Tesla's alternating current power's most of the world's electric grids

Thomas Edison publicly executed animals with AC to convince the public of its dangers

J.P. Morgan first backed Thomas Edison's direct current system, seeing electricity's potential to usurp John D. Rockefeller's kerosene empire. Despite the investments and smear campaign against alternating current, alternating current ultimately won public support after lighting the 1893 World's Fair, after which Morgan would fund Tesla's wireless transmission tower.

Tesla's first successful AC prototype used a metal shoe polish tin for a rotor

After leaving his position working with Thomas Edison, Tesla partnered with George Westinghouse to promote alternating current systems as a more viable, scalable solution to electricity transmission.

Alternating current was used to commit the first execution by electric chair

Dubbed the "executioner's current," the device was designed in Thomas Edison's lab by Harold Brown—an opponent of George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. The effort aimed at discrediting AC technology and gain favor for Thomas Edison's direct current as part of "The Current War."

The world's first AC hydroelectric power plant incorporated Tesla's engineering

Built at Niagara Falls, New York, the plant alternating current electricity was hailed as the future of power generation. Tesla's fascination with Niagara Falls is traced to his seeing a photo of the waterfalls when he was still a child.

The history of the North American power grid, which is composed of five major grids

Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station was the first US commercial power plant, burning coal to power lamps for some Manhattan residents. Over time, local power plants would be bought out by larger ones, forming interconnected systems spanning multiple states. Today, the Eastern Interconnection and Western Interconnection are the largest of these systems.

The flow of electricity in AC circuits flips back and forth, unlike DC circuits

Alternating currents in the US change the flow direction 120 times every second, allowing for efficient transformation and transmission of energy across power grids by sending energy at lower currents. This is changed into one-way direct currents when powering electronics.

Despite promoting alternative current, Nikola Tesla did not invent it

The technology was developed by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832, almost 25 years before Tesla was born. Other myths about Tesla include that he invented the transformer, radio, and the induction coil, which was invented by Nicholas Callan in 1836.

George Westinghouse purchased Tesla's AC technology patents for $60,000

The seven patents in alternating current motors and power transmission formed the basis for a system of technologies including generators, transformers, and lighting. Nikola Tesla spent half the funds on a new laboratory to develop new inventions.

The Tesla coil was the first system to wireless transmit electricity

Developed in 1891, the system effectively consists of two open electric circuits with a gap of air between them. When a high enough voltage is built up, air becomes a conductor and sparks of electricity are generated.

Nikola Tesla embraced showmanship when promoting ideas ahead of their time

He once electrified himself during a live demonstration to illustrate the safety and power of alternating current, and his presentations often featured arcing coils, glowing lights, and bold claims about a future of wireless power.

Nikola Tesla was born in modern-day Croatia and moved to the US in 1884

His interest in electricity came from his mother, who invented small household appliances during Tesla's upbringing. Upon arriving in America, he began working for and improving upon the electrical inventions made in Thomas Edison's lab.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Before the invention of transistors, vacuum tubes made radio possible

Discovered by Thomas Edison, vacuum tubes allow electrical currents to travel through empty space. Later modified into a diode—keeping current flowing in only one direction—vacuum tubes allowed electronics to turn alternating current into direct current.

Explore how the grid is being rebuilt for AI, which is expected to double global electricity demand by 2050

Explore a gallery of electric vehicles from before 1920

In 1884, Thomas Parker invented the first practical electric car in London. By the turn of the century, early EVs were seen on the streets of Washington, DC. Automaker promotional materials included photographs of cars on mountain roads and other terrains.

Despite electric usage concerns, EV charging accounts for less than 1% of grid load

Other popular myths about EVs include battery failure concerns—failure rates are less than 1% on newer models—and that there are no places to charge cars, though both at-home outlets and more than 77,000 stations on the road are available.

Thomas Edison created the first strand of electric Christmas lights in 1880

Edison strung electric bulbs outside his laboratory in 1880, and his business partner Edward H. Johnson first wrapped a tree in lights in 1882. It wasn’t until the lights were commercialized in 1917 that they became common in household Christmas decorations.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Over-the-air updates, pioneered by Tesla, have become the industry standard

Tesla's innovative direct-to-consumer sales model and online ordering system changed car-buying, and the Model S, which had a 200-mile range, forced other automakers to enhance their EV offerings and rethink vehicle design.

How electricity is generated by heating water into steam, which rotates magnets

Electrical current—the flow of electrons in a wire—can be produced when exposing a wire to a changing magnetic field. By rotating the magnets, as occurs in a turbine-generator system, the field changes become cyclical. This produces alternating current—flow that moves forward and backward—converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Solar energy alone can fully power the world if transmission hurdles can be resolved

When light strikes a photovoltaic cell, electrons are loosened, which travel through a circuit where the energy can be used. Distributing energy from high solar intensity regions and storing energy for non-daylight hours is logistically challenging and costly.

The speed of electricity may refer to the movement of electrons or energy

In the 18th century, various experiments, including one in which monks holding an iron wire were shocked, suggested that electricity traveled at infinite speed. Advancements in technology, recognizing that electric currents were moving electrons, and the development of the theory of electromagnetism showed that electric signals can travel at near light speed, despite electrons moving much slower.

Fluorescent bulbs can be illuminated by overhead power lines without making contact

The electromagnetic fields produced by the alternating current in transmission lines can induce the motion of charges in nearby objects. This motion yields electric currents that can light up bulbs but are too small to harm humans.

View breakdowns of the world's and each nation's electricity comes from

These charts show how the shares of generated electricity sources—solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, bioenergy, oil, gas, and coal—have changed since 1985. Since 2010, an increase in renewable sources has offset the share lost by nuclear and fossil fuels.

Establishing the wind power grid required incentives, reliability, and affordability

Although wind was harnessed to generate electricity for individual buildings in the late 1800s, high costs, mechanical issues with turbines, and better fossil-fuel alternatives delayed wind power's widespread growth. After the oil crises of the 1970s, governments sought alternative energy sources and, in the decades that followed, provided tax credits to expand the wind power market.

The unpredictability and brevity of lightning make lightning power impractical

While a typical lightning strike provides 30,000 amps at 300 million volts, the bolt only lasts about 30 microseconds. If the electrical surge could be captured—assuming one knew beforehand where it would strike—it would only provide enough electricity to power one home for about 6.4 hours.

Legacy electronics have prevented significant advancements in alkaline batteries

While lithium-ion batteries have increased in energy density multiple times since their commercialization in 1991 and can be sized to various capacities by connecting numerous electrochemical cells, disposable alkaline batteries have been forced to maintain their 1.5-volt standard and form factors for compatibility with existing devices.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.