WEBVTT - How did Nikola Tesla change the way we use energy? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.600 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:16.680 from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:22.000 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant, Chuck, Chuck. That's going. 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:27.920 You can just call me Nikola really okay? How about 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.840 your Chuck? Yes, all right, Chuck? Good God, I'm good. 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.480 I'm good. I'm I'm much better than how you asked 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.199 me twenty nights ago when I'm recorded, Yes podcast, No, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.319 that was that was two days three two days from 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.919 now right. Yeah, it's magic. It is magic. We'll have 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.559 to reveal our secret one day like some sort of 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:52.120 we could dress up like Siegfried and Roy I get 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.840 there and tell everybody. Yeah, okay, I owe it to Jerry. 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.000 Jerry is always just the white Tiger. Yeah, yeah, nice 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.119 and Jerry. Chuck. I have a trivia question for you, beautiful, Okay, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:08.160 hit me. Why are the Los Angeles Dodgers named the 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.360 Los Angeles Dodgers? Okay, Chuck, I know the answer. Do 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:13.479 you want me to say? What do you want to say? 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:15.000 I want you to say. I just asked you a 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:19.119 question because when they were in Brooklyn the original spot. 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.440 There were a lot of train trolley cars in Brooklyn 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.360 at the time that had really dangerous electrical wiring that 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:31.120 operated them, and people would dodge these electrical lines and 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.000 these train cars, and so they called them the Brooklyn 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.680 Trolley Dodgers initially, and then that shortened to the Brooklyn Dodgers, 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.160 and then they o' mount the O'Malley family broke the 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:42.880 hearts of Brooklyn and moved them too. L A, I 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.920 can't believe that still, I know who does that? H 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.480 Did you see a documentary HBO about the Brooklyn Dodgers 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.720 so good? No, it was it. Yeah, I mean there 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.160 are people in Brooklyn today that have not watched the 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.000 baseball game since the Brooklyn Dodgers moved their their hearts 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:01.880 were broken so badly. Yeah wow, and uh wow, rip 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.600 the heart out of Brooklyn. But actually it wasn't. People 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.440 might right in and there's been some follow up and 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:08.679 O'Malley really tried as hardest to keep the team there, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.840 and there were some politics involved that greedy Sandy kofax Y. Yeah, 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.400 but off topic a little bit, but not really not really, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.800 because you can make a case that it was um 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.200 Thomas Alva Edison, who gave the Brooklyn Dodgers their name. 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.240 Bring it Home, Baby, Okay, I will so. By the 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:33.200 time the Dodgers were formed in the eighteen eighties, right, um, 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.160 Edison had basically lit up parts of New York with 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.520 his incandescent light bulb. Big, big innovation. It was huge, man. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.839 I mean imagine going from like gaslight to electricity. Yeah, 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.919 I mean I bet it blew people's minds back then. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.480 I imagine so, especially when they touched one of those 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:58.040 trolley lines. Sure so, okay. Edison was a visionary, a genius, 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.520 one can make the case um, and an innovator, and 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.960 he came up with what we know of as the 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.799 modern harnessing of electricity, which I should probably point out 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.640 electricity is not energy, it's an energy carrier. Direct current 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.520 is what he was his big thing, right. Direct current 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:20.080 is basically it is, well not basically, it's where electricity. 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.359 The electric charge is constant. It never changes. So if 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.200 you look directional, it is, and if you look at 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.560 it it's like a line. It's just a straight line. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.320 And Edison was pretty happy with his direct current inventions. 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.120 The problem is is that you lose a lot of 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.840 it to waste heat over long distances. Yeah. Well basically 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.680 you can't really transport it over super long distances they 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.720 found out, right, Okay, So that was kind of the 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.680 drawback to it. Other than that it was enormous. He 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:56.360 lit up New York and arguably created um what we 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.880 know of today is light. Right, But there was another 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.840 way of looking at things, and that is the alternating current. 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:09.000 So Edison was super, super super married to direct current. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.080 He just saw it. I think I read a quote 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.680 of a river flowing gently to the sea. That's how 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.160 we characterized direct current. That will kill you if you 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.920 touch it, yeah, big time. Uh. And alternating current is 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.560 if you instead of that straight line of a charge 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.200 um or flow of electricity from one pole to the other, 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:32.160 I think negative, depositive, all always. Alternating current looks like 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.080 a sign wave, right, So it has a wavelength and 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.760 it actually goes back and forth from one pole to another, 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.760 which is why it's called alternating. And these days it 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.159 does so at about sixty cycles per second, so it 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.320 changes direction sixty times in a second, and it's very 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.800 steady and reliable. And actually in those days too, I 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:52.640 think it's the same yeah, which is one of the 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.320 cool things. Right. So here's the thing we're talking about 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.520 electricity here. I think a lot of people overlook is 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:04.760 that Edison was also quite a showman and great businessman, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.479 very very much so, as much as much of a 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.360 great businessman as a genius, right, But he was also 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.080 very stubborn, and he didn't he didn't he didn't think 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:14.880 there was any way to improve or any need to 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.400 improve upon direct current. There's another guy whose name people 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.240 might be familiar with. His name is Nicola Tesla. Not 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:25.040 a great businessman, in fact, a very poor businessman. Evidently 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.560 he was. Actually he spent some time after he became 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.520 a great inventor digging ditches just to try to make 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.600 ends meet. Apparently he didn't. He did file for a 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.479 lot of patents, but apparently he didn't do that nearly 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.280 enough because a lot of his stuff was kind of 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.119 stolen and kind of you know, nicked from. So, Chuck, 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:47.160 we've got Edison on one side with d C, and 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.600 we have Tesla on the other side with a C. 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.839 That sounds like, you know, a couple of a couple 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.800 of nerds going at it, but really these two guys 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.400 engaged in this very very public rumble and based gleet 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:05.120 stake was the infrastructure of the United States and the 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:13.200 in the world exactly, this huge, huge, massive um competition. Sure, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.520 that just took place, and there was some crazy stuff 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.599 that went that that came out of it, Lots of electrocutions, 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.120 lots of nefariousness, And we're not going to tell you 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.680 who won yet because a lot of people don't necessarily 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.560 know what kind of electricity we use more than the 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.360 other d C or a C. So we're just gonna 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.719 pay this out. Baby. This is just interesting. So yeah, 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:39.039 Nicola Tesla he was Austrian born and uh he arrived 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.440 in the United States in four when he was just 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.280 a young lad of twenty eight and a merror. Three 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.000 years later, after being in the United States, he filed 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.640 for a series of patents that basically outlined what you 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.120 would need to make the alternating current work. So he 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:56.719 made pretty quick work when he came over here to 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.640 the States, right he did. Did you ever see the 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:03.760 Prestige movie? I've heard David Bowie played Tesla in that movie? Nice? Yeah, 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.839 very cool. Did he do a good job like Labyrinth 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:11.160 quality job? Oh? Better? I thought so? All right, but um, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.400 just a little sidebar if you're interested in that kind 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.480 of thing. Um. But yeah, you know, after reading this 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.600 and then finding out that Tesla actually may have sort 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.400 of invented the radio, even though Marconi gets credit for that, 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.560 there's a lot of things that Tesla did. He's sort 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.160 of the unsung inventor when you kind of look at 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:29.920 all these little things. Yeah, and again, like you made 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:31.760 the point, I think you have to be a really 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.720 good self promoter time as much an innovator, Especially if 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:37.600 you are an innovator, you need to be a self promoter. 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:39.680 You get lost out in the in the annals of history, 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.080 especially back then. Right, So, Chuck, let's talk about this. 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.480 She said that he came to the States from Austria 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.680 at the age of twenty eight and filed some really 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.200 important patents early on. Uh and they were for his 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:57.200 alternating current system. Right. Here's the huge advantage of alternating current. 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.520 We were talking about how d C is a constant, 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:04.400 steady output of electricity. Uh. An alternating current is all 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:06.600 over the place, but it's still it's also a steady 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.000 output of power. The thing is is because the because 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.400 DC doesn't alternate, UH, it loses a lot of energy 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.520 to heat and so it's not good for transporting it 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.080 long distances. Right, So Tesla came up with these, uh, 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.680 these patents for the generation of an alternating current and 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.840 a transformer. Right, you've heard of these and you probably 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.840 don't know what they are. Well, here this is the 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.000 key to alternating current. Absolutely. What what you do is 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.040 you generate this electricity and you run it through a 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:39.839 transformer and with very little power loss. Right, you can 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.320 step it up to a tremendous voltage. We'll step it 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.640 down in this case. Well, no, you step it up 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.600 first for a long distance travel, so you're using you're 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.840 using less power to generate it, right, But then you 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:54.600 run it through this transformer and all of a sudden, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.000 say a thousand volts goes to like five hundred thousand volts. 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:03.040 So you can shoot that thing amazingly long distances, uh, 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.160 without losing very much of the electricity involved in it. 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.160 And then when it gets to say a neighborhood, after 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:14.040 passing through you know, the desert or nowhere very dangerously, 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.280 when it gets to a neighborhood, it goes through another 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.320 transformer and then it gets stepped down. That's what I 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.040 was thinking about. And so since you've lost very little 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:23.480 and it's being stepped down easily without much powerless to 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:28.320 this transformer, you can supply tons of homes with a 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.520 single line like a d volts I think is what 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.920 you end up using out of let's say a million volts. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.000 It's on the line right sure, And it can also 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.840 be when it's stepped up voltage wise, it can be 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.839 stepped down or it is inevitably stepped down in amplitude, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.160 which means that it requires less of a physically smaller 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.440 line of copper, which also says on costs because you know, 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.120 you remember when the economic fallout was going on and 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.320 people are steeling copper out of other people's cars and 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.120 air conditioners because it was valuable. It's expensive stuff, especially 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.240 if you're talking about creating the infrastructure of an entire country. 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.400 So Tesla comes up with these patents and uh, pretty 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:14.120 much right then, and there changes everything again except for 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:17.480 the self promotion part, right right, he did, But he 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:19.240 did his best work when he was able to hook 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.280 up with people that were very good businessman. Who did 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:23.880 you back him? Who did he hook up with? That 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.320 really changed everything? So Josh, you're talking about George Westinghouse yes, 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.840 And I know you've heard of the Westinghouse company, which 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:31.640 is probably means he did a pretty good job if 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.520 you still know that name. Uh. He had an electric company, 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.520 George did, and it was struggling to work out some 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.000 details of a successful A C system, And then he 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.840 heard about this famous lecture that Tesla gave in so 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:47.840 he said, you know, we should get this guy. And 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.000 Tesla had a couple of financial backers named Peck and Brown, 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:56.560 so they approached Westinghouse about commercializing Tesla's work. And at 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.640 the time he said, all right, sounds like a great idea. 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.720 I'm gonna give you guys rand and cash and another 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:07.520 fifty thousand in notes, and some royalties for the electricity 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.160 that we create, right well, two and fifty cents for 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:16.080 every horsepower that was sold through his invention by Westinghouse. Well, 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.600 I have a little modern conversion for you. Let's hear 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.000 that seventy five dollars back then would be one point 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.120 eight million dollars today. Holy count. And that's not even 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.640 counting the royalties. So this is a lot of dough, 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.920 it is. So thankfully, with Peck and Brown's help hooked 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.800 him up with Westinghouse. Now Tesla has a viable situation 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.400 going on here, and you can actually compete with Edison, 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.559 his nemesis. He worked for Edison. He did that was awesome. 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:44.400 He he went and worked for Edison. And there's a 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.520 there's legend that he went to Edison and said, look, 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.959 I've got this alternating current ideas together and Edison did 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:53.640 not want to hear it. Yeah, he was very, like 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.200 you said, very stubborn. He was like, no DC, buddy, 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.960 go make the DC better, which he you know, he 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.319 worked on that, right. So actually, yeah, the the apparently 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:08.559 Tesla eventually got um so tired of Edison and his 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.760 um mule headedness. Uh that he just said, you know what, 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:14.320 I'm going off on my own. And I think that's 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.880 when he started digging ditches, right, That's when he struggled 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:18.920 before he eventually hooked up with Peck and Brown to 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.760 give him some backing. Right, So that brings us back 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.559 up to the current time. Well not current is in now, 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.960 but current back then and uh, they he battled. You know, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.079 Tesla sounds kind of a little stubborn guy too. Exeused 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.559 to battle with the Westinghouse guys on the best way 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.480 to do this and eventually they settled on what we 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.960 said before, which is a three phase sixty cycle current 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.959 that we still used today. And you talked about that 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:50.760 lecture that attracted um, some adherence to TESLA, including Westinghouse, right, Yeah, uh, 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.400 well it's he started to get more and more publicity 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.360 just because he had such a good idea despite his 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:00.640 terrible self promotion, right and showmanship was lot of that involved. 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.480 He his idea was so good and it was just 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.160 so clearly superior to d C in the minds of 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.040 some people that um, he couldn't help but get publicity. 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.960 So as this started to develop, Uh, Edison engaged in 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.439 an all out public war. Well, he got a little nervous, 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.080 which is why he engaged in the war. In when 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:23.640 this thing was kind of picking up steam and they 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:25.920 were getting the sixty cycle thing worked out, That's when 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.640 Edison was like, So, what Edison decided to do was 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.880 to proved everybody the alternating current is just dangerous. Yeah, 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.959 that was his main focus, and he did sope by 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:46.120 performing publicly executions on dogs, horses, and eventually he crescendoed 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.880 by electrocuting to death an elephant named Topsy in public. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.160 He did that's pretty funny. There's nothing funnier than publicly 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.280 electrocuting an elephant. Right, but um it gets it turns 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.360 a little grim. All right? Have you heard of William Kemmler? Well, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.079 I thought it was already Graham. But did you you 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:10.640 got it tough enough, Nancy um Way. William Kemler was 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.600 a convicted acts murderer. I looked him up, actually as 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:18.640 a convicted hatchet murderer, um who killed his girlfriend and 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:20.880 then very calmly went next door and said, I just 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.360 killed my girlfriend. But a boom about it being not 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.520 much of a trial. Later he was sentenced to death. 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.520 The thing about Kemmler was he was a going to 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:32.600 be the first person in New York and, as far 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.640 as I can tell, the first person in the United 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.560 States who would be electrocuted to death rather than hung. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.160 This is news to me. They I did some extra research. 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.040 I heard electrocution. I'm like, oh, I gotta look more 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.560 into this. Um. So Kemmler is going to be the 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.120 first person in the electric chair, and he has on 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.360 August six, ninety has this date with destiny and um 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:59.120 Tesla's invention. Apparently they hadn't decided which way to go. 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.360 Should it be decent, he should be a C. And 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.440 this guy who also used to publicly electrocute animals on 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:10.200 behalf of Edison, managed to finagle a used old Westinghouse 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.880 a C generator uh to be used to get rid 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.080 of Kembler. And the execution was very public and it 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:23.480 was very horrible. Apparently there were twenty five witnesses. Most 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.600 of them vomited. At least one fainted. I think one 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.040 of the physicians that were attending that was attending to 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.240 the guy ran out of the room couldn't watch. They 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.560 put two thousand volts of juice to the guy for 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.320 I think like ten twelve seconds. He just turned totally rigid, 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:46.560 apparently punctured his finger with his fingernails. It was bad, right, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.080 And then they stopped and the doctors went over and 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.960 looked at him, and he started breathing again, and they 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.440 shouted to throw the juice back on, and they had 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.120 to kill this guy because he was obviously in excruciating pain. 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:01.320 So he did it again, and they left it on 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.960 for a minute, and apparently the generator didn't stop generating 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.320 more and more voltage, so they have no idea how 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.360 much they passed through this guy apparently sweat came out 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.480 of his pores or um, blood came out of his 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.040 pores like sweat. Uh. He started to burn and then finally, 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.800 after a minute they turned it off. The long shot 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.600 of this is that it came out that this was 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.280 an a c generator I'll be an old beat up 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.120 one that shouldn't have been used in the first place. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:31.440 And William Kemmler was a an actual casualty, very brutal 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.360 casualty in the war between Edison and um Tesla. Well, 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:38.160 he should have thought about that before he took the 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:39.720 hatchet to the co frience. You know, I'll bet he 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.040 would have thought twice had he known what his fate 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:43.600 was going to be. This would have had the opposite 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.280 effect on me. Edison was saying, look how dangerous this is. 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.160 If I would have seen that, I always said, Wow, 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.880 that's the electricity that I want supplying power to my house, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:53.840 the kind that makes blood come out of your ports. Yeah, 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:55.160 because I mean, if you can do that, I can 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.480 probably you know, light up your room. Right. Well, it's 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.000 certainly lit up William Kemmler. So during the public war, 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.040 a very public war. Now Edison is uh is sweating 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:09.800 it and then in uh Westinghouse won the bid to 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.159 light up the Chicago World's Fair, which was the Colombian Exposition, 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.720 a big, big deal and a big blow to Edison. 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.680 He did, and you know how we how we won 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.120 the bid. He under key undercut g E had put 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.640 in a bid for a million dollars, which if seventy 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.119 five thousand was one point eight million, imagine how much 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.159 a million dollars was back then. That was ge s 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.440 bid And by this time ge he G had assumed 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.679 um Edison's company, Edison General Electric I think is what 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.120 it was called, so he was with G. Now they 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.119 put in a million dollar bid. Most of it was 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.879 to cover the copper wire because remember to get copper 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.760 to get electricity over long distances using d C, the 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:50.800 copper wire has to be big. You have to keep 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:52.679 the amps up to keep the voltage up, so you 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.360 lose less up the far end. Right. So just by 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.480 using less copper that alone, Um Wessing else was able 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.679 to put in a bit of half a million, undercut 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.080 him by half. So they got the rights of the 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.399 Colombian Exposition, which was big. This was the turning point 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:10.520 right here, Yeah, I mean the rest literally, as they say, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.919 is history because that uh, you know, Grover Cleveland flipped 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.159 the switch and a hundred thousand lightbulbs lit up, and 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.639 everyone said, boy, a C might be the way to 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.760 go here. That was it. Yeah, it was cheaper, it worked, 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:27.520 and also apparently all over the fair were Tesla's inventions 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.479 on display. So I think twenty seven million people visited 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.359 the Chicago World's Fair that year, and every single one 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.560 of them got to witness alternating current, which ultimately won. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.960 And even without the World's Fair, I mean that really 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.120 punctuated it. But just because it was efficient and economical, 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:45.520 I mean, do you know how much you pay for 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:50.320 a kilowatt hour of electricity? Now? Not much, No, it's 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.359 like ten cents tops uh and there's no telling how 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.359 much it would be with DC uh plus. Also I 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.640 was thinking about this, it's you could make the argument 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:05.080 that uh, Tesla has saved tons of lives from electrical 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:09.119 accidents that never took place, because if you have DC, 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.960 you're not using transformers, you're not stepping it up or down. Yeah, 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.040 that's a lot of heat and you can't just send 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.919 five thousand volts into your electrical outlet, you know how 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:19.920 many people die. If we've just gone with d C, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.119 it would have never happened. Maybe maybe not, would have 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.560 never happened. So a few years after that, Westinghouse built 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.920 a hydro electric plant at Niagara Falls, and all of 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.040 a sudden, buffalo had power. And then that when in 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.439 New York, New York City were just showing off by 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.200 this time, Yeah, and then dude, it was all over. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.280 But don't don't feel too bad for Edison, because we 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.560 still use d C. We use both. We use DC 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:47.439 in car batteries and uh, locomotives, some types of motors 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.240 use d C, so it's not I would call those 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.679 consolation prizes. Yeah, sort of the booby prize. And you 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.080 put a C in DC together and you have one 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.600 of the best rock bands in history. So, Chuck Um, 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.760 you want to talk a little more about Tesla. Did 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.560 you know that he also had a vision He never 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.439 managed to do it, but he had a vision of 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:10.239 um wireless. Yeah, the wireless that we enjoyed now he 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:12.760 was thinking about in like eighteen ninety. Yeah, Josh, he 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.359 he met with JP Morgan, who was, as you know, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:17.520 one of the most powerful men on earth at the time, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:22.159 and uh, he said basically envision a world system of 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.840 wireless communications to relate telephone messages across the ocean. Not 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.320 just telephone, I think music as well, broadcast news, music 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.920 and stock market reports and private messages, exactly what we're 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.639 doing now. Tesla, Yeah, he was where it's at. Sure, 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.480 he he basically just didn't have enough money. I think 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.760 he he probably could have done it had he had 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:45.680 enough money. He was working on a tower, and uh, 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.080 it was very clear that he needed a lot more 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.800 than the hundred and fifty thousand. Morgan kicked him, and 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:53.760 Morgan kind of lost interest. And it was Marconi actually 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.800 who put the nail in that wireless coffin, because he 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.760 came up with the telegraph. It's like telegraph and the radio, 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:01.920 which we already said. Tesla kind of did a lot 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.480 of work on the radio too. Yeah, Apparently Tesla pointed 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.760 out that um marc Coni used no less than fifteen 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:13.280 um Tesla patents to create that wireless transmission of the 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.439 s that made him so famous. Right. My impression of 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.360 Tesla is, uh that he was just this uber genius 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.760 who was so much into his own genius work that 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:29.720 he didn't understand that it required self promotion and business 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.159 savvy and showmanship. And he didn't care about that stuff. 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:38.160 So that's why he died alone in New York, said stuff, Chuck. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.000 It is not quite as sad as the fate of 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.680 Topsy the Elephant or William Kemmler, but still very sad. 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.080 So yeah, that was our awkward walk through the life 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.800 of Nikola Tesla. Did we ever say, um, well, yeah 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.119 he went out. Well I guess we implied it. But 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.280 yet today, even still the power stations that generate power 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.840 do them on the sixty cycle process. But everyone, if 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.120 you ask your comment person on the street who invented electricity, 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:08.359 they would say, oh, Edison. And did you also know 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:10.679 that the light bulbs, the incandescent light bulbs that he created, 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:16.239 were inefficient? I know, I know what a heck? Al right, 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:20.119