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Why Nikola Tesla is So Famous (and Westinghouse is not)
In January of 1912, almost 20 years after the “war of the currents” was over George Westinghouse Jr. was awarded the American Institute of Electrical Engineer’s highest honor, the Edison Award, for “the development of the alternating-current system for light and power.”[1] In his introduction, the influential and delightful scientist Michael Pupin, said how great…
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George Westinghouse: The Unsung Hero of Electricity
Table of Contents: The Truth about Tesla’s Contract with Westinghouse How Westinghouse Became an Industrialist George Westinghouse Transitions from Gas to Light Westinghouse and the Transformer Westinghouse and the AC Transmission George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison The Truth about Tesla’s Contract with Westinghouse This video is my attempt to correct what I think is an…
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Charles Proteus Steinmetz: History and Science
Both during his life and after his death, Charles Proteus Steinmetz was often referred to as the “Wizard of Schenectady.” However, when I looked into his life, most of his famous contributions occurred when he arrived in America, penniless, with no English or practical engineering skills in June of 1889 (he was a political refugee…
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Charles Proteus Steinmetz Biography
A couple of years ago, a supporter of this channel with the amusingly terrifying name of Jack D. Ripper suggested I should look into the history of Charles Proteus Steinmetz, especially in regards to the story of him with Henry Ford. Intrigued, I looked into him and I was hooked. Steinmetz is fascinating to me.…
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How Tesla And Ferraris Invented The Two-Phase Motor
As I said in my video on the history of 3-phase electricity, both Nikola Tesla and Galileo Ferraris discovered two-phase electricity and the two-phase motor that were, according to Tesla, “identical almost to the smallest detail.” 1 So, how did these two men develop this fantastic discovery? Table of Contents Introduction How Ferraris Got Involved…
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History Of 3-Phase Electricity And It’s Distribution
Almost all of our electrical systems use 3 phase AC electricity, but how does it work, why was it invented, and who invented it? Ready for the surprising but complex and story as well as the answer to why some countries use 50 Hz and some use 60 Hz and one country uses both? In…
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James Joules: The Beer Brewer Who Changed The World
Most of us who know of James Joule know of him because we have heard of Joule’s law, his paddle experiment and/or we know that energy is measured in Joules in his honor. But who was Joule and how and why did he make his discoveries and what does it have to do with his…
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The Not So Honorable History of The Wheatstone Bridge
In my last video, on the history of Ohm’s law, I talked about part of how it was made famous was when a man named Charles Wheatstone attributed Ohm’s law to help him create what is now called the “Wheatstone Bridge” in 1843. However, I quickly learned that this “bridge” was actually created 10 years…
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Ohm’s Law: History and Biography of George Ohm
Everyone who studies basic electricity or physics learns Ohm’s law. But did you know that when Georg Ohm published his work in 1827, it was widely hated so much that he basically lost his job? Georg Simon Ohm was born in 1787 in Bavaria the oldest of three children who survived to adulthood (out of…
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Why Doesn’t The US Use 220V Like Everyone Else In The World?
As I studied the history of electricity I wondered more and more, why do 1/3rd of the countries in the world, including the United States, use around 110/120 volts in their homes, and the other 2/3rd use around 220/230 volts? I think I have found the answers: it all has to do with how Edison…