work. His reasons are ignorant and have actually been disproved. When AC was used to electrocute Kemmer, it was not successful at all. The Ac power system is a wonderful creation and Edison’s jealously shouldn’t be the cause of the world losing AC electricity.

Sincerely,

Concerned Citizen of Manhattan

Edison and Electrocution 2- Aysha R

Edison’s position on electrocution was totally unethical. Edison and Brown convinced tons of people that alternating current would kill people instantly. When Kemmer was sentenced to death by electrocution, it was proven that alternating current was not anymore dangerous than direct current was. Kemmer was electrocuted and did not die. Only after being tortured for a while, Kemmer died. After the brutal toture of Kemmer witnessed by hundreds of people, alternating current was established as not as harmful as Edison claimed. Because of Edison’s jealousy, Kemmer died a horrible death. Edison’s unethical behave hurt everyone and helped no one.

Edison, Brown and Electrocution- Aysha R

Before I read this excerpt about Edison and Brown’s PR campaign I respected Edison as an inventor and as a person, now I don’t. Instead of taking Westinghouse’s offer to join their companies, Edison decided to ruin Westinghouse anyway he could. Harold Brown was paid to tell this lie about how he was electrocuted by direct current and did not die, and when he experimented on dogs with both direct and alternating current the dogs were only killed when alternating current was used. When Brown performed these graphic experiments in the court room, he first used direct current on the dogs and then used alternating current on the same dog which would kill the dog. This experiment caused the courts to only allow 300 volts of alternating current to be distributed at a time. This was not at all ethical because the experiment couldn’t be proven because of all the experimental errors it contained. From a business standpoint, Edison did whatever he had to in order to eiminate the compition which is good business.

AC motor- Aysha R

After working on his alternating current induction motor, Tesla was asked to speak to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to talk about his new invention. Despite being overworked and sick, Tesla spoke at their meeting on the evening of May 15th, 1888. Tesla showed them how the machine worked physically and through drawings and diagrams. He went on to tell them that this machine “will show many results [that were deemed] unattainable” (157). Other motors invented prior to Tesla’s didn’t work because they would only “churn about, not turning the motor” (157). Tesla’s motor was a polyphase AC motor which meant he “used two alternating currents that were out of step which each other” (157). With the polyphase motor, the magnetic fields rotated the motor around as opposed to it just churning about which always ensured that a strong current was available.

Despite the fact that alternating current was frowned upon by Edison, Westinghouse knew the AC motor was an awesome invention. After reading about Tesla’s lecture, Westinghouse offered to buy Tesla’s patents for the AC motor for $70,000 and “$2.50 per horsepower on every AC Tesla motor” (162). Westinghouse purchased Tesla’s patents, in order to complete his AC system, which would provide farther and faster electricity than Edison’s DC motor ever could. Not only did Westinghouse buy Tesla’ patents, he also gave Tesla a job to help with Westinghouse’s company. Tesla never would have been able to commercialize his design without Westinghouse’s help, because he lacked the entrepreneurial skills that Westinghouse was very knowledgeable in.

Micron Tour- Aysha R

Going to Micron was a very interesting, informing experience. I had never even heard of Micron before the tour, and experiencing it first hand was exciting. Micron is a company that produces wafers that have computer chips inside of them that store memory. The have worked with many big name companies that are coming up with new ideas that include improving cars in a way that the cars can communicate with you. What interests me the most was that the car would be able to sense when the driver was becoming drowsy, when you were going out of your lane, when your children weren’t behaving and other things that I never imagined a car would be able to do. I enjoyed the presentation part, but the tour of the facility was truly boring and long. If I had the chance to intern there, I probably would not. I currently have an internship with ABS where I work with navy ships and that is much more interesting than Micron.

Memory- Aysha R

The computer has got to be one of the greatest inventions ever. The first computers were useful, but they didn’t contain much memory at all. The two forms of memory used were delay line memory and dynamic random access memory. Delay line memory was different from dram because it grouped its information in an ordered sequence. It was also a refreshable memory which allowed users to read information from an area and immediately rewrite the information to the same area with no modifications.

Dynamic random access memory was a little different.  It stores each bit of data in a seperate capacitor with an integrated circuit. Since the capacitor leaks charge, the storage cells of dram needed to be refreshed every few milliseconds. The advantage of dynamic random access memory was that it only used one capacitor and one transitor, which made it very dense.

Transformers- Aysha R

The AC transformer is a very important part of the AC power system. It allowed generating stations to be located in the city and still effectively power homes and businesses in rural areas. The transformer would take high-voltage electrcity, and drop it down to a level safe for people to use. Westinghouse invented the transformer out of a “H-shaped iron plate, the core, that would pass through copper wire coils that would be machine wound and used as the primary and secondary. The ends were closed by I-shaped plates ” (Jonnes 132). The “primary” is the copper wire used to feed electric current into the magnetic field and the “secondary” is the copper wire that intercepts the primary’s force field. Thanks to Westinghouse and his men, electricity was able to travel farther and faster.

Tesla- Aysha R

Nikola Tesla was one of the most influential inventors of our time. When he was a young boy his only options of work were becoming  priest or going to the army, but he had another dream. He went to one of the best engineering schools in Croatia, then came to America to pursue his goal of becoming a famous inventor. Tesla tried to team up with Edison with his AC ideas, but Edison ignored him and told him it wasn’t possible.  As many inventors do, Tesla failed a few times before he actually invented AC current. He then teamed up with Westinghouse and electric companies began wanting AC instead of DC because of how efficient it was. Edison noticed that many of his customers were switching to AC, so in an attempt to pursued them to stay he showed how dangerous AC could be by killing animals with it. Despite Edison’s attempt, AC became the main source of use in electric companies. 

Tesla, being the determined man that he was, knew that there was a way to transmit signals over seas. He played around with transmitters and such, which later resulted in the creation of the radio. He figured out that different radio waves could do different things at different frequencies. He later invented a “death ray” that he claimed would be able to prevent missiles from impacting the country by disintegrating them in space. Despite his previous success with inventions, nobody would purchase or even learn about the “death ray”, and after Tesla died nobody knew how the “death ray” worked. To this day the “death ray” is still trying to be figured out.

The difference between Edison and Tesla is simple really. Edison was able to sway many people to give him money time after time which greatly attributed to his success. Tesla, being an immigrant, struggled to get money from outside sources and trying to make money cut into his inventing time, and he didn’t have a laboratory with a team of inventors as Edison did. If Tesla had the same advantages as Edison did, surely he would’ve created as much or even more than Edison invented.

Electric Nation- Aysha R

“Electric Nation” showed the journey of electrifying the United States. It began with Edison creating the light bulb and the underground electric system, but it was Samuel Insull that truly made electricity a multi-million dollar industry. The movie showed how electricity spread throughout the nation very quickly. They created huge generators that would power electricity for miles and miles. The movie addressed the question of was everyone entitled to electricity. Edison was determine to create a cheaper, efficient source of light just so everyone could afford it. Edison wanted the electric system to promote the use of electricity and eliminate the gas lamps all together. Overall the movie clearly explained how the use of electricity started and how the popularity of the use of electricity began. 

Samuel Insull wanted to electrify not only the city, but the rural areas of the country also. With the TVA, Insull did electrify rural parts of the country very rapidly. When the Great Depression hit, the stock market crashed and everyone that owned stock in companies lost lots of money. Prior to this, Insull had promised stock to people that had helped him raise money to start his company. When this happened, Insull was accused of fraudulent behavior because people had put their money and their trust into his company and then all of a sudden everything was gone. He was later found not guilty, many years later. During the depression, President Roosevelt had taken full control of the electric business. Wilkie disliked the government and the TVA because he didn’t feel like a monopoly should run the electric business because he would lose money. Problems proceeded in the US because of these situations, but when everything passed cheap electricity was provided to everyone.

Edison the Man-Aysha R

In the film Edison the Man, Thomas Edison is portrayed as a young inventor that starts off with nothing at all and ends up with fame, money, and power. This movie shows Edison, before and after he invented the light bulb, dealing with work, money, being homeless and pursuing his goal to be an inventor; Jill Jonnes mostly shows only the inventing side of Edison and doesn’t go much into anything else. Jonnes doesn’t show how Edison denied money in order to pursue what he wanted to invent and not what the rich man wanted him to invent. That part was very important because it shows Edison’s determination to invent only what he knew would greatly impact the world. Edison and his team discovered many new inventions, some of them were on accident. 

In the movie, Edison and his team seemed to “stumble upon” new inventions as opposed to the book where they knew what they wanted and that’s what they invented. The way the movie described the inventing process was more realistic in the sense that there’s no way that Edison knew everytime what he’d discover. The book makes it seem like Edison was a perfect inventor that knew what he’d invent everytime, and the movie seemed a little more like real life.