Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The war
Speaker 1: came to an end with the World's Fair in Chicago.
Speaker 1: It didn't end with a final shot or a white flag,
Speaker 1: but with brilliant white lights, a hundred thousand of them,
Speaker 1: to be exact. The beginning of the end happened during
Speaker 1: the planning phase. Organizers wanted to make the fair grander
Speaker 1: and more advanced than the much talked about Paris World's
Speaker 1: Fair of American technology had seen amazing innovations in recent years.
Speaker 1: Internal combustion powered tractors, the incandescent lamp, and the rotary dial,
Speaker 1: just to name a few. And one more marvel the
Speaker 1: introduction of the skyscraper right there in Chicago five years prior.
Speaker 1: Organizers had plans as big as the city itself, and
Speaker 1: for the first time since its invention, the Ferris wheel
Speaker 1: would make its debut at the fair. With the recent
Speaker 1: invention of the electric light, the organizers came up with
Speaker 1: an idea that would surely outshine pairs. Event literally that
Speaker 1: light the entire six hundred and ninety acre city. Keeping
Speaker 1: with the tradition of envisioning the future, Chicago saw the
Speaker 1: potential for electricity to light buildings and homes everywhere, though
Speaker 1: Chicago's prediction was more a foregone conclusion than dreamy speculation.
Speaker 1: Most homes in the late eighteen hundreds still used kerosene
Speaker 1: lamps or candles. Sure, there were the lucky few homes
Speaker 1: and businesses that already used electricity. Companies supplying wire and
Speaker 1: power were already rushing to control as much of the
Speaker 1: market as possible, but lighting up the entire World's Fair
Speaker 1: was no small undertaking. The company that could pull off
Speaker 1: such an endeavor would certainly win the line's share of
Speaker 1: the market. Needless to say, the bidding war between companies
Speaker 1: vying for the honor to light the World's Fair was fierce.
Speaker 1: General Electric made the first bid, offering to do the
Speaker 1: job at a cool one point eight million that's over
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars today. The organizers declined, though, looking for
Speaker 1: a cheaper alternative. Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, with brilliant
Speaker 1: inventor Nicola Tesla on board, bid a bit over five
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars at nearly a third of General Electrics bid.
Speaker 1: The organizers accepted. The deal, made news worldwide. Chicago's exposition
Speaker 1: would be the first fair powered by electricity. Tesla originally
Speaker 1: planned on using general electric light bulbs, but Thomas Edison,
Speaker 1: who held the patent and owned GE, didn't feel the
Speaker 1: need to lose Gracefully, knowing it would put Tesla and
Speaker 1: Westinghouse in a bind, he refused to sell a single
Speaker 1: bulb to them. Westinghouse sued, but the courts sided with Edison.
Speaker 1: Tesla and Company had the means to power the fair,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have a single light. With less than
Speaker 1: a year ago before the fair opened, they needed to
Speaker 1: get creative. The young inventor came up with a solution
Speaker 1: that didn't infringe on Edison's patent. The double stopper lightbulb
Speaker 1: had a shorter lifespan but was sufficient to use for
Speaker 1: the fair, and until Edison's patent expired, Westinghouse amped up production,
Speaker 1: producing a hundred and twenty thousand bulbs along with twelve
Speaker 1: thousand horsepower polyphase generators capable of supplying enough power to
Speaker 1: keep those lights glowing, plus enough electricity to provide a
Speaker 1: method of travel to and from the fair. The city's
Speaker 1: elevated railroad system would whisk up to fifty thou people
Speaker 1: an hour to and from the fair grounds inside. Electric
Speaker 1: rail cars, electric boats, and even a moving sidewalk would
Speaker 1: be ready to move visitors around the exposition. On opening day, May,
Speaker 1: one packed crowd gathered at the fairground entrance in anticipation.
Speaker 1: President Grover Cleveland stepped up to the podium and gave
Speaker 1: a short speech. When he finished and declared the fair open,
Speaker 1: he thrust his fist down on a gold plated button
Speaker 1: to start up the fairs machinery and turn on all
Speaker 1: those lights. The crowd gasped in astonishment, and the light
Speaker 1: people streamed through the gates. Aside from the expected cotton
Speaker 1: candy and other snacks, an entire section devoted to culinary
Speaker 1: innovation greeted them. There were livestock arenas, vendor tents, buildings
Speaker 1: with shows and art exhibits, and that ferris wheel towering
Speaker 1: over at all. Wishful homeowners admired fully electric kitchens, complete
Speaker 1: with dishwashers, electric cop plates, ranges, broilers, and kettles. Inventors
Speaker 1: showed off electric bed warmers for those cold winter nights,
Speaker 1: and electric fans for those sweltering summer days. Business Men
Speaker 1: balked at the neon lights and fax machines. Naturally, Westinghouse
Speaker 1: had their own exhibit. They have bully demonstrated to the
Speaker 1: crowd how the fair benefited from alternating current. Opposite from
Speaker 1: them was general electric, with the Edison Tower showcasing direct current.
Speaker 1: The day turned to dusk, and visitors still had so
Speaker 1: much to see. They were thrilled that the brilliant lights
Speaker 1: allowed them to stay longer. One newspaper reporter wrote that
Speaker 1: the exposition was worthy of world attention. The city and
Speaker 1: sky on the first evening were a light, as though
Speaker 1: transformed by a magician. The dome at the heart of
Speaker 1: the exposition glowed as though draped in stars. The lights
Speaker 1: dazzled everyone and became the talk of the nation and yes,
Speaker 1: the world. The way we use electricity had changed forever
Speaker 1: in the public's mind. Westinghouse and Tesla's alternating current had
Speaker 1: won the war and had stepped into center stage. And
Speaker 1: when the fair finally came to a close, it seemed
Speaker 1: everyone couldn't have been more pleased with how things turned out. Well,
Speaker 1: almost everyone, because in the War of the currents, there
Speaker 1: was one person in particular who didn't like to be outshined.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, Welcome to American Shadows. Like every good
Speaker 1: war story, the most pivotal moments occurred long before the
Speaker 1: first battle. Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty seven. He was the seventh child born
Speaker 1: to parents Samuel and Nancy, though only four of them
Speaker 1: made it to adulthood. Perhaps surprisingly, his education was sparse.
Speaker 1: He left school in eighteen fifty nine to work on
Speaker 1: the train route between Detroit and Port Herein. Then, just
Speaker 1: a few short years after the Civil War, an emerging
Speaker 1: technology swept the nation, the telegraph. Edison became so captivated
Speaker 1: with this new invention that he quit his route on
Speaker 1: the railroad and found employment as a telegraph operator. The
Speaker 1: job allowed him to work anywhere in the country, and
Speaker 1: he traveled extensively. But Edison had some difficulty with his
Speaker 1: chosen profession. He was deaf in one ear and had
Speaker 1: limited hearing and other due to childhood illnesses. This made
Speaker 1: understanding and translating the Morse Code to English much harder.
Speaker 1: He refused to give up, though he improved the device,
Speaker 1: making it easier for deaf and heart of hearing people
Speaker 1: to use. Edison's interpretation of the telegraph used a metal
Speaker 1: stylus and chemically treated paper. His version greatly improved upon
Speaker 1: the old one, recording up to a thousand words a minute.
Speaker 1: He found he enjoyed the process of creating new things,
Speaker 1: and worked on another invention, the universal stock printer. In
Speaker 1: the early days, his inventions earned him a tidy sum
Speaker 1: of forty dollars roughly seven hundred thousand today, so Edison
Speaker 1: quickly gave up working with telegraphs and moved to New
Speaker 1: Jersey to set up a lab and invent full time.
Speaker 1: When Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone, Edison set out
Speaker 1: to improve it. He developed a microphone that used carbon
Speaker 1: to create variable resistance in a current, which could transmit
Speaker 1: over much longer distances. His basic method would be used
Speaker 1: until digital telephones appeared in the nineteen eighties. His inventions,
Speaker 1: or the improvement of other inventions, earned him a new nickname,
Speaker 1: the Wizard of Menlo Park. The press reported on him frequently,
Speaker 1: and the public anxiously awaited to see what he had
Speaker 1: come up with next. In eighteen seventy eight, harnessing electricity
Speaker 1: became his new obsession. Edison bought patent after patent along
Speaker 1: with power plants, placing himself in the perfect position to
Speaker 1: monopolize the market as he had with other inventions. He
Speaker 1: quickly set out to improve on how electricity was being used.
Speaker 1: Making it safer and cheaper would also mean more customers.
Speaker 1: His first goal was to replace the gas light. The
Speaker 1: idea wasn't exactly new, the light all had been invented
Speaker 1: back in eighteen thirty five, but Edison felt he could
Speaker 1: do it better and more affordably. As smart a businessman
Speaker 1: as he was an inventor, he convinced financial heavyweights like
Speaker 1: JP Morgan and the Vanderbilts to invest in his research.
Speaker 1: The funds were enough to found the Edison Electric Company,
Speaker 1: which later became General Electric. His first real breakthrough came
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy nine. Edison came up with a light
Speaker 1: bulb that used a platinum filament. In eighteen eighty, he
Speaker 1: carbonized bamboo, creating a long lasting and affordable light bulb. Overnight,
Speaker 1: Edison became the biggest name in science. But lightbulbs don't
Speaker 1: work without current, and he needed electrical infrastructure. He chose
Speaker 1: what's called direct current or d C. With DC, the
Speaker 1: current flows in one direction in September at eighteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: the very first power station opened in New York City.
Speaker 1: Fifty nine paying customers immediately signed up. Before long, more
Speaker 1: plants were built. As you might imagine, the gas companies
Speaker 1: weren't exactly thrilled. They argued that direct current was dangerous
Speaker 1: for every day use by the general public, and there
Speaker 1: were drawbacks. Namely, direct current couldn't transfer past a mile,
Speaker 1: so customers needed to be rather close to a power plant,
Speaker 1: and costs were high. Copper wiring was expensive. Direct current
Speaker 1: wasn't the only game in town, though. There's also alternating current,
Speaker 1: or a C, which periodically reverses direction, and it has
Speaker 1: fewer limitations on distance. Farther distance fewer power plants, cheaper
Speaker 1: to operate, and lower costs. Overall, a second transformer could
Speaker 1: also lower the voltage. George Westinghouse was not only a
Speaker 1: proponent of a C power he was an economic Powerhouse
Speaker 1: had invented the air brake, which had set him up
Speaker 1: financially with the railroads. But Westinghouse had a problem. No
Speaker 1: amount of enthusiasm or money made a C work as
Speaker 1: well as Edison's d C. That didn't mean he didn't
Speaker 1: have a solution, though he hired a former Edison employee,
Speaker 1: a man named Nicola Tesla, touted as an exceptionally brilliant engineer.
Speaker 1: Tesla had immigrated from Serbia to New York City in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four. Upon arriving, he applied with Edison. Coming
Speaker 1: highly recommended and regarded, he handed Edison a letter of
Speaker 1: recommendation that read, my dear Edison, I know two great men,
Speaker 1: and you are one of them. The other is this
Speaker 1: young man. Born on July tenth of eighteen fifty six,
Speaker 1: Nicola Tesla was one of four siblings. Had become fascinated
Speaker 1: with electricity after a demonstration from his physics professor. Able
Speaker 1: to do complex calculations in his head and recall images
Speaker 1: with amazing detail, he completed his schooling in three years
Speaker 1: instead of four, though he left before acquiring his degree.
Speaker 1: He arrived in New York with the aforementioned letter and
Speaker 1: four set in his pocket. He knew of Edison and
Speaker 1: wanted the chance to work with such a great inventor,
Speaker 1: and Edison hired him, offering him a fifty thou dollar
Speaker 1: bonus if he could improve the direct current generators. Tesla
Speaker 1: loved a challenge, and in five, he provided his new
Speaker 1: employer with a solution, an alternating current generator. Edison scoffed
Speaker 1: at the idea, calling it splendid but impractical. It didn't
Speaker 1: help that his nemesis, Westinghouse also believed alternating current was
Speaker 1: the future of electricity. Though Tesla had met his end
Speaker 1: of the bargain, Edison did not. He refused to pay
Speaker 1: his new hire, telling him when you become a full
Speaker 1: fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke. Tesla didn't
Speaker 1: find the situation funny at all and promptly quit. As
Speaker 1: a new immigrant, employment was hard to find. Still, he
Speaker 1: found work digging ditches. It wasn't much, but he remained
Speaker 1: determined to save enough to work on his own inventions.
Speaker 1: The two would cross paths again, and not just during
Speaker 1: the finale at the World's Fair in Chicago. In fact,
Speaker 1: sparks were about to fly. Tesla didn't give up. Edison
Speaker 1: might have scoffed at his suggestion, but the idea of
Speaker 1: an alternating current generator was too tempting to walk away from.
Speaker 1: While digging ditches made for long, tiresome days, he worked
Speaker 1: out an invention in his head. Later he had jot
Speaker 1: the diagrams and notes onto paper, and they worked as
Speaker 1: jotted flawlessly, in fact, without ever changing a thing. Tesla
Speaker 1: had what's called idetic memory, which is the ability to
Speaker 1: vividly recall an image even if you've only seen it once.
Speaker 1: It's occasionally found in very bright children, but rarely ever
Speaker 1: in adults. Tesla patented his inventions, said to be the
Speaker 1: most valuable since the creation of the telephone. George Westinghouse
Speaker 1: took notice and not only licensed to the young inventor's patents,
Speaker 1: but he also hired him for its sixty dollars plus
Speaker 1: royalties and stock. If Westinghouse could corner the market on electricity,
Speaker 1: Tesla would be one of the world's wealthiest men. The
Speaker 1: company soon set up their new engineer in a lab
Speaker 1: not far from Edison's office. It must have felt pretty
Speaker 1: satisfying for Tesla. Shortly afterward, he invented a coil capable
Speaker 1: of generating high voltages and frequencies. In turn, this helped
Speaker 1: create new forms of light bulbs, such as fluorescent and neon.
Speaker 1: It also had another use, sending radio signals, and that
Speaker 1: gave Tesla another idea. He pitched JP Morgan's and ideas
Speaker 1: for wireless transmission. The financial tycoon loved the ideas so
Speaker 1: much he spent a hundred and fifty thou dollars to
Speaker 1: build a huge transmission tower. There was a problem, though,
Speaker 1: legal issues with one Guglielmo Marconi and the prior patent.
Speaker 1: It would be years before the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent,
Speaker 1: giving credit to Tesla for the first patent in radio technology.
Speaker 1: Edison watched Tesla and Westinghouse carefully. Though he had treated
Speaker 1: the young inventor poorly, he still realized Tesla was a
Speaker 1: genius in his own right. It didn't take much to
Speaker 1: see that alternating current was closing the gap on direct current.
Speaker 1: Rural areas favored a C in many out of the
Speaker 1: way places, d C just wasn't practical. All told, Westinghouse
Speaker 1: had recently set up sixty eight power plants closing in
Speaker 1: on Edison's one. Like a lot of business men, he
Speaker 1: decided that if he couldn't make his product look better,
Speaker 1: he'd make the other guys look worse. Legal battles ensued
Speaker 1: as Edison tried to claim that alternating current infringed on
Speaker 1: his patents. He also claimed that using alternating current was
Speaker 1: inferior to his direct current system. Now any electrician will
Speaker 1: tell you neither current is safe. If you're not careful,
Speaker 1: electricity is unforgiving. All Edison needed to do was a
Speaker 1: little fearmongering show the public the dangers of alternating current.
Speaker 1: Edison already knew that most electric companies installed a C
Speaker 1: wire on poles in a less than cautious manner. The
Speaker 1: faster that any company provided electricity d C or a
Speaker 1: C two businesses and homes, the more money they made,
Speaker 1: which did not incentivize them to create robust safety measures
Speaker 1: for the linesmen installing the wire. Though linesmen frequently climbed
Speaker 1: poles upwards of a hundred and fifty feet tall, they
Speaker 1: weren't offered helmets, harnesses, or other safety gear. Add to that,
Speaker 1: the haphazard way the wires were attached and it was
Speaker 1: an accident waiting to happen. That didn't stop Edison from
Speaker 1: trying to push through legislation to limit the use of
Speaker 1: alternating current. Specifically, when papers touted the benefits and the
Speaker 1: growth of a C, Edison was it to saying, just
Speaker 1: as certain as death, Westinghouse will kill a customer within
Speaker 1: six months, and when a Western Union lineman died on
Speaker 1: the job. Edison quickly pointed to it, and the press
Speaker 1: wasted little time selling papers with the gruesome story of
Speaker 1: linesman John Pikes. After snowstorm snapped wires and plunged the
Speaker 1: city into darkness for days, New York determined that for
Speaker 1: safety reasons, all wires should be buried instead of strong overhead.
Speaker 1: The new mayor determined to make this a priority, set
Speaker 1: a deadline. Companies had just ninety days to finish the
Speaker 1: job or he'd have the poles cut down. It was
Speaker 1: an impossible task, and by mid April nine, the city
Speaker 1: workers began cutting down poles like they were lumberjacks. Then
Speaker 1: they rolled up the remaining wire and carried it away.
Speaker 1: It's not that the companies who owned the lines didn't try,
Speaker 1: it's how Western Union lineman John Fikes found himself on
Speaker 1: a pole in downtown New York at lunchtime on October eleven.
Speaker 1: He lost his footing on what should have been a
Speaker 1: low voltage pole, but it wasn't. He hit the first
Speaker 1: set of wires, then tumbled towards the ground, becoming entangled
Speaker 1: in more wiring. Lunch goers below were horrified as the
Speaker 1: corpse caught fire. To further demonstrate how horrible a death
Speaker 1: from a c was, Edison connected a dog named Dash
Speaker 1: to three volts of alternating current, essentially frying the poor dog.
Speaker 1: Then he performed his demonstration on more animals, using strays
Speaker 1: or dogs and cats from a shelter. Other times, had
Speaker 1: paid neighborhood kids a quarter to bring him pets. Most
Speaker 1: were cats and dogs, but he electrocuted a few cows
Speaker 1: and horses as well. None of the deaths were quick,
Speaker 1: and that was Edison's point. Still, it wasn't enough. Tesla
Speaker 1: and Westinghouse continued to gain market share. With more safety
Speaker 1: measures now in place and most of the wires buried underground,
Speaker 1: fewer deaths were occurring. Edison needed something that would ruin
Speaker 1: Westinghouse and Tesla, and as it turned out, the state
Speaker 1: of New York had already offered a solution. It's a
Speaker 1: morbid origin story. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist,
Speaker 1: had been determined to find a way to execute criminals
Speaker 1: sitting on death row. Had had this obsession since when
Speaker 1: the story of a drunken doc worker piqued his interest.
Speaker 1: The worker had grabbed a large electric dynamo and unable
Speaker 1: to let go had died. Coupled with Edison's demonstrations electrocuting animals,
Speaker 1: the dentist believed he had found an alternative to hanging
Speaker 1: people on death Row. After writing a few successful articles
Speaker 1: about using electricity to euthanize animals, Southwick caught the attack
Speaker 1: should have a commission appointed by New York Governor David
Speaker 1: Hill in eighty three. Within the year, the commission recommended
Speaker 1: carrying out executions with the electric chair. They needed additional research, though,
Speaker 1: so they contacted Edison. Naturally. The feigned inventor recommended the
Speaker 1: use of alternating current, and not just any a C generator,
Speaker 1: but specifically those made by Westinghouse. When a government employee
Speaker 1: working on the committee questioned him about how electricity would
Speaker 1: be used as a means of execution, Edison suggested that
Speaker 1: death Row inmates should be forced to work as a
Speaker 1: New York lineman that he assured the official would dispatch
Speaker 1: them in short order. Harold Brown, an electrical engineer secretly
Speaker 1: on Edison's payroll, sent a scathing letter to the New
Speaker 1: York Post in June of eight trashing any power company
Speaker 1: using alternating current. He claimed that companies didn't care about
Speaker 1: deaths as long as they got rich, offering a cheap utility.
Speaker 1: George Westinghouse wrote his own letter to the Post the
Speaker 1: next day in an attempt to put the situation to
Speaker 1: rest once and for all. He invited Edison to Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: so that they could talk and get past their differences.
Speaker 1: Edison refused, citing his work taking up too much of
Speaker 1: his time. In July, Brown and Edison headed to Columbia
Speaker 1: College to again demonstrate the danger of alternating current to
Speaker 1: the general public. They electrocuted one dog after another. Sickened
Speaker 1: by their casual cruelty, people yelled at them to stop,
Speaker 1: while others fled in horror. But the collusion between the
Speaker 1: two men didn't end there. Brown was selected to design
Speaker 1: the electric chair. Edison and company quickly coined the term
Speaker 1: Westinghouse for those condemned to death. Westinghouse was mortified. It
Speaker 1: never intended for the A C generator to be used
Speaker 1: for such a thing, and he refused to sell them
Speaker 1: for that purpose, but the courts forced the issue. The
Speaker 1: first person slated for execution with the new device was
Speaker 1: convicted murderer William Kemler, an alcoholic he had, during one
Speaker 1: of his drunken stupors, grabbed a hatchet and repeatedly struck
Speaker 1: his girlfriend on March twenty nine, Then, calmly, he had
Speaker 1: walked next door and confessed the crime to his neighbors.
Speaker 1: Though the case was open and shut, his attorneys argued
Speaker 1: death by electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment. The impending
Speaker 1: execution appalled Westinghouse so much he contributed a hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to Kemmler's defense. The Supreme Court deemed the method
Speaker 1: humane and ruled in favor of the use of electricity
Speaker 1: and Westinghouses generators. On August six of eighteen ninety, at
Speaker 1: five o'clock in the morning, Kemmler sat down to breakfast,
Speaker 1: wearing a suit, a white shirt, and a necktie. Afterward,
Speaker 1: he prayed as a guard shaved the top of his head.
Speaker 1: At six thirty eight a m seventeen witnesses watched Kemler
Speaker 1: enter the execution room. They remarked how cool and composed
Speaker 1: he seemed. After strapping him into the chair and covering
Speaker 1: his face with a hood, the executioner charged up the generator.
Speaker 1: They believed the shock would send him into immediate cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1: Once the switch was flipped, a thousand bolts surged through
Speaker 1: his body for a full seventeen seconds. When it was done,
Speaker 1: Southwick turned to the crowd. Pleased with the results, he
Speaker 1: announced that the execution had been the result of hard
Speaker 1: work and study, then added, we live in a higher
Speaker 1: civilization today. That's when the screams erupted behind him, and
Speaker 1: the witnesses, all looking over Southwick's shoulder, screamed too. Some
Speaker 1: ran from their seats, vomiting. Kemmler was still alive. From
Speaker 1: under the hood. Covering his face, he let out agonized shriek.
Speaker 1: After shriek, the executioner threw the switch again, but the
Speaker 1: dynamo needed time to rebuild a charge. As the current
Speaker 1: began to slowly build, Kemler wheezed and gasped for breath.
Speaker 1: Then two thousand volts shocked him, causing blood vessels under
Speaker 1: his skin to rupture and his body to catch fire.
Speaker 1: Witnesses fainted for several minutes more the execution went on. Finally,
Speaker 1: Kembler's body went rigid. The switch was turned off, and
Speaker 1: the physician cautiously stepped forward to check for signs of life.
Speaker 1: Finding none, he pronounced the prisoner dead. The news of
Speaker 1: the botched execution reached to the press. Of course, neither
Speaker 1: Edison nor Westinghouse had predicted how it would turn out. However,
Speaker 1: Tesla had. Edison said that the execution had been sloppy,
Speaker 1: but nothing more than a temporary setback, when the future
Speaker 1: executions using a C would go a lot smoother. The
Speaker 1: public disagreed. They seemed to decide with Westinghouse, who said
Speaker 1: the execution had been so brutal that it would have
Speaker 1: been more humane if they bludgeoned Kembler with an axe.
Speaker 1: The battle between A C and d C began to
Speaker 1: wind down. After that, Edison Electric merged with another company,
Speaker 1: becoming General Electric in and once Westinghouse in, Tesla won
Speaker 1: the bid for the World Fair and the Niagara Falls
Speaker 1: hydro electric project in the War of the Currents was over.
Speaker 1: By November six eight, Buffalo, New York was lit up
Speaker 1: like a Christmas tree. Tesla stated that his patent, coupled
Speaker 1: with the falls, would be enough to light up not
Speaker 1: just Buffalo, but the entire Eastern United States. In the end,
Speaker 1: historians agree it maybe Edison's light bulb that lights the room,
Speaker 1: but Tesla's alternating current powers the world. Although it helped
Speaker 1: bring alternating current to the forefront, Tesla faded from history
Speaker 1: in the last decades of his life. He lived in
Speaker 1: a New York hotel room. His mental health began to suffer,
Speaker 1: and it's reported that he may have had dementia. He
Speaker 1: never married and had no children. He only had a
Speaker 1: few close friends, namely the writers Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling.
Speaker 1: Although as his mental health deteriorated, he much preferred the
Speaker 1: company of pigeons over people, and spent most of his
Speaker 1: days feeding and talking to the birds. He also developed
Speaker 1: an obsession with the number three and exhibited a phobia
Speaker 1: of women's earrings. Nonetheless, after Tesla's death in nineteen forty three,
Speaker 1: US government officials seized his possessions, including his notes and inventions. Eventually,
Speaker 1: many of them were released to his nephew, who sent
Speaker 1: them to Belgrad in nineteen fifty two for inclusion in
Speaker 1: a museum dedicated to Tesla that wound up being tightly
Speaker 1: controlled by the government. There. There are rumors that some
Speaker 1: are lost or of still being withheld, and it's only
Speaker 1: been for the past few decades that some of his
Speaker 1: inventions diagrams and notes have come back into the public eye.
Speaker 1: In one journal entry from Tesla wrote that people would
Speaker 1: one day be able to communicate with each other instantly,
Speaker 1: irrespective of distance. He believed that through such technology would
Speaker 1: be able to communicate on small handheld devices, not just
Speaker 1: transmitting our voices, but our images as well, all with
Speaker 1: a device small enough to fit in a pocket. His
Speaker 1: other predictions ranged from WiFi to m ri I, to
Speaker 1: renewable energy to the idea that someday there would be
Speaker 1: women in power. Nicola Tesla held over seven hundred patents,
Speaker 1: including ones for the Tesla coil, the first hydroelectric power plant,
Speaker 1: the fluorescent bulb neon lights, the remote control the Tesla turbine,
Speaker 1: and a radio controlled boat. He also held the patent
Speaker 1: for a death ray. Little is known about his notes
Speaker 1: and diagrams for it, but the idea that it could
Speaker 1: work hasn't been fully dismissed. Oh and one more thing.
Speaker 1: The battle over electric current wasn't the last time. Tesla
Speaker 1: and Edison went head to head. One night at the
Speaker 1: turn of the century, while alone in his lab, Tesla
Speaker 1: picked up on sounds from a crystal radio. At first,
Speaker 1: he thought the sounds, which resembled voices might be from ghosts.
Speaker 1: Later in nineteen eighteen, when he heard the sounds again,
Speaker 1: he attributed them to electrical storms rather than anything paranormal.
Speaker 1: But Edison, upon hearing that Tesla might be able to
Speaker 1: speak with the dead, wanted to best his former rival.
Speaker 1: Although he was agnostic, Edison polled magazine reporters that he
Speaker 1: was working on a spirit phone, a device that would
Speaker 1: allow contact with the world beyond our own. Drawing from
Speaker 1: Albert Einstein's work on the theories of quantum entanglement and relativity,
Speaker 1: Edison invited scientists and mediums alike to test the device.
Speaker 1: In nine, the spirit phone emitted a small beam of
Speaker 1: light that Edison claimed originated from the dead, seeing nothing
Speaker 1: supernatural about the device, though his guests declared the invention
Speaker 1: of disappointment. Despite the failure of that embarrassing one sided
Speaker 1: competition with Tesla over ghosts, Edison made a bet he
Speaker 1: an engineer Walter Dinwittle agreed that whoever died first would
Speaker 1: contact the other using the spirit phone, But when Dinwittle
Speaker 1: passed late in nine, Edison never recorded any kind of contact.
Speaker 1: Despite his many other inventions, Edison's spirit phone would go
Speaker 1: on to become his most disastrous, but thankfully it was
Speaker 1: a whole lot less deadly than the War of the Currents.
Speaker 1: There's more to this story. Stick around after this brief
Speaker 1: sponsor break to hear all about it. Louis Prince knew
Speaker 1: he wouldn't follow in his father's military footsteps. He was
Speaker 1: spending too much time at the photography studio of a
Speaker 1: family friend, and it had enchanted him. He took lessons
Speaker 1: from Louis de Guerre, who was a chemist and painter,
Speaker 1: but also a pioneer in photography. The younger Louis became
Speaker 1: enthrawled with the process, so when it came time to
Speaker 1: go to university, he aimed for a degree in chemistry,
Speaker 1: an essential field of study for anyone wishing to explore
Speaker 1: the brand new world of photography. In eighteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: a college friend named John Whitley extended Louis an invitation
Speaker 1: to come live in Leeds, a city in West Yorkshire, England.
Speaker 1: Once there, he discovered that John's sister, Elizabeth, also shared
Speaker 1: his love of art and was an accomplished artist in
Speaker 1: her own right. The two began dating and wed in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine. Two years later, the couple started the
Speaker 1: Leeds Technical School of Art. Their method of put colored
Speaker 1: photography onto pottery quickly brought them fame. The wealthy hired
Speaker 1: them for portraits including Queen Victoria and Prime Minister William Gladstone.
Speaker 1: The le Prince's work was included in a time capsule
Speaker 1: and placed into the foundations of Cleopatra's Needle on the
Speaker 1: bank of the Thames River. Ten years later, they moved
Speaker 1: to the United States to work with Whitley Partners, the
Speaker 1: company who had made the time capsule. After their contract ended,
Speaker 1: the couple chose to stay and manage a small group
Speaker 1: of French artists creating large scale battle scene panoramas. The
Speaker 1: panoramas became quite popular and found their way to exhibits
Speaker 1: in New York, Washington, d c. And Chicago. To better
Speaker 1: capture subjects, Louis began building a new camera, one with
Speaker 1: sixteen lenses. He also experimented with different film stock. The
Speaker 1: new camera allowed him to take a series of pictures
Speaker 1: that appeared to be in motion when projected in sequence.
Speaker 1: He patented the camera, though it needed improvements to keep
Speaker 1: the subject from appearing to jump around On the finished product.
Speaker 1: He and Elizabeth returned to Leeds in May of eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, where Louis continued to work with moving images
Speaker 1: and various styles of new cameras. In early eighteen eighty eight,
Speaker 1: he built a single lens camera, one that allowed him
Speaker 1: to shoot stop motion picture films. The very first motion
Speaker 1: picture in history was filmed on October fourteenth of eight
Speaker 1: In the short silent footage, Louie's son Adolf, his wife's parents,
Speaker 1: and the close friend of the family are seen walking
Speaker 1: around their garden. Louis went on to record the traffic
Speaker 1: on the Leeds Bridge and another short film of Adolph
Speaker 1: playing the accordion. In eighteen eighty nine and eighteen ninety
Speaker 1: he worked with a mechanic to create a better projector,
Speaker 1: and when it was complete, he debuted his creation to
Speaker 1: family and friends. The private showing went well, so Louie
Speaker 1: decided to take his invention to the general public back
Speaker 1: in the United States. Just before his trip, though, he
Speaker 1: took some time off to see his brother in d Jon, France. Then,
Speaker 1: on September sixteenth of eighteen ninety, Louis boarded a train
Speaker 1: back to Leeds, but when friends arrived in Leeds to
Speaker 1: meet his train. Louis wasn't on board, and neither was
Speaker 1: his luggage. The French police and Scotland yard were both
Speaker 1: called in, and friends and family orchestrated their own search,
Speaker 1: but sadly, no one ever saw Louis Le Prince again.
Speaker 1: Somehow he had vanished, as if into thin air, without
Speaker 1: a body or any evidence as to what had happened.
Speaker 1: All they had were theories. His grand nephew suggested Louis
Speaker 1: had died by suicide because of his debts, but that
Speaker 1: ignored the fact that Louis also had many successful inventions
Speaker 1: and patents. Elizabeth believed something more nefarious had happened to
Speaker 1: her husband. She believed he had been killed to prevent
Speaker 1: him from show pacing his newest motion picture camera. He
Speaker 1: had been happy with it and was looking forward to
Speaker 1: the trip to the United States. It's also been suggested
Speaker 1: that perhaps Louis simply abandoned his family, but there's no
Speaker 1: evidence to back up that claim either. There was no
Speaker 1: indication that his family life was anything other than stable.
Speaker 1: A few historians think his brother killed him, possibly for
Speaker 1: financial gain, and that Louis never left Dijon on that
Speaker 1: train out of France, but again there's no evidence there.
Speaker 1: What is interesting, though, is that the very same year
Speaker 1: Louis disappeared, another man began his work in motion picture cameras,
Speaker 1: Thomas Edison. The first time he showed off his newest
Speaker 1: invention was a year later, in eighteen ninety one. And
Speaker 1: we know that Edison was aware of Louise's work because
Speaker 1: he took Louise estate to court in eighteen ninety eight,
Speaker 1: declaring that he alone was the sole inventor of cinematography. Amazingly,
Speaker 1: the court ruled in Edison's favor, even though proof of
Speaker 1: louise pattents were presented. A year later, the court overturned
Speaker 1: the verdict, so in nineteen hundred Edison reissued his patents
Speaker 1: and went on to dominate the film industry for decades.
Speaker 1: But that old footage recorded with Louie's family and friends
Speaker 1: has helped establish that the first film was shot in Leeds, England.
Speaker 1: Together with the death certificate of the family friend who
Speaker 1: had passed away a couple of months after appearing in
Speaker 1: the film, the footage is easily dated to eight making
Speaker 1: it much earlier than Edison's work. Despite all of that,
Speaker 1: Edison is still the first person most people think of
Speaker 1: when they're asked about the invention of the motion picture.
Speaker 1: He may have lost the war of currents, but his
Speaker 1: devious victory over Louis Le Prince makes one thing clear.
Speaker 1: His reputation might be his most powerful invention of all
Speaker 1: American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was
Speaker 1: written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced
Speaker 1: by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,
Speaker 1: visit grim and mil dot com. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.