Re: What chance do we have?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 12/25/00 9:47:29 PM Central Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

<< One of the questions was who invented A.C. current, well
 naturally i said tesla, but when i looked it up in the book it said george
 westinghouse.   >>

Hi Jeremiah,

I don't think it is quite accurate to say that alternating current was 
invented. Like the energy bound up in the atomic nucleus, AC is just there in 
nature waiting for someone like a Tesla coiler to find it. The experiments 
performed by Michael Faraday in England were also taking place at the same 
time in the US by Joseph Henry. Both men were experimenting with the electric 
current produced
by the relative motion between a coil of wire and a magnet. That, and a 
galvanometer or a compass is all it takes to demonstrate an alternating 
current. Within another fifty years
it was the genius of Charles Steinmetz and Nicholas Tesla who developed the
AC technology we have today. I may be wrong on this but I don't think George 
Westinghouse had very much if anything to do with electricity. The 
Westinghouse Corporation was built on the air brake. The company evolved into 
electrical technology
and broadcasting. 

Cheers,
Ralph Zekelman