War of Currents (19th Century)

In the “War of Currents” era in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison’s promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over alternating current (AC), advocated by Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla.

Edison’s low-voltage distribution system using DC ultimately lost to AC devices proposed by others: primarily Tesla’s polyphase systems, and also other contributors, such as Charles Proteus Steinmetz. AC power distribution is now the primary means of long-distance power transmission.

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