17-Extra Credit on ethics and business – Rafael R.

Good business practices does not always involve ethical behavior but can cause ethical behavior as a consequence. For example, a bread maker may not be making cheap bread to feed the hungry, but to make money which he will use to live off of. He will by any means, sell his bread in any way possible, such as lowering his price to hurt another business. The way Edison tried to keep his business alive was by trying to harm the reputation of the other business. This is seen in today’s modern business as well. Advertising is one of the biggest ways to put out a good and also turn away business from your opponent. An example is medicine commercials where one medicine says its better than the other brand because it cures many different illnesses. The other brand tells its consumers that it is better than the rest because it targets one specific illness and is therefore more effective and your not taking medication for a symptom you don’t have.

Lineman’s Death – Rafael R.

05 October 1889

Editor of North American Review,

I’m sorry to hear about the tragedy of the Western Union lineman but how can we decide to outlaw the use of AC current just because one person’s live was taken. There have been more deaths in car accidents than there have been by electric current, but we continue to use horse-drawn cars because we can make improvements to make them safer. Had there not been a web of tangled wires, the lineman would’ve been safe to do his job. We should take this as a lesson learned to improve the conditions of wires and poles to make them neater. Even Edison’s workers are asking for alternating current, because it makes electricity much more efficient and economic. Lets work together to make alternating current as common as the horse-drawn car.

sincerely,

George Westinghouse

Details to incorporate:

“were it  a question of prohibiting the use not merely of electricity, but of all other things dangerous to life, we would no longer have fires to warm us or light to enable us to see, and, in fact,  would be deprived of most the necessaries and comforts of existence” – Westinghouse

source: page 653 on westinghouse article

Westinghouse explaination of the underground THICK copper wires and the problems page 656

bottom of 656 –  safety issues in the Edison Company electric systems

16b – Edison and Kemmler -Rafael R.

Edison really takes advantage of the title he has obtained as the “Wizard.” When he was being interviewed by Bourke Cockran, he stated that artificially generated electric current would instantly bring death to human beings in every case (Jonnes 195). He really had no evidence that this was true and when this information was released to the public, they would accept this information because of the reputation Edison had already won himself. Edison was indeed unethical, rather than misconceived. When electrocution of Kemmler had not gone as planned, he stated that the electrodes were not placed in the right places.

Something else that Edison hid from the public was his connection with Brown. He stated that Brown was just another person having the honor to work in his Laboratory. This was also unethical of Edison and Brown. The letters between Edison and Brown were later stolen from Brown’s office and delivered to the public revealing the unethical behaviors between them.

Edison, Brown and Electrocution – Rafael Reynoso

Harold P. Brown was a man that was against the use of high-voltage alternating current. He wanted to either outlaw or atleast regulate the use of AC electric current to under 300 volts. He was hired by Edison when he had attacked alternating current in his article Constant Danger from Sudden Death in the New York Evening Post. This man was a mere “nobody” before this article was delivered to the public, but had quickly gotten the attention of many when had taken the war of currents to a new level. When Westinghouse had the opportunity to reply to his accusations, he questioned Brown’s creditability as an electrician and stated that Brown had no proof. There had been men that took more than 1,000 volts of AC current and still survived. Brown, brought his proof to the public by displaying the killing of dogs, cows and even a large horse weighing 1,230 pounds using less than half the voltage (700 volts) of what is used in arc lighting. As a result, the state of New York wanted to substitute the death sentence by hanging with electrocution by alternating current. Brown may have evened the score in the battle of currents between AC and DC current by giving Edison some more support from the people. Brown claimed to not be moved by the companies involved, rather only by the issue of safety.

The campaigns done by Harold Brown to support direct current systems was partially unethical. Since at the time they didn’t really have any other way of proving which was safer for humans. What people are saying that is unethical on the testing of animals seems valid but the question to be asked is would you rather test it on animals beforehand or find out its unsafe when people are actually dying from it. There may have been another way of testing it, maybe using a circuit breaker type where the voltage may cause a circuit with a high resistance to break. This idea was probably too ahead of the time period this was happening in. Though it is just an idea, what Brown what wanted to do was make the public aware and after the first demonstration he should’ve realized people don’t want to see animal cruelty.

AC Motor – Rafael R.

Polyphase alternating current was important for Nikola Tesla’s motor because it allowed the dynamo that generated electric current to work without commutator. Also, Tesas induction motor worked with a rotating magnetic core which replaced the commutators. The commutators are a pair of brushes which were previously used to short circuit the armature coil. The motor also used the polyphase alternating current to function by using three currents which were out of step so that when one of the currents was reversing another current would pick it up from there.

George Westinghouse’s AC company was being dominated by Edison’s DC electric company in that Edison had a working motor to function with his DC system and Westinghouse did not. In Westinghouse’s quest to find an AC motor to function with his AC system, he found himself in a dilemma, choosing between buying the rights to Tesla’s induction motor or Galileo Ferraris motor. The difference was that tesla had designed a his motor to be intended for heavy duty commercial work while Ferraris’ motor was simply an amusing toy. Eventually Westinghouse bought the patent rights to Tesla’s motor and hired him to be a Westinghouse consultant.

While working in Tesla’s company, he struggled to cooperate with Westinghouse’s engineers. Tesla’s was correcting everything his engineers knew about making electricity and made it seem that what they previously thought was correct is irrelevant. Incorporating his induction motor into Westinghouse’s AC system was also a problem. The engineers had desighned all their AC central lighting stations to operate at a frequency of 133 cycles. Tesla had already concluded that the ideal frequency was 60 cycles and thats what his motor was based on. Making even more difficult was the fact that the engineers loathed Tesla for being rich and someday maybe even being more known than Thomas Edison.

Micron Trip – Rafael R.

The Micron trip was a nice insight on a possible place where our careers might be taking us. We saw the manufacturing of a silicon wafer which is shipped out to other micron facilities to be assembled into the the final products. Our guide showed us part of the developments that have recently occurred. For example, they have a machine that hangs from the ceiling which picks up boxes of 25 wafers and delivers them around the site to have them processed. Before, there used to be workers picking up the boxes and moving them around. This would be a typical problem that an engineer would solve to boost the manufacturing process. It would’ve been nice to walk around the “clean room,” to see all the machines that were further back. The tour was interesting, but could’ve been better had we gotten more out of how they are made, rather than presenting a power point presentation showing off to us how successful the company is. We didn’t recieve any information on what jobs or internships there are, but he did tell us they work twelve-hour shifts. We didn’t see many workers in the facility. The few workers we saw seemed to be sitting around, since the machines do all the work. It would be a boring job and I would definately not want to work there.

How Transformers Work – Rafael Reynoso

Transformers are devices that change the voltage, pressure that drives electric currents, in an alternating current system. These are important if you want to distribute electricity over long distances. The transformer takes the electricity from a generator and “steps” it up to a high voltage, which can travel long distances. Where it is needed, a transformer is use to “step” down the high voltage to a usable voltage. In reality, it may be stepped up or stepped down a couple depending on how high the voltage is that you are working with. The way these transformers work is through electric self-induction. Electric self-induction is a consequence of a magnetic field in one circuit which may “induce” a current in a nearby circuit. In transformers two coils of copper wire are used to create the self-induction. If the number of coils in the first coil is less than the number of coils in the coil that is being “induced” then the voltage is going to increase as the difference in the number of coils increases. The opposite goes for lowering the voltage; the more coils there in the primary coil than the secondary coil, the lower the voltage in the secondary coil will be.

Tesla Master of Lightning – Rafael R.

Tesla, “the master of lightning”, was one of the most revolutionary inventors that ever existed. He was not a practical man though. Usually it was others that made fortunes off of his inventions. He was a described as a “visionary genius” by others, because through his extraordinary imagination, he could come up with an invention through a “vision” and would work out the whole invention in his head.  He was fascinated by electricity during his university life, but was embarrassed by a professor when he proposed that motors and generators could be improved by using alternating current. One day while walking in the park, he had a vision of an AC motor and quickly got on his knees to draw it on the ground. He later traveled to the U.S. with a letter of recommendation for Thomas Edison from one of his associates. Edison did not care for the motor but hired him to improve Edison’s generators. When he had finished, he tried to claim the $50,000 that Edison had promised him and Edison just laughed and told him that he just doesn’t understand American humor. He then quit and with the help of some investors, opened his own laboratory and got to work on his AC motor. He continued to succeed from then on and eventually won the war of currents when he successfully lit up the world fair using alternating currents. Other successes that he had were the Tesla coil, neon illumination, the first x-rays, and remote control.

Tesla and Thomas Edison both had characteristics that helped them succeed and fail in the inventing. Edison was a hard worker which enabled him to try every possibility available to him. He would perfect his inventions by changing the components of his inventions with many other things until he got whatever he was looking for. Although he is accredited with being one of the most successful inventors, many believe that he depended on his invention factory and the help of his men to become successful. Tesla, on the other hand, depended upon visions to make his successful inventions. He would have hallucinations of working devices that would strike him out of nowhere. He failed to make fortunes from his inventions, which would cause financial problems for him.

Electric Nation – Rafael R.

The documentary, Electric Nation, on systems that made the electric light bulb actually useful. A larger question answered by this documentary is, How do we power large quantities of lights, for example in New York City, at a price that can be affordable to more people from the middle and lower class. Edison decided that he could create a system that would be affordable and still make him some money. When he had created the system, he was given the opportunity to install it in New York City. The idea of a system in New York City was important to Edison, because success would mean everybody would accept the electric lighting system. On the contrary, failure in Edison’s attempt to electrify New York City would mean a huge loss of money. His system turned out to be a great success. The system of electricity was also important to Samuel Insull. Insull had General Electric build him the biggest turbine possible at the time.  The experimental turbine was successful and allowed him to lower the unit price of electricity significantly. His vision was to have people of every status be able to access electricity and change their lives. He had promotions where he gave away devices to people who would sign up for his services. He even sold stock to his customers, people who usually not afford to invest money. The reason why his vision went wrong was because the stock market crashed and the people who had stocks with Insull’s company went down with him. He fled from the country, but was later arrested and charged for fraud. He was able to prove that his intentions were only positive ones. Somebody who benefited from this event was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who actually made Insull one of his campaign issues. Roosevelt believed that it was the duty of the state to provide electricity to places where private power companies would not provide services. Later on, the state played its part on electrifying the U.S. by creating large generators in some of the nations dam. For example, Wheeler Dam generated power for six states and even farmers had access to to electricity.

Edison, The Man – Rafael R.

Just as in the time when there was no written documentation, stories that were spoken orally would be slightly altered from the original and people would change the stories depending on the point they want to make to their listeners. In Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes, the author expects the readers to want to learn facts about Edison and keeps her book as factual and realistic as possible. On the other hand, the 1940s movie, “Edison, the Man” starring Spencer Tracy, is looking to satisfy viewer that are looking for entertainment, more than exact details. In the movie, Edison is portrayed as a very happy and outgoing individual. He is always making jokes and is very social. Also he is very romantic with his wife and a good father to his kids. His process of discovery is way different from Jill Jonnes’ description. He happens to make alot of his discoveries by trying things that people say won’t work. When he is carbonizing the string and his assistant tells him it’ll never work and they’ve already tried it. Edison persists on doing what everybody thinks is wrong and it happens to be right. From the movie we see that the qualities that make him successful are hard-work and his optimistic character. He was loved by everybody and his workers weren’t just people that worked for his invention factory, they were loyal friends. Jill Jonnes would agree that Edison was romantic sometimes, but he loved his work more than his wife, and we never hear about him being a good father, at all. We don’t know how he really acted as a person or if he really liked to be as humorous as he is in the movie. His discoveries were results of his hard work in which he tried everything and anything to make perfect. The way Edison is portrayed seems to differ by who the expected audience is going to be.