Tesla Lecture & AC Motor – Ivan B.

As many electrical engineers entered Tesla’s Lecture, they did not expect for their efforts to be outdone by what Tesla had designed. What Nikola Tesla had designed was a motor that ran on the Alternating Current system and did not use any brushes or commutators. All motors previously either ran on the Direct Current system and or used a commutator or a brush. Tesla had created an AC polyphase motor that ran solely on AC and did not have to be converted to DC current or to aided by a commutator. Tesla’s motor used a polyphase system of currents, in which there was two AC currents which were out of step with each other. At the moment that one of the currents was past its maximum output of power and was dying off, the second current would step in and provide power. Tesla used this in the design of his polyphase motor. In Teslas polyphase motor, there were two sets of two electrical magnets, in each set of magnets, the magnets were positioned opposite of each other. These magnets worked out of step with each other, using the alternating currents. When two of the magnets were turned on, the other two were off. The center rotating shaft had magnets on it as well, that were pushed by the magnetic field produced by the magnets that were turned on by the alternating currents. The center shaft would always be rotated by the alternating currents and have constant power.

A similar design was proposed by Professor Thomson. The design by Thomson was similar in nature, it used the AC system, but it had one difference. The one difference was that it used one current instead of two, and it used a commutator to make the AC alternating.

George Westinghouse was big supporter of the AC system. He saw how advantageous AC was over DC and made it his own. He bought many patents from Tesla so he could use the technology to electrify the US, and make a buck from it too.

While Westinghouse and Tesla were great partners, the workers of Westinghouse were not. Tesla had trouble communicating with the workers why he wanted certain dimensions and certain settings on the devices that Tesla had invented and was improving.