New York Letter Post: Matthew Harrison

Editor of New York Letter,

In the war of whom owns the electrical power of the United States it is very easily decided on which system would be safer for the public, or does it. Edison saw the horrific killing of John E. H. Freeks and the execution of Kemmler as a way to show the public how dangerous Alternating current actually is. Although Edison was trying to prove a point that Alternating current is harmful if touched or used to kill someone, he was under minded by most people in his company. Part of his company was moving toward the idea of alternating current because of the great advantages it had over direct current. Alternating current was able to be sent over long distances while direct current would only reach a mile or so. Because of this great advantage, his company would slowly turn their back on his idea and go with alternative current. Edison knew of this and would try to pursue the public into thinking that alternating current is worse. Although Edison was able to show that alternating current is bad at high voltages by killing animals and using the deaths of Kemmler and Feek as proof of why its bad, Westinghouse still had the upper hand. Westinghouse stated that accidents do happen, and that with more modern technology accidents such as what happened to Feek will happen. Also Westinghouse was able to show that some of Edison’s company was separating from his ideas. Westinghouse was also able to show that with-in time, improvements will be made on how electric current is used and set up around the United States. When it really comes down to electric current and which one is worse, they both can kill someone, they both can have accidents, and they both can be harmful to any living object.   The public will want something that will transmit energy at a lower cost and is more efficient whether it kills people or not, from a business aspect, alternating current is more energy efficient and has more potential then direct.

Edison Ethical Position: Matthew Harrison

Edison was always seen as someone that would create something for the greater good of the world, his inventions in electrify changed the face of the world and would impact not only the past but the future. Although Edison did create great achievements in engineering, he would soon lose the battle for electrify America. Edison would do whatever it took to take over his competitors as seen in the book Empires of Light. His views on electrical execution where unethical in the sense that he had no idea how it would react on the person being electrocuted. He would electrocute animals to get his point across that AC generators are bad and can actually kill people. This electric war would fuel his curiosity in killing a human by electric power, and soon would be seen by people as not only as a great inventor but as a support of cruel execution. His view on execution where very unethical because he made someones life not be about the crime he committed but the way the world is going to use electricity.

Brown: Matthew Harrison

Brown is a person that was very like Thomas Edison, he did not like the idea of sing alternating current and how high of voltage it was able to produce. He even went as far to write an article agents alternating current called “constant danger from sudden death” where he talked about the bad that would only come from alternating current.  Before he published this paper though he was seen as a nobody, but then quickly got attention once he wrote this article. Westinghouse would question his proof as a person that actually knew what he was talking about, so Brown decided to show his proof by killing animals with alternating current. This gave Edison more support in electricity wars, and would help Brown establish a position in fighting for DC current to over rule AC current. Brown claimed he was a man that did not get any support from companies and was only fighting to protect the people from harmful alternating current.

Tesla and the AC Motor: Matthew Harrison

After reading empires of light it became apparent to me that Tesla was able to create a better and more reliable machine then what Thomas Edison was able to create. One of his major design changes was that there where no commutators which made the machine have less ware and tare, and ultimately gave it a better life span. Tesla was able to change the whole machine around and actually convert it back to direct current when it was needed and then to AC current when it was needed. This ability to change electric flow really gave Tesla the upper hand. Tesla was able to use different sets of current which would he could controll. He was able to make one set of currents go lower while the other worked stronger. 

Tesla First lecture of the AC generator was done at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, which is where he would describe how the AC motor worked and what improvements he has made over the past years. But these designs where so far ahead of their time it was had for other engineers to work with him and commercialize this product.  With the help of Westinghouse Tesla was able to option patens which would help further his design to make it more practical for everyday use. Tesla still at this time was viewed as a visionary and his ideas although abstract are still in use today.

Memory: Matthew Harrison

Delay Line memory was used in one of the earliest computers dated all the way back toward World War II. Delay line memory was a re-refreshable memory so when every it would get a line of data it could re-fresh the old data that it had collected from before. To access this data required a person to wait for the pulse of interest to reach the other side of the medium, thus being called delay line memory. Dynamic Random Access Memory stores each bit of information is a separate capacitor, but because this needed to be re-freshed periodically, it was labeled as dynamic not as static random access memory. One advantage of the DRAM is that is had every simple structure with only one capacitor and one transistor. DRAM today is basically used for every computer and electrical devices that has to store bit and pieces of information, although this soon could be replaced. If you are to unplug DRAM from its power source all of your data will be lost, unlike Flash memory (solid state) which can be unplugged and still keep its information. This new style of memory is starting to be introduced into computers today and soon could replace DRAM.

Micron Trip: Matthew Harrison

I found that the micron trip was very interesting but needed to be spiced up a little more. The PowerPoint’s where very informative but where very plan. This kind of presentation felt like a presentation that I would have to listen to at school not on a visit.  Although the PowerPoint presentation was boring the rest of the trip was very interesting. Seeing the machines work side by side and the massive machines that cost 30 million dollars made it more interesting. Also our tour guide gave very factual information and stressed how competition is one of the biggest roles in this industry. Micron although at times lacked the visual aspect, it still was very intersting to understand and learn how the computer memory was transformed into a complex system that we know today.

Transformers: Matthew Harrison

Transformers basically transform one set of electricty into another form of electrcity. Transformers can be commonly fouund in alternating currents. The voltage travles through many coils which are insulated so the voltage can be created at a higher rate. The more coils there are located on a trasnformer the higher the voltage. The transformers would help Tesla’s design of the alternating current generators. These transformers made it able to send electrcity over long distance of land so that everyone would be able to use it. Micheal Farday would create this great invention in 1831.

Electric Nation: Matthew Harrison

This film did a good job of explaining the electrification of the United States and Samuel Insul goal of expanding electricity through out the united states. This film also did a good job of addressing the struggles that Thomas Edison had when he first invented the D.C. generator. He was given the opportunity which he took, but took a long time to perfect. Although Edisons idea was new and something different that the city of New York had to deal with Edison would soon be out done by Tesla. Tesla was able to create a better energy source for America that was more practical and the people where sold. Although Tesla finally did get the upper hand in creating a better source of electricity ( Alternative Current), Edison did get help from people like Samuel Insul to mass produce the generator. Samuel wanted a generator basically all over America so that energy would come at a cheap price. He looked at this like Henry Ford looked at selling cars, sell to the mass of the population not the rich. All of these great inventor and entrepreneurs gave the electrification of America the base format for the cheap energy that we know today. It is a proven fact that our energy cost is sufficiently lower due to that fact that our electrification is some what better and more plentiful than other countries. With-out the help of Edison, Tesla and Samuel Insul the electric nation would have to deal with high electric cost. This film gave a good description of the race to electrify America at an early age and what the competitors had to do to win that race.

Edison: The Man, Matthew Harrison

Edison in this film almost seem to be the person who could never do anything wrong. He liked everyone that he basically saw. Edison was seen as a person that would help anyone really that needed help. His character resembled something of what the American dream is, in which if you work hard at something good things will happen. Of course this is not always true but in the film Edison the man, his hard work would eventually pay off and he would be known as one of the greatest inventors the world has ever seen. In this film Edison at times would just figure out problems by working hard on them but a lot of the time it would just be constant experiments and a lot of trial and error. Edison would eventually find something that worked and make it into his next invention. This was not mostly how Edison would discover new ideas that would help his inventions at least that was what was portrayed in the book. Many of times Edison would just discover new ideas by accident but then actually used Science to discovery what he was really looking for. This movie was able to give me a better understand of how Edison would think and portray his inventive ideas as he grew older.

Edison- Matthew Harrison

Edison was a person that would find out research and then create an experiment to perfect the product he is trying to create. Edison had to look up Ohms law when creating the incandescent light bulb. He did this because to create something you have to know the basic background. Of course the light bulb was already created, which he knew, but he wanted to make this more convenient for other people to use. So Edison adapted Ohm’s Law to create and Parallel circuit in which copied that of the gas lines. He was able to create a circuit that would individually control each light bulb much like how the gas circuit was wired. Edison had to create a light bulb that would be able to run on another circuit than parallels. Thus he created the Incandescent light bulb which we use today.