Triumph at the White City

Hello, American Historyteeller listeners. I have an exciting announcement. I'm going on tour and coming to a theater near you. This live show is a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music, with a full band accompanying me as we look back to explore the days that made America And they aren't the days that you might think. Sure, everyone knows july fourth, seventeen seventy six. We'll be hearing a lot about that date this year But there are many other days that are maybe even more influential. So come out to see me live. More shows to be announced soon. So for information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to Americanhistorylive. com. That's Americanhistorylive dot comot Come see my Days that Made America tour live on stage. goo to Americanhistorylive dot com Imagine it's april seventeenth, eighteen eighty eight in New York City You're an editor with a popular tabloid and working on the morning shift in the newsroom You've got a break, so you sit down at your desk for a breakfast of lukewarm coffee and a pastrami sandwich As you take your first sip, you hear knock at your door A young reporter rushes in. Sorry to interrupt, sir, but I just got tomorrow's front page story Front page story, huh? I'll be the judge of that kid. What is it You know the corner of East Broadway and Catherine Street. Yeah, I know it I walk past it every morning The lastast night, a boy was playing around a lamppost and happened to touch a loose wire. Zap He falls dead Dan justust like that. Yeah, witnesses say he was just horsing around. They saw him grab a dangling telegraph wire and dance around the pole. Then when it came in contact with another loose wire, it sparked boyice staggered back and fell down on the sidewalk dead as a doornail So the electricity killed him Apparently And it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt. Folks told me those wires had been damaged and hanging down for weeks Well now there are loose wires all over this city It's hard to tell which ones are electrified. Everyone complains about them Yeah, but no one's doing anything about it And this kid, he was just fifteen years old He had eight brothers and sisters and was selling pocket comombs to help his mother put food on the table pooor family Yeah it sounds like this is a final straw for folks Yeah, what do you mean Well I talked to a shop owner and a couple of witnesses who were planning march down to the mayor's office to demand that all the wires be taken down. The shop owner's got a mess with them right over his storefont. says they sparked in the last storm and no one came to fix them Now, hold on. those wires supply electricity to the city We know those lights down on Broadway We ran a piece just last month calling them a sign of progress ery well turn around and call them a menace now Sir, it's clear from my reporting that for many people, they've stopped being a novelty and have become a sign of corruption and now even death. I've never seen people so angry And the corruption part is true too. I got a pal in City Hall who says he's seen a stack of bids for more electrical contracts, all rubber stamped without a glance And so It is. And I think our duty is to say something. I mean, if we don't, more people could die Well, there are a lot of powerful men with a lot at stake in this new technology. But I suppose we do have to report on this kid's untimely demise That's in the public interest for sure Yes, sir, I'd say it is Well let's just hope we don't lose advertisers of this, and you'd better make sure your guy at City Hall is right If we're going risk upsetting some of the most powerful people in Manhattan I want this story airtight. You hear me Yes, sir, you got it What you doing standing around in my office is get writing Until now, electrical lighting has been a source of pride for New York City, but it's hard to deny that the overhead cables have become a menace. And the death of an innocent boy changes things. If the public is this angry and there's evidence that the city is ignoring safety, that's a story that must be told. and there's no way you're gonna to let your competitors beat you to it When a charming neurosurgeon rode into western towns selling a persona of confidence and care Patients trusted him He wore cowboy boots in the operating room and became sought after by patients He promised to heal them Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies. This is a story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice. Listen to doctor Death, the cowboy, wherever you get your podcasts, or binge the entire series right now, only with Audible I'm Leon Nafok What happens when only fans becomes more than just a side hustle Only fantasy is an in depth look at the world's newest professions how the rules of human intimacy are being rewritten online. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or binge all episodes of Only Fantasy, A free, onlynly on Audible. From Audible Originals, I'm Lindssey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story In eighteen eighty eight, the race to power America's cities had become a battle between two rival visions On one side was Thomas Edison, the famed inventor of the incandescent light bulb who sought to expand his empire built on a system of direct current or DC On the other, industrialist George Westinghouse and the visionary inventor Nicola Tesla, pushing their alternating current or AC system as a faster, cheaper and more efficient way to bring electricity to homes, factories and cities across the country But what began as a technological disagreement? quickly turned personal and ugly Their bitter fight spilled into courtrooms, ignited a national debate about capital punishment, and culminated in a fierce competition for the contract to illuminate the most ambitious event of the decade, the Chicago World's Fair whoever emerged Victorious would have the chance to seize control of America's growing electrical market and set the standard for the nation's electrical grid for the coming century. This is the third episode in our series, Edison sus Tesla. triumph of illumination In the spring of eighteen eighty eight, a series of accidental electrocutions on the streets of New York City set off a public panic In April, a fifteen year old boy came in contact with a live wire on Broadway and was immediately struck dead Less than a month later, an electrical worker suspended beside a two story building clearing away old wires was also struck by a powerful current. Witnesses inside the building had to pull his charred body in through a window And these gruesome deaths shock the public and heighten fears about the web of electrical wires hanging above Manhattan's busy streets What had once been viewed as a sign of progress and modernity increasingly began to be seen as a deadly hazard Electrical lighting had first been installed on Broadway in eighteen eighty, and in the years that followed, the city's network of overhead wires had expanded rapidly. In a rush of competition, nearly a dozen companies strung hundreds of lines above the streets to carry current for electric lights teelegraph systems and telephones manyany of the lines carrying high voltage alternating currents Although the city had official oversight of these lines, rampant corruption and weak enforcement allowed dangerous conditions to persist And as a result, when a heavy snow or high winds hit the city The live wires were often blown down to within striking distance of pedestrians Thomas Edison, the city's most famous electrical inventor, had long railed against these overheadlines Edison's direct current system relied on cables that ran underground, safely out of reach of the public His lines also operated at a voltage between one hundred to two hundred volts, while some of the overhead AC lines pulsed with as much as ten times that amount Edison warned that these AC lines were dangerous to life, arguing that even momentary contact with them could cause paralysis or death But Edison's criticism of AC P was not just about safety. It was also a bid to stamp out competition Since the successful launch of his Pearl Street power station six years earlier Edison's company had expanded rapidly, installing more than one hundred and twenty DC stations across the country. And by eighteen eighty eight, Edison's company was the leader in the industry But as his network expanded, the limitations of direct current were becoming harder for customers to ignore Some express frustration that DC could only supply electricity within a half mile of a generating station, meaning that any community or business beyond that range had to set up an entirely new and expensive power station This put electrification out of reach for many potential customers Seeing an opening in the market, the brilliant and eccentric inventor Nicola Tesla led the push for AC power and was backed by industrialist George Westinghouse Westinghouse had built his fortune by revolutionizing railroad safety, but now was turning that same ambition toward electricity His company, Westinghouse Electric, began signing up customers in cities where Edison had earlier staked his claim like New Orleans But when Edison heard of his rival's advances, he dismissed Westinghouse curtly, suggesting that he ought to stick to railroads But Westinghouse had no intention of backing off In his Pittsburgh laboratories, he and Tesla were working to refine an alternating current system based on Tesla's designs, and they were eager to bring it to the commercial market Tesla's system promised to deliver electricity to a far wider area than Edison's because it carried high voltage AC power over long distances and then used transformers to step the current up or down so it could be used most efficiently There was a problem though while the concept worked beautifully in theory So far, Tesla had only demonstrated it on a small scale and he had yet to find a way to integrate it into Westinghouse's existing power stations Eddison, meanwhile, remains critical of Tesla's AC model He warned the public that if a transformer failed to reduce the current before reaching a building, it could turn an entire structure into a death chamber He even called on electricians to unite in a war of extermination against AC But AC's potential lethality would soon lead Edison to envision a surprising new application At the time, the state of New York had encountered a series of mishaps with hangings of criminals. and had appointed a death commission to look into electrocution as a more humane alternative This commission reached out to Edison to seek his advice, and though he had long opposed capital punishment. The inventor realized that the very power he condemned for public use could serve a grim practical purpose. ending lives swiftly and efficiently So he reversed his previous stance and endorsed the state's pursuit of electricity for execution taking it one step further by specifically recommending Westinghouse's existing AC system for the task And with Edison's recommendation, in the spring of eighteen eighty eight, the New York state legislature passed a bill making Dath by electricity the preferred method for the next state execution Very soon after, on june fifth, eighteen eighty eight A little known engineer and electrical consultant named Harold Brown wrote an editorial in the New York Evening Post He called for an outright ban on the transmission of AC power above three hundred volts, a measure that would effectively outlaw the system Westinghouse and Tesla were working to develop Brown, a self styled crusader, claimed to have no ties to Edison But the newspaper that printed his editorial was owned by one of Edison's longtime investors, leading some to suspect Brown's crusade wasn't just about safety Nevertheless, with the panic over the recent accidental deaths, Brown's letter gained traction and just a few days later, on june eighth, The New York City Board of Electrical Control met to consider outlawing AC P The board asked George Westinghouse to respond to the charges that his AC system was dangerous But Westinghouse declined and instead wrote directly to his rival, Edison, inviting him to visit his workshop in Pittsburgh so they could resolve their dispute Edison refused this offer With his attempt to make peace rebuffed, Westinghouse launched a full throated defense of his AC system the following month. And when the New York Bard met on july sixteenth, the hearing included an official response from Westinghouse in which he defended his company saying that out of the one hundred and twenty seven AC stations he'd installed, not a single one had sustained a fire or accident He called the attacks on his company unmanly, discreditable, and untruthful Th then he went further, charging that it was Edison's DC stations that were prone to accidents, citing a fire that had destroyed a station in Boston In the meantime, the engineer Harold Brown stepped up his crusade against AC P, but also joined the call for AC to be used in executions And then he reached out to Edison, explaining that he wanted to prove how lethal AC P could be with scientific evidence Eddison obliged him by offering the use of his New Jersey lab and the assistance of one of his most trusted employees, Charles Bachelor. Together, Brown and Bachelor began a series of gruesome experiments, using high voltage AC power to shock and kill dogs, then a calf And then a large horse At Edison's Lab, a member of the New York Death Commission looked on, as Brown shocked the animals with jolts of high voltage AC electricity But back in Pittsburgh, Westinghouse was outraged when he learned of these deadly experiments on animals, and he continued to defend the safety of his AC systems And the public relations issue was not his only problem Behind the scenes, Westinghouse was struggling to integrate Nikola Tesla's system into his own existing infrastructure. Ever the idealist, Tesla insisted that Westinghouse's central stations be retrofitted to be compatible with his superior technology, but Westinghouse's engineers opposed the idea Their company already had two hundred central stations spread across the eastern and central US These engineers warned Westinghouse that retrofitting them would be an enormous undertaking onene that would hand Eison a significant competitive advantage at a critical moment So Tesla found his advice going unheated By the summer of eighteen eighty nine, Tesla had grown frustrated Unable to bring his system to commercial scale, he left Pittsburgh He later recalled, I was not free at Pittsburgh. I was dependent. could not work So Tesla returned to New York to experiment on his own terms at a new laboratory on Grand Street. Just as momentum was building toward the first execution by electricity After campaigning for electricity as a means of execution, Harold Brown and his allies got their wish when William Kemler, a convicted murderer from Buffalo, was sentenced to die by electric chair Brown had even gone so far as to quietly secure a Westinghouse AC generator to be used for the execution But the decision to execute Kamler immediately sparked controversy, and Kamler's attorney appealed arguing that electrocution amounted to cruel and unusual punishment The case quickly captured the public's attention, turning into a media spectacle as business leaders, scientists and experts were all asked to weigh in on whether electricity should be used to take a human life. Eventually, the controversy escalated to the point that Thomas Edison himself was called to testify Imagine it's july twenty third, eighteen eighty nine in New York City. You're an attorney and your client is scheduled to become the first prisoner to be executed in the so called electric chair Today your office is packed with newspaper reporters, legal staff and state officials. all here to observe the expert testimony the judge has called for in this case. Testimony you hope will prove that death by electrocution is nothing short of torture dressed up as justice Just then, the man everyone's been waiting for enters your office All eyes turn to watch Thomas Edison squeeze through the crowd take a seat across from you at the desk. Remembering his near deafness, you raise your voice as you welcome him Mr. Eddison, thank you for taking the time to visit with us today. We are honored to have such an esteemed expert Edison leans in closer with his good ear between his fingers dangles an unlit, half finished cigar the honor's mine, sir The matter before is could not be more serious, so your expertise is much needed You've long championed electricity as a beacon of progress and hope for mankind. Have you not Certainly All my efforts have been devoted to refining electrical power in order to serve the public Then how do you explain the fact that you are now advocating for electricity to be the instrument of death Eddison's face narrows I'm here merely to offer my scientific expertise And you're mischaracterizing my stance The direct form of current that we use at the Edison General Electric Company is low voltage and completely safe It's the high voltage AC system that is dangerous. That's a vital distinction Does't Westinghouse use an AC system? You seem obsessed with making sure that it's his system that is used for execution Well, it would certainly do the trick. It's dangerous But he is your business rival, is he not? Even so, I wish him no ill will I simply believe he's pushing a lethal system of electricity onto the public And what about your relationship to Mr. Harold Brown, who called for outlawing high voltage alternating current I would say mister Brown is an ally in the quest to protect the public, but nothing more Does that mean you have no business connection with him? No formal relationship No, of course not But isn't it true that you allowed him to use your prestigious laboratory to conduct his cruel experiments, electrifying and killing innocent animals didid use my labs, but many other scientists do as well. That's no secret Very well. let's move on. Precisely what effect would using alternating current have on a man Well, his temperature would rise several degrees above normal and it would mummify him. Mummify him. Could you explain Well, the heat would evaporate all the fluids in his body and then leave him mummified That sounds horrifying Could you guarantee that while being mummified, a man would not suffer Given the proper administration and the proper voltage, death would be instantaneous, so yes, it would be painless But Mr. Eddison, are you a physician? No, I am not a medical expert Not that either. Then how can you be certain that this will not be a painful and prolonged death that amounts to cruel and unusual punishment? How can you be so sure pause and allow your question to linger in the air, watching as Edison contemplates his response. This is the man who brought the world the photograph and the incandescent light bulb Brilliance cannot be denied And yet you feel that even he is reaching beyond his knowledge here today. You can only hope that you've done enough to demonstrate that electrocution would be anything but a humane form of execution At a hearing to determine whether electrocution would be a cruel and unusual form of punishment Camler's attorney Bur Cchran trying to show that the advocates for the electric chair were motivated by business competition rather than the public good and that no expert, not even Thomas Edison, could guarantee that electricity could kill a man without causing suffering Cochrane' strategy backfire Edison's confidence, certainty, and celebrity proved more powerful than Cochrane's cross examination Newspapers celebrated Edison's appearance with headlines hailing him as the world's foremost authority on electrical current, and his testimony ultimately bolstered the state's case to use electricity for Kemler's execution And as a bonus, Edison had again managed to associate alternating current with death in the public mind In the end, the New York Supreme Court rejected the argument that death by electricity was a cruel and unusual punishment So on august sixth, eighteen ninety, after months of delays, William Kemmler was executed at Auburn Prison in New York As more than twenty witnesses looked on, including state officials and the press Kamler was hooked up to electrodes and shocked for seventeen seconds with alternating current from a westinghouse generator contontrary to Edison's claims that death would be instantaneous Kamler did not die immediately When doctors examined his body, it became clear that he was still breathing and he suffered prolonged agony as officials raced to reattach the electrodes and shock him again. This time for several minutes Newspapers reported the entire ordeal in gory detail This botched execution was a blow to Edison's reputation And while he responded by calling the spectacle awful He was quick to blame state officials for not administering the electricity properly For his part, Westinghouse criticized the execution as a brutal affair and argued that it justified his case that electricity should never be used for capital punishment. while Tesla would later call the use of electricity for executions monstrous. But if Eddison had hoped that Kamler execution would damage his rival's business, he was mistaken despite the negative publicity around alternating current Westinghouse's business continued to grow, even managing to expand abroad with new power stations in Cuba and China In the meantime, while Edison and Westinghouse had been trading blows in the press, Nikola Tesla had quietly returned to the problem that had driven him out of Pittsburgh How to bring his revolutionary poolyphase AC system to commercial scale Working toward that goal, in early eighteen ninety, Tesla had filed three new patent claims related to his AC motor Edison was watching closely He understood that if Tesla succeeded, it would hand Westinghouse a decisive advantage, one that no amount of negative press could overcome But Edison wasn't about to give up the fight. He had built his empire invention by invention, and he wasn't going to let Westinghouse take it from him So he gathered his lawyers and began preparing for a different kind of war As Americans, we're constantly grappling with a fundamental question. Do we settle for the world as it is Or do we strive to create the world as it should be Our answers tend to ebb and flow through the decades But once Just after a war that nearly tore us apart We came as close as we've come to answering it And it's a story worth a closer look I'm Michelle Obama, and I'm proud to announce Higher Ground's new podcast Reconstruction. The unfinished promise. Guided by bestselling author, Malcolm Gladwell, and featuring my husband, Barack Obama, this limited series uncovers the untold stories of recconstruction what they mean for us today and how our past can shape the future we choose to build Reconstruction, the Unfinished promise is available now on audible or wherever you get your podcast. Youo there. 'is I, Queen Mortuana of the Night realalm, AKA Kate McKinon. And her reven minion Jojo, AK Emily Linn If you do not download and binge my show, heads will roll air apparent on audible I will cut off your head! Oh no. Maybe just tell them about the guest stars like Richard Kind, Karry Coon, Jimmy Fallon at all. But they were in't. And if you don't listen to them, then I will cut off your tongue, then cut off your head and then put the tongue in the head hole. A, you tried! Listen now exclusively on Audible and D of the Audible after today are off with your head In may eighteen ninety one, Thomas Edison filed suit against his rival George Westinghouse, arguing that Westinghouse's incandescent lighting system infringed on his light bulb patent The heart of the suit was Edison's uniquely designed filament, which the Federal patent Office had recognized a decade earlier in eighteen eighty The stakes in the case were high. withithout access to Edison's Bulb and without a viable alternative Westinghouse's lighting systems could collapse and his entire empire risk being crippled by litigation But Westinghouse refused to be intimidated by Edison's formidable legal team and countersued, arguing that his AC system, based on Nicola Tesla's designs, was a unique technology In court, Westinghouse leaned on Tesla's patents for his motor and transformers to bolster his claim But even as this litigation was hoped to save his company Edison was contending with mounting pressures from within his own ranks In the summer of eighteen eighty nine, when business was riding high, he had agreed to consolidate his various business divisions and was paid handsomely for it. This deal made him a millionaire, but left him holding just ten percent of his own company's stock trade offff that now seemed costly as the legal battle intensified, and he found himself needing to act swiftly But on july fourteenth, eighteen ninety one, he got some good news A federal judge ruled that Edison had a right to his exclusive incandescent bulb patent on the basis of the specially designed filament he and his assistants had manufactured in his New Jersey lab This meant that competitors like Westinghouse could no longer use similar designs without the risk of being sued Westinghouse appealed this decision, but in the meantime, he moved quickly to demonstrate his AC technology represented the future of electric power with or without Edison's bulb That summer, he got his chance when a mining operator in the frontier town of Telluride, Colorado needed a new electrical system to power his gold mine. The operator was facing a dwindling supply of timber for fuel, so he signed up with Westinghouse since there was no existing power station Westinghouse and Tesla were free to design and build one from scratch They used Tesla's AC power design to generate electricity for the mine from a nearby river, then transferred three thousand volts of electricity through three miles of copper wiring to the mine site This system was so successful that many residents wanted to sign out for their own access to electricity and were angry when officials informed them that the town of Telluride had already signed a contract with Edison for his DC system Through the winter of eighteen ninety one, as the town and residents of Telluride battled in court and a heated public hearings over which system to adopt, Westinghouse received reports that the AC system was performing reliably and steadily Even in mountainous terrain. This Turide installation became the first commercial application of Tesla's design and it represented a huge success Now no one could deny that their AC system was efficient, durable, and cheap And back in New Jersey, Edison viewed Westinghouse and Tesla's success with disdain and a growing unease about his own position. Then in february eighteen ninety two, Edison was blindsided His company, Edison, General Electric, merged with a competitor to create General Electric deal engineer by none other than JP Morgan, whose private Manhattan home had once served as a showcase for Edison's early electrical innovations In the intervening years though, Morgan had steadily gained influence in Edison's company, and now, as part of the merger, Morgan dropped Edison's name from the new company entirely, effectively pushing the inventor aside An editorial and electrical engineer blamed Edison himself, arguing that his obsessive fight against AC technology had cost him control of his company. The editorial declared Mr. Edison set his face against alternating current as a flint from the first and has sought on every possible occasion to discredit it through the weight in the community of his justly great name. Tyde would not turn back at his frown And when Edison learned that his name had been dropped from the company that he founded, he was stunned friend later recalled that when he broke the news to Edison on a visit to his New Jersey workshop, Edison responded with uncharacteristic resignation, saying that I've come to the conclusion that I never did know anything about electricity Though, he quickly regained his typical confidence and pledged to reinvent himself entirely, saying, I'm going to do something now so different and so much bigger than anything I've ever done before People will forget that my name was ever connected with anything electrical Eddison's friend noted this bravano it also snds to bitterness in the inventor's voice Pide had been wounded, he said. knew then that something had died in Edison's heart In the spring of eighteen ninety two, the nation was aboz with the upcoming four hundred year anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas Politicians and business leaders were eager to mark the occasion with an event bigger than any of the nation had ever seen Though it was delayed a year by the presidential election. The Chicago World's Fair, formerly known as the World's Columbian Exposition was set to open in eighteen ninety three The fair was designed to showcase the progress and technology of America's growing industry. notothing would be more prominently featured than electricity Planers envisioned a temporary but dazzling city carved out of the marshland on the shores of Lake Michigan, ablaze with tens of thousands of electrical lights with hundreds of exhibits And it was no secret that whoever won the contract to power the fair have an unprecedented stage to demonstrate their dominance in the electrical market Imagine it's may eighteen ninety two in Chicago You're a local city official and the vice president of the planlanning Committee for nexte year's World Fair You're in a cramped meeting room on the first floor of the Fair's offices, where you and your fellow committee members have gathered in private to deliberate on an important matter. Take a deep breath and rise from your seat Well gentlemen, we're here to decide what may be the single most important question of the fair who will provide the electrical system. So let us select the best bid from the best company across the table, a Burley committee member who never misses a chance for an argument raises his hand Well, in my mind, there's only one, Westinghouse. Let's not waste our time pretending we're going to consider anyone else. You feel your face flush Well, it's true that Mr. Westinghouse has submitted a bid A GE has submitted an equally attractive proposal. I've trust I don't need to remind any of you of the prominence and stellar track record of GE founded by the genius inventor Thomas Edison Yeah, well where was Edison Mr. Westinghouse made the trip all the way from Pittsburgh and it's here personally Edison's nowhere to be seen. Presumably he's locked in his workshop, tinering with his next gizmo Mison might not be here himself, but GE's top management are. You can't deny that they're the dominant player in the electric market So dominant that the first bid they submitted was nearly triple the price Well, since then, they've come down considerably. which only proves that they were trying to rob us blind in the first place, yeah? But those New York suits take us for suckers. We have a responsibility to the people of Chicago to get the best deal but from the best company. Westinghouse is the best company. They've installed their AC systems across the country. They've proven their system is efficient, safe, and most importantly, economical You notice several committee members nob their heads approvingly Gentlemen, please, we're talking about the reputation of the city This is not a time to pinge pennies. Well, I agree that the reputation of the city is the most important factor in our decision precisely why we should choose Westinghouse As you look around the room, you see that many of your fellow committee members appear to have made up their minds Well, fine, I leave the decision to all of you. but remember Qality requires investment When we throw that switch next year at the fair nation's eyes will be upon us be our heads on the block if anything goes wrong You sit back down and wipe your brow with a handkerchief You know, the decision before the committee is monumental So you just hope that when the votes are cast Best company comes out on top. After tense negotiations, the Chicago World's Fair Committee awarded the contract to Westinghouse He had visited Chicago several times in the spring of eighteen ninety two cultivating relationships with city officials and endearing himself to the local press. And while Thomas Edison's company had charged eleven dollars per arc light during the fairare's construction phase, after their merger, General Electric's bid to illuminate the fare itself came in at triple that rate committee was outraged and ultimately, Westinghouse's lower bid and promises of speedier progress won them over So in may, eighteen ninety two, George Westinghouse returned to Pittsburgh triumphant with an enormous task in front of him In just a year, he would have to design and build an entirely new electrical system capable of reliably powering tens of thousands of lights all within a tight budget But he wouldn't have to face the challenge alone Nikola Tesla would soon join him, eager to seize the opportunity to finally prove on the grandest stage in the world that their AC system was the future of electric power I'm Raza Jaffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, open the file on Benedict Arnold y who betrayed the American Revolution America is fighting to free itself from the British Empire And one of its foremost generals was Benedict Ar He's a smugger turned battlefield hero. admired for his aggressive tactics But when a war wound H new wife, debts and politics test his loyalty to the Max Turn spy. and devises a plot to shatter the revolution and help Britain capture rebel commommander in chief, General George Washington And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history Follow the Sy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts You can also listen to the full season of the spy who betrayed the American Revolution early and ad free on the Audible There are people you're told to trust, lawyers, teachers, especially doctors. But what happens when you put your life in someone's hands and they betray you? The hit podcast Doctor Death is back And this season is unlike any other. doror Death, the Cowboy, is the story of a charming neurosurgeon who rode into western towns selling a persona of confidence and care He wore cowboy boots in the operating room and became sought after by patients He promised to heal them. Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies This season is about a doctor who was never truly held accountable for the patients whose lives he ruined A story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice that will leave you questioning who to trust Listen to Doctor Death, the cowboy, wherever you get your podcasts, or binge the entire series right now, only with Audible On august twenty seventh, eighteen ninety two, Nikola Tesla arrived in New York City after a seven month tour of Europe In England and France, he had impressed crowds with his AC poolyphase motor and demonstrated his latest innovations to rapped audiences. after a lecture at the Royal Institution in London A prominent physicist declared, Mr. Tesla has the genius of a discoverer. But his most significant achievement had been securing a licensing agreement with a leading electric company in Hungary to use his patents to develop AC power across the continent excited by the prospect of introducing this new technology to Europe Tesla wrote to George Westinghouse about the potential for business overseas But while Westinghouse was intrigued by the news, he had a more immediate priority. fulfilling his ambitious contract to power the Chicago World's Fair. Tesla understood immediately that there could be no expansion overseas without a triumphant demonstration of his AC power at home. So he pledged to go to Pittsburgh himself to work with Westinghouse's engineers, acknowledging it is necessary to bring the AC motor to high perfection before the exhibition, as this is of prime importance But once in Pittsburgh, Tesla found Westinghouse's electricians struggling to meet the demands of the complex and demanding project would require ninety two thousand incandescent bulbs that could light up the fairgrounds for six months In order to achieve what he had promised, Westinghouse's team would have to develop the largest power generating system ever produced And with a fair scheduled to open in less than a year, it would have to be completed in record time One engineer recalled being left in a daze by the sheer enormity of the task his top manager warned Westinghouse is asking the impossible and he just won't get it These men who had to design and install the generator that would run the fare's lights, foresaw the many obstacles ahead After that point, the average Westinghouse AC plant in a big city power a maximum of ten thousand bulbs What their boss was asking for was ten times that And the bulbs themselves remained a problem. Since Edison's patent win in the courts, Westinghouse could no longer use an incandescent bulb similar to Edison's Although the case was still on appeal, Westinghouse knew his chances were slim. So he had no choice but to get to work designing a new kind of bulb, one that he could use in Chicago So while Westinghouse and Tesla got to work in Pittsburgh Seven thousand laborers were toiling day and night in the swampy marshland south of Chicago, clearing land and cutting timber to build the structures that would become known as the White City But even as it began to take shape, the courts were about to hand Westinghouse a setback In december eighteen ninety two, the US. Supreme Court reaffirmed the patent ruling in Edison's favor, denying Westinghouse's appeal. The New York Times declared the matter settled with the headline, Edison again successful Noting that the Westinghouse Company had been restrained from making, using or selling the Edison Bowl But in defeat, Westinghouse's lawyers were curiously nonchalant because Westinghouse's engineers had made a breakthrough They had managed to design a replacement bulb for their lighting system, which they called the stopper lamp Instead of Edison's fused glass seal at the base of the bulb, Westinghouse used a two piece stopper to ensure the bulb was sealed and could contain the glowing filament It burns just as brightly as Edison's, though for shorter duration But more importantly, Westinghouse's engineers were confident that the design was different enough to avoid infring on Edison's patent And along with a new incandescent bulb, they were on track to fulfill their mission of powering the worldld's Fair too. They had managed to build twelve towering generators, each weighing seventy five tons These massive machines were completed in january eighteen ninety three and shipped to Chicago just before opening day And on Thursday, june first, eighteen ninety three, the gem of the fair, the Electricity Building opened The building's impressive white columns spanned nearly seven hundred feet in length and was surrounded by a lagoon, a fountain, and a broad esplanade And after more than a year of constant work and development, Westinghouse and Tesla had succeeded in the enormous task of illuminating the sprawling white city In August, Tesla visited the Fargrounds and gave a demonstration to a packed and enthusiastic audience using a unique type of generator called an oscillator He generated high frequency alternating currents which produced dramatic electrical effects They made objects, spin and whirl, fired enormous sparks into the air, and lit up glass tubes and bulbs with no wires attached Then, in a stunning display, he ran electricity through his own body. causing faint glimmers of electrical light to shimmer around him crowd was enthralled with his manipulation of electricity But for many visitors, the greater wonder was the possibility that the power on display might be capable of changing their lives Imagine it's a hot summer day in eighteen ninety three You're a corn and grain farmer with a small plot of land about twenty miles south of Chicago And today you and your neighbor have made the journey north to marvel at the inventions on display at the World's Fair. I couldn't wait to see what all the excitement was about And your first stop was the electrical building As you and your friends step out of a demonstration given by the famous inventor Nicola Tesla, you can see your neighbor's eyes are wide with amazement I've never seen anything like that in my life. Did you see the bolts of light that flew around him? I sure did I mean, how did he do that? He's like conjuring magic It was impressive for sure, but it's just electricity, not magic. mister Tesla is a scientist, not some wizard. Yeah,, but you gott to admit it was a wild sight As you continue to walk through the exhibit grounds, your eye is drawn to a large generator roped off from the crowd and manned by a few workers. You step closer, gazing at a system of copper wires and switchboards that display the electrical current running up a staircase and overhead to power a string of brilliant lights Now, now that's what I call impressive. Look at that, all that power waiting to be harnessed. Well, not that it does us any good. It's just for the fair, at best rich folk. No, I don't agree. You don't see the potential? Look, how many hours a day do you work on your farm? Your friend gives you a smirth. Well you know the answer to that as long as there's daylight onm working in the fields