The AC/DC wars
In the 1880's
Nikola Tesla advocated the use of alternating current
and
Thomas Edison advocated the use of direct current
Remember
TeslA = Alternating current EDison = Direct current |
and Nikola nicked the competition.
He won. Why did Nikola Tesla win the war?
Because we have learnt that:
| Transformers only work with alternating current and High voltage = lower energy losses |
Imagine the huge distances involved in taking power from a power station to a factory or house in a town.
Some of these cables travel for hundreds of miles. The only way to transmit large amounts of electrical power over these distances is at very high voltages to keep power energy losses low. With transformers and alternating current (AC), Tesla could change the voltage to thousands of volts for low transmission losses over long distances. Then with transformers he could bring it back down to safe values in a factory or home.
