Tesla and AC motor – Laurence B.

On May 15, 1888 Nikola Tesla traveled to Columbia College where the American Institute of Electrical Engineers was holding a convention. Tesla was there to give a lecture on his alternating current improvements. He had written the literature for the lecture the night before. Tesla was reluctant to attend this convention, but he was slowly overcome by the fact that he needed to make himself known. And so he agreed. He began his lecture by respectfully thanking his benefactors, Professor Anthony, Mr. Martin and Mr. Pope. He explained how he was asked to come on a very short notice, and to be forgiven for the briefness of the lecture. He was also reluctant to do the lecture because he had not even received the patents for some of what he was about to show. Tesla explained his AC motor and how there was no connection between the electricity being put into the motor with the rotor arm. This meant no commutator, which was a huge step forward. A man in the crowd who was known for improving the inventions of electricities kings, was Professor Thomson. Thomson was working on an AC motor as well, but did not think of the idea of having more than one current being supplied. This was the key to getting rid of the slow commutator technology. Westinghouse had known of Tesla’s ideas before the convention was held. Westinghouse purchased Tesla’s patents because they were the final piece he needed to complete his AC empire. There was some trouble in this process because Tesla was a very out of the box kind of person, and H.M. Byllesby had some trouble comprehending Tesla’s ideas. He wrote to Westinghouse that Tesla’s Ideas were far fetched, but he saw many good points that would have been of interest to Westinghouse. Westinghouse almost bought the patents for an AC system that Ferraris had invented in Europe.