Edison vs. Tesla | Prometheus’ Fire | 1

0:00American History Tellers:Hello, American History Teller listeners. I have an exciting announcement. I'm going on tour and coming to a theater near you. This live show is a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music, with a full band accompanying me as we look back to explore the days that made America. And they aren't the days that you might think. Sure, everyone knows July 4th, 1776. We'll be hearing a lot about that date this year. But there are many other days that are maybe even more influential. So come out to see me live. More shows to be announced soon. So for information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to AmericanHistoryLive.com.

0:34American History Tellers:That's AmericanHistoryLive.com. Come see my Days That Made America tour live on stage. Go to AmericanHistoryLive.com.

0:48American History Tellers:Imagine it's Sunday, September 8, 1878, and in Sonia, Connecticut. it. You're the owner of a successful brass and copper foundry, but your real passion is technology. Today, you're excited because you're expecting an esteemed guest, the famous inventor Thomas Edison. It's rare that he takes a break from his busy workshop, but a mutual friend convinced him to visit your foundry to take a look at something you've been tinkering with, a new electric lighting system. So as you wait for him to arrive, you nervously check your electrical generator, called a dynamo, which feeds electricity through copper wiring to a row of arc lights you've hung on the wall.

1:25American History Tellers:The foundry door opens, and in walks Edison, wearing a floppy straw hat and loose linen coat. You hold out your hand to greet him. Oh, it's a real honor to have you here, Mr. Edison. I know you're a busy man. He cups a hand to his ear. You've been warned that he has trouble hearing, so you move closer to repeat your welcome, but he waves you away with a distracted smile and walks over to the wall of lights. Well, our friend here has been telling me about your new invention. Let's have a look. Well, of course. As you can see, the lights are all powered by my improved dynamo. I call it the Telemecon, and it's quite unique.

2:00American History Tellers:It boasts eight horsepower, and though there have been similar models produced in Europe, this is the first designed here in America. I exhibited it two years back at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. I believe you were there as well, with your multiplex telegraph. Indeed. And from what I've read, the Europeans are ahead of us in electric lighting, but maybe that will change. I believe it will. The telemecon is more powerful than any other dynamo on the market. Here, let me show you. You switch on the machine, and the row of eight arc lights you've strung on the wall begin to flicker, then blaze brightly.

2:33American History Tellers:Edison's eyes grow wide as he leaps to your side, clearly excited. Well, now that's something, isn't it? Tell me everything. I can see the armature on the dynamo is laminated, but how fast is it going? Edison dashes to the dynamo, then back to the wall to get a closer look at the lights, and follow behind, struggling to keep up with him as he rushes back and forth. Well, we've got the armature going at around a thousand RPMs. Edison winces as he takes in the glow of the lights. And these arc lights, they are very bright. Too bright. That hissing sound they produce, that won't do. Those are standards and all that exists at the moment.

3:09American History Tellers:Edison takes a small notebook from his pocket and begins scribbling down notes. You notice a sly grin spread across his face. Well, you've got something quite intriguing here, but I'd like to offer you a wager. I believe I can beat you in making a better electric light. Oh, is that so? Yes, I don't think you're working in the right direction. Why's that? Well, I can't tell you now, but you'll soon find out, along with the rest of the world. Well, you won't be alone in this race toward electrical illumination, Mr. Edison. I've got a pretty cracking team here, and there are Others working on it as well, I know.

3:41American History Tellers:Yes, of course, but I'm certain I can perfect the system. And when I do, every house and factory in America will be lit up like the stars. Edison's confidence is striking, but so is his charm and you can't help but smile. Even though he's technically a competitor, he's promising a revolution. And you can't wait to see what comes next.

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4:48That's the power of the Home Depot. Official supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Subject to availability. I'm Raza Jafri, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we go back in time to meet Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution. As America fights for freedom from Britain, Arnold emerges as one of the rebels' greatest generals. But when his loyalty is pushed to the limit, he turns spy and devises a plot to shatter the rebellion and make George Washington a prisoner. Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution early and ad-free on Audible.

5:32American History Tellers:From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

5:54American History Tellers:On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made and will show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. When Thomas Alva Edison visited the workshop of foundry owner William Wallace in 1878, Edison was already world-famous, having made critical improvements to the telegraph and the telephone before astonishing the world with a modern phonograph. But while visiting Wallace's Connecticut foundry, Edison found fresh inspiration.

6:31American History Tellers:He left determined to harness the power of electricity to illuminate the world. Wallace and earlier inventors had made important advances in the field of electrical current, but no one had yet found a way to make electric light safe, cheap, and accessible to ordinary homes and businesses. Edison became convinced that he would be the man to finally make the breakthrough. But Edison was not alone in this pursuit. In 1884, a brilliant Serbian immigrant named Nikola Tesla arrived in New York, And though he was initially a devoted admirer of Edison's, the two men soon became competitors. Tesla championed a fundamentally different approach to delivering electricity, alternating current, or AC, which he believed was far superior to Edison's existing system of direct current, or DC.

7:17American History Tellers:And Tesla's system gained formidable momentum after the powerful industrialist George Westinghouse stepped in to bankroll its development. The ensuing battle to dominate electricity would draw in the era's most powerful business tycoons, expose government corruption, and play out on grand public stages, from the Chicago World's Fair to the Paris Electrical Exposition. And in the end, the race would define both Edison and Tesla's legacies and shape the course of America's industrial future. This is the first in our three-part series on Edison vs. Tesla, Prometheus Fire.

7:55American History Tellers:Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, a bustling port town near the banks of Lake Erie. His father, Samuel, had moved his family down from Canada to make his living as a carpenter and merchant in the area's growing industry. Though Milan was a small town of 1 ,500 people, it was located along a canal that fed into the Great Lakes and was fast becoming one of the busiest grain-trading ports in the nation. Father Samuel brought his son Thomas along to the nearby lumber mills and shipyards, which sparked his interest in building and mechanics. In the meantime, Thomas' mother Nancy, a former teacher, noticed his sharp intellect and curiosity and took a special interest in his education.

8:37American History Tellers:Other children thought Thomas could be strange and withdrawn, and after the second grade, Nancy took over his schooling at home, guiding him through books on nature, philosophy, and science, and instilling in him a lifelong love of reading. Later, Edison would declare, My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt that I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint. In 1854, the Edison family relocated to Port Huron, Michigan, and within a few years, Thomas had set up his first workshop in the cellar of the family home. There he conducted chemistry experiments, taught himself Morse code, and even wired a signal system to his friend's home one and a half miles away so the two could send messages back and forth.

9:19American History Tellers:But at age 12, Edison lost most of his hearing, possibly as a result of an accident or scarlet fever. Throughout the rest of his life, he offered varying explanations for the cause. Nevertheless, he refused to let it hold him back. He had a deep love of music, so he learned to grasp musical instruments like the piano and violin with his hands and teeth so he could feel their vibrations, a method he would use throughout his life. And despite his hearing loss, Edison demonstrated a natural talent for entrepreneurship. By 1859, the railroads were rapidly expanding, and 13-year-old Edison began riding the train to Detroit, selling newspapers and snacks to passengers.

9:59American History Tellers:When the Civil War broke out two years later, many young men working as telegraph operators were called up to military service. Edison, who already knew the basics of Morse code, joined a wave of teenage boys who stepped in to staff the busy telegraph posts along the railway. Edison was captivated by the telegraph, a technology that transmitted messages in the form of coded electrical signals across miles of wire. But he soon became frustrated with what he saw as the telegraph's limitations, so using scrap metal and salvaged wiring, he set about trying to design improvements. Meanwhile, with his wages from the telegraph office, he bought stacks of books and read voraciously about the latest advancements in science.

10:40American History Tellers:In one of these books, he learned of Michael Faraday, a British inventor who had become famous in the 1830s for creating the first electromagnetic generator. Thrilled to discover such an inspiring figure, Edison told his friend, I am now 21. I may live to be 50. Can I get as much done as he did? I've got so much to do and life is so short. I'm going to hustle. And hustle he did. Edison's restless tinkering drew the attention of investors, and in 1870, at the age of 23, he signed his first significant contract as an inventor with the Golden Stock Telegraph Company in New York. This company was eager to get a competitive edge in financial trading, so in exchange for Edison making faster and more reliable telegraph and stock ticker devices, the company funded a staff and workshop for Edison in Newark, New Jersey.

11:30American History Tellers:It was there, on a rainy spring day in 1871, that he met Mary Stilwell, a 16-year-old student whose father worked in a local sawmill. Later, Mary would recall Edison's striking gray-blue eyes, along with his dirty work clothes streaked with machine oil. Edison and Stilwell began a short courtship and were married on Christmas Day, 1871. But his new relationship didn't distract him. At his bustling workshop in Newark, Edison worked at a furious pace, fulfilling his work with a gold and stock telegraph company while overseeing a staff that had grown to more than 50. By the following year, 1872, he had secured 39 successful patents, many of them having to do with recording, printing, and communication.

12:14American History Tellers:Then, in February 1873, Edison and his wife Mary welcomed their first child, a daughter named Marion, but the demands of work left little time for family. Mary often sent Edison's dinners to the workshop, where he frequently stayed late into the night, and in the morning it was common for his assistants to find him napping on a bench or a stack of newspapers in the corner. But the unrelenting pace of work paid off when, in 1874, he unveiled a telegraph machine with a radical new feature, the ability to send and receive multiple messages at once. Until then, the telegraph had been limited to sending just one message at a time along a single wire, but Edison's system opened up new possibilities and a competitive edge for any business that controlled it.

12:58American History Tellers:The now 27-year-old Edison sold the rights to his improved telegraph system to the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company for$30 ,000, an enormous sum for the time. By then, his family and staff were outgrowing Newark, so he used the proceeds from the sale to build a new laboratory further north, on a scenic hillside set amidst the cornfields and fruit orchards of Menlo Park, New Jersey. For the next several years, Edison worked in his sprawling Menlo Park laboratory on improvements for existing technologies like the telegraph and telephone. But Edison's biggest breakthrough came with his invention of the phonograph, a device capable of recording and playing back a human voice using a needle that made indented grooves on a tinfoil cylinder.

13:41American History Tellers:When he unveiled it to the public, people were stunned. Word spread quickly, and the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute called Edison the most genius inventor in this century or any other. The press soon dubbed him the Wizard of Menlo Park. So at just 30 years old, Edison had become a nationwide celebrity, and soon a visit to another inventor would send him on a new path of discovery.

14:09American History Tellers:Until the 19th century, America's most famous electrical inventor was Benjamin Franklin, whose daring experiments with a kite and key had revealed the true nature of lightning. Then in 1831, the British inventor Michael Faraday produced the first electric generator based on his observations of magnetism. Soon, other inventors followed producing batteries with the ability to store energy and power simple lights, if only for short durations. By the 1870s, rudimentary electric lamps called arc lights had begun replacing the gas lamps used to illuminate the streets in many American and European cities, and they worked by transmitting a high voltage of electricity between two carbon rods that did not touch.

14:51American History Tellers:The current, or arc, between the points gave them their name. But arc lights had distinct drawbacks. Their light was so bright that they had to be installed high above the street so as not to blind people, and they produced an unsettling hissing sound as they flickered with unsteady electrical current. And when on a visit to fellow inventor William Wallace's workshop in Connecticut in 1878, Edison saw these arc lights and a steam-fueled dynamo system that powered them up close. He was impressed, but like those who walked under them in the streets of Paris and New York, he disliked their intensity and immediately began sketching elaborate designs for an improved lighting system that could replace them.

15:31American History Tellers:Full of confidence, Edison bragged to the press that he could develop a new model within weeks. He also made a bold promise to illuminate New York City's bustling financial district with his new and improved system. In response, the press labeled him the next Prometheus, a reference to the Greek titan who stole fire from the gods to give to humankind, and excitement rippled through New York's financial markets, sending shockwaves through the oil and gas industry, who had until then dominated the market for commercial lighting. Edison's bold plan also drew the attention of New York's top financiers, including J.P.

16:05American History Tellers:Morgan, who quickly joined with other investors and met with Edison. By October 1878, they had set up the Edison Electric Light Company, and new investment flooded into the Menlo Park workshop. But back in his lab, Edison quickly realized he had underestimated the task before him. In order to fulfill his promise to illuminate New York City's financial district, he would have to invent an entire electrical system from scratch—new cables, switches, dynamos, and more—with each component requiring its own rounds of experimentation and refinement. But the most immediate and frustrating obstacle was the light fixture itself.

16:41American History Tellers:Edison needed to design something that could replace the harsh and unwieldy arc light with something suitable for homes and offices, a fixture that could channel electrical current safely and steadily without burning out. In order to do that, Edison came up with a design for an airtight glass bulb which would house a special fiber called a filament. When electric current passed through it, the filament would glow, producing a soft light. But it would only work if he could find a material that could hold electricity without being damaged by the heat it generated. In his search for the perfect filament, Edison tested thousands of different materials, including platinum, cinnamon bark, and manila hemp, but none of them worked.

17:20American History Tellers:Edison grew increasingly frustrated throughout 1878, and in the following year, as he continued to face setbacks, he soon banned the press from Menlo Park, then began avoiding letters and visits from his investors. His previously long hours in the lab turned into days on end. And even with a growing family, Edison barely returned home, leaving his wife Mary to care for their now three young children alone. For Edison and everyone at Menlo Park, the pressure was mounting.

17:52American History Tellers:Imagine it's a chilly morning in October 1879. You're one of Thomas Edison's top assistants, and as you trudge up the hill to the Menlo Park workshop and feel your shoulders grow tense, the strain of the past few weeks is wearing you down, and you barely got a wink of sleep last night. You glance at a fellow worker who walks wearily beside you. Hey, you know, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Yeah, it feels like we've been at it forever. And the boss is more tense every day. I've never seen him wound so tight. Well, he's got the investors breathing down his neck and those damn reporters won't leave him alone.

18:27American History Tellers:He's counting on us to find a way through this. Well, I don't know. I've been thinking about it. Maybe we're going down the wrong path. Look, I've been with Edison for years. That man is rarely wrong. All we've got to do is keep testing different materials for the filament. Something has to work without burning out. Well, sure, in theory. But everything we've tried so far has cracked or burned up. On top of that, the bulb still isn't sealed, right? How can you have a lighting system with no light? We'll just keep trying. I mean, the cotton thread we set up last night might be different. It shaped up nice and fine when I was winding it and took to the carbonizing, right?

19:01American History Tellers:You try to sound hopeful, but as you approach the broad doors of the workshop, you're bracing yourself for another failure. Your co-worker looks resigned already, too. Ah, all right, well, where's the test? Well, I left it burning in the work table in the corner, just like all the others. And just then, your eye catches a glow of light. You dash across the workshop, followed closely by your friend. Oh, you see that? Your friend rubs his eyes with his hand, just inches from where the bulb is suspended, glowing softly. Is that what I think it is? I bet it is. It's holding the current. It's still lit up.

19:36American History Tellers:You check your watch and compare it with the stack of notes on the table. That makes 14 and a half hours. The bulb's been going for more than 14 hours. Well, this is it. This is it. I'm going to go get the boss. As your co-worker turns to run outside, you stare in wonder at the glowing glass bulb in front of you. A steady, golden light falls across the work table, and it's the most beautiful sight you've ever seen. Finally, this is the breakthrough you've all been hoping for.

20:08American History Tellers:In late October 1879, Edison's team finally succeeded in designing a glass light bulb with a filament that remained lit for more than 14 hours straight. The successful design used a carbonized cotton filament, which proved able to burn slowly and provide a steady, pleasant light. And soon, Edison refined the design further, replacing the carbonized cotton with bamboo, which lasted even longer. After a year of experimentation, Edison was thrilled. Eager to share the good news with the public, he ordered his staff to prepare Menlo Park for a grand display. And on New Year's Eve, 1879, 3 ,000 visitors took the train to Menlo Park.

20:48American History Tellers:There they were greeted with a magnificent sight. Rows of softly glowing bulbs illuminating the countryside and lining the path to Edison's workshop, which blazed with light from within. Among the dazzled crowd that night were many of New York's influential elite and city reporters. But despite the impressive display, critics began to whisper. The oil and gas lobby, who feared that Edison's electric lights would compete with their business, fueled much of this negativity. Even some scientists ridiculed Edison as a showman or huckster, refusing to believe that his light bulb was anything more than a magic trick.

21:23American History Tellers:More troubling still were those who doubted the originality of his inventions, pointing to inventors in England who had showcased their own incandescent lighting systems, believed to rival Edison's. To silence these critics, Edison knew he would have to expand his incandescent lights to a scale never seen before. But to do that, he would first have to navigate a more immediate problem, convincing New York's notoriously corrupt officials to buy into his ambitious dream of illumination.

21:56You there! Tis I, Queen Mortuana of the Night Realm, a.k.a. Kate McKinnon, and her Raven minion Jojo, a.k.a. Emily Lynn. If you do not download and binge my show, Heads Will Roll, Air Apparent, Unaudible, I will cut off your head! Oh no! Maybe just tell them about the guest stars, like Richard Kind, Carrie Coon, Jimmy Fallon, et al. But they were in it, and if you don't listen to them, then I will cut off your tongue, then cut off your head, and then put the tongue in the head hole. Aw, you tried. Listen now exclusively on Audible and Donald the Audible app today, or off with your head! I'm kidding.

22:43I'm Raza Jaffray, and in the new season of The Spy Who, they open the file on Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution. America is fighting to free itself from the British Empire, and one of its foremost generals is Benedict Arnold. He's a smuggler turned battlefield hero and admired for his aggressive tactics. But when a war wound, a new wife, debts and politics test his loyalty to the mags, he turns spy and devises a plot to shatter the revolution and help Britain capture rebel commander-in-chief General George Washington. And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history.

23:27Follow the Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution early and ad-free on Audible.

23:49American History Tellers:On December 20th, 1880, less than a year after Thomas Edison dazzled the public with the display of his new incandescent light bulbs, he hosted another lavish event in Menlo Park, New Jersey. But on this evening, it wasn't the public that was invited. Instead, a small, influential group of men stepped from the train station and made their way to Edison's lab. Hundreds of lights illuminated the grounds of the compound, which now included a large workshop, a brick office and library, a glass-blowing house, and a machine shop. Outside, the grounds radiated with an orange glow, while inside the laboratory, more than 30 chandeliers cast warm light over a lavish banquet.