Energy Wars: Did Thomas Edison Steal Nikola Tesla's Inventions?

WARNING: This episode contains graphic mentions of animal abuse and electrocution. Please listen responsibly with your mental and emotional health in mind.

And thus begins our descent into fraud and fortune, into the lives and lies of those we affectionately refer to as snake oil salesmen. This week, Olivia kicked us off with a household name - a man who is (I daresay wrongfully) synonymous with dozens of revolutionary inventions: Thomas Edison. More specifically, Olivia covered Edison’s involvement with Nikola Tesla, a far less appreciated inventor in his time now known for his work in mechanical and electrical engineering. What began as Olivia’s attempt to uncover Edison’s cartoonishly villainous treatment of other inventors ended up being a somehow more sinister case study in regular-ass billionaires. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t exist in a Capitalist society without ‘em.

As usual, we encourage you to listen to the episode to get the story in living color, but here’s a brief overview for our friends who prefer to read rather than listen. I see you, readers.

I Am a Sheltered Orphan with No Internet Access - Who Were Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla?

Don’t worry, small Victorian child, I’ll tell you. Thomas Edison was born in 1854 in Milan, Ohio and basically had the formal education of a grade schooler but the technical engineering education of a slightly older grade schooler. He became interested in electrical engineering after learning about the operation of telegraph machines, and eventually went on to invent the stock ticker (look it up if you’re too young to know what that is, small Victorian child). The proceeds from his patent allowed him to establish a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he eventually became the owner of 1,093 patents by the end of his life. At his wealthiest, Edison was worth the modern-day equivalent of approximately $18 billion, but by his death in 1931 he was worth the equivalent of $12 million. Poor baby. We weep for his poverty.

Nikola Tesla, on the other hand, was born in what was then Austria and what is now Croatia. He had some formal education, but (like Edison) got most of his training through working in electrical and mechanical engineering. One of those engineering jobs just so happened to be at the Continental Edison company in Paris, where a manager recommended he emigrate to the United States. He left for Edison’s lab in New Jersey at 28 years old, where he began working for Edison himself.

Oh, Right, Edison Invented the Light Bulb, Right?

Nah. But he did invent the DC electric light bulb - and this is where we get into the really interesting stuff about physics and engineering. DC (Direct Current) power essentially means that energy is generated - for instance, in a battery - and then transported via a wire to power something else. DC power tends to be pretty inefficient since the energy radiates at a net loss when transported through wires. This is why DC power had to be transmitted to private homes and buildings from power stations on every block. To give you an idea of how quickly the energy would be sapped from the wires, DC power could only travel 3/4 a mile before the power would radiate to zero. What’s worse - Edison’s DC power plants were so fragile that they constantly needed expensive repairs. Whoof.

So What’s the Deal with Tesla?

While working for Edison, Tesla was given the gargantuan task of figuring out how to fix all of the DC power plants. Just by virtue of the plants’ fragility, the task was nearly impossible - which is probably why Edison personally offered to pay Tesla $50,000 (about $1.2 million today) if he could do it. And then he did it. Edison’s response? “You don’t understand American humor.” Tesla never got his money, and Edison got his power plants fixed.

Tesla, rightfully upset with the whole affair, left Edison’s lab and began working to improve electrical delivery. What he invented revolutionized the world of power transport: AC (Alternating Current) power. What that meant was that the high-voltage electrical current would change directions as it was transported. When it arrived at its destination the electricity would run through a transformer, which would knock down the voltage to something appropriate for the modern American household. And, since the electricity was traveling at such high voltage, its radiative loss would be much lower than DC power. Score!

Tesla’s invention caught the eye of yet another wealthy inventor by the name of George Westinghouse, who supported his work to further develop AC power. Tesla worked for Westinghouse for about a year, who then licensed Tesla’s patent. In a shocking display, Westinghouse beat Edison’s bid to be the first company to display electricity at the World’s Fair. Thus began Edison’s smear campaign to squash AC power and his main competition. In reality, Edison’s feud was with Westinghouse more than Tesla. It was a simple matter of profits.

A Smear Campaign, You Say?

Yeah, and it got pretty nasty. Edison began lobbying against AC power, warning and even demonstrating its dangers. When a concerned citizen reached out to Edison in hopes that he could develop a more humane method of execution, Edison promptly suggested AC power as a viable option in hopes that AC power would become synonymous with the distasteful act of, you know, killing people. Even worse, Edison began arranging public demonstrations of the devastating effects of AC power, paying children to round up street dogs to electrocute in the streets by running an AC current through a water bowl.

Most famously (as seen on the hit animated television series Bob’s Burgers), Edison arranged for a “deranged'“ elephant to be executed via AC power and filmed the affair in a short video called “Electrocuting an Elephant.” Topsy the elephant had been condemned after being fed a lit cigar and subsequently killing three circus performers. Edison capitalized on the incident by setting up an elaborate “show” on Coney Island and filming it for the world to see the dangers of AC power. It’s horrible. Don’t watch it. (Seriously, don’t). There’s contention as to whether Topsy’s execution was more another attempt to smear AC power or more an attempt to latch onto the film market, but it’s pretty bad either way. Eventually, AC power was used in an attempt to create a more humane execution method. The Kimmler Affair (thus named for convicted murderer and death row inmate William Kimmler) was the result of engineer Harold Brown’s acquisition of an AC dynamo and development of an early electric chair. I won’t go into the gory details here (listen to the episode to get it in full), but suffice to say Kimmler suffered needlessly for no other reason than human negligence.

So… What Does This Have to Do With Tesla?

Very little, I’m afraid. Ultimately, the War of Currents surrounded Westinghouse and Edison rather than Tesla and Edison (regardless of what the Internet would have you believe). But Tesla suffered for his inability to create something lasting. He worked for Westinghouse as a consultant before quitting, after which he continued to invent and develop technology. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, however - Tesla’s inventions were useful, but generally were improved upon by others to make even more useful iterations. As a result, Tesla never managed to make anything lucrative enough to live on.

Eventually, he received a patent for an invention that improved long distance radio signal. Not long after, Guglielmo Marconi attempted to submit a patent for a nearly identical design to Tesla’s - and was rejected. But with the backing of the mega-rich (including Andrew Carnegie and, you guessed it, Thomas Edison), Marconi received his patent and generated a radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean using Tesla’s work. Marconi even won two Nobel Prizes for his design, work inarguably stolen from Tesla. Though Tesla was far too poor to sue an inventor backed by billionaires, the Supreme Court upheld Tesla’s claims of plagiarism in 1943.

Wow, This is All a Bummer

You said it, bud. At the end of the day, both Olivia and Brooke were disturbed by the trajectory of Tesla’s life (and his apparent belief that women were too good for him). Even more so, they were disturbed by Edison’s lack of consideration for poorer, struggling inventors who simply wanted to improve upon existing patents. Edison’s bread and butter was suing other inventors who got too close to his own patents’ designs - using his nearly endless money to secure more money from people who needed it far more than he did. Sounds a little familiar. So here we are, on our anti-Capitalist horses again. Crying about Tesla and his beautiful jaw line and his untreated manic depression.

Thanks, Olivia. Now we’re all sad.