"The Westinghouse Electric and manufacturing company have secured the contract to furnish this immense service at a figure far below the cost,... necessary to devise a system more economical and at the same time more flexible. This was done. They devised and constructed in less than 6 months large machines that had ever been built for this work before, and on radically different slides embodying the principles of the alternating system transmission by the system hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of copper wire were saved as it was possible to send the current under high-pressure [ i.e. voltage } to its destination on small wires and then transform it down to the point of utility"
Inventor of the Electrical age The World fair of 1893 also known as the Colombian Exposition was the pinochle of the battle of currents since it was the 1st electrified world fair with over 27 million attendees. The bids for lighting the fair from GE was at 1st 1.4 million ($36,842,105.26) but then cut down to $544,000 ($14,315,789) and Westinghouse Electric's bid was $399,000 ($10,500,000.00). To light "Ninety-two thousand lights for what was promised to be the grandest showcase in American history."
Jill Jonnes author of Empires Of light with Ph.d from John Hopkins University |
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