Edison's publicity campaign against AC

In the late 1880s, Thomas Edison's company supplied low-voltage DC, while George Westinghouse (using Tesla's patents) promoted high-voltage AC, which could be transmitted far using transformers. To protect his DC business, Edison started a publicity campaign against AC, known as the "War of the Currents".

Main features of the campaign

• Danger message: Edison's company published warnings (the 1888 "red book" pamphlet) that high-voltage AC was deadly and unsafe for homes and streets.
• Public animal electrocutions: Harold P. Brown, an engineer supported by Edison's side, publicly killed dogs, calves and horses with AC to show that it was more dangerous than DC.
• Electric chair: Edison's side encouraged New York State to adopt the electric chair using a Westinghouse AC generator, so that AC would be linked with death. William Kemmler was the first person executed this way in 1890. Edison suggested the term "Westinghoused" for being electrocuted.
• Lobbying for voltage limits: they tried to get laws passed to limit transmission voltage to a few hundred volts, which would have made AC transmission useless.
• Newspaper articles and statements stressing accidents with overhead AC wires.

Outcome

The campaign failed. AC's advantages – transformers, long-distance transmission, and the induction motor – were too strong. Westinghouse lit the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and built the Niagara Falls AC power plant (1895–96). Edison's own company merged into General Electric (1892), which also adopted AC. AC then became the world standard, though DC has returned today as HVDC.