Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Guten Abend, Salonistas.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: A few points of ‘housekeeping’:
Katie: Hi Manisha Hi Liz Hi Kara! Greetings Baron!
Liz Wilner: hi Wild đ
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 1) To ensure you can hear the speaker, stand or sit on the labyrinth pattern.
Wildstar Beaumont: Hello everyone
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 2) Sit where-ever you might like in the provided seating. If you would prefer a wearable chair, please contact me in IM. The director’s chairs, when present, are for Tinies.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 3) Please remove all lag-feeding thingamajigs you might be wearing.
Liz Wilner: hi Ceejay đ
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 4) A tip jar minion is ⌠er, will be present momentarily for our speaker at the front of the stage. Do please show your appreciation!
Calla Iris Waydelich: Hi Ceejay!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 5) Any tips to help support the establishment will also be welcome – just click on one of the support signs or this handsome clank floating above us.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 6) If you are not a member of the AEther Salon group, there are signs that will let you join up. You’ll be most heartily welcome.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 7 ) Edited and unedited transcripts of these proceedings will be posted at https://aethersalon.home.blog/.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 8) Tea and treats are set out – help yourself! Beware of possible Hatchies guarding the sweet biscuits.
Ceejay Writer: Hi everyone!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Our speaker today is best known in the Salon for his annual and well-received presentations on many aspects of the nautical life, but today he brings us a different kind of current.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Admiral Wildstar Beaumont, welcome back.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach applauds
Wildstar Beaumont: thank you đ
Calla Iris Waydelich gently pats her bird, asking her to turn around.
Calla Iris Waydelich waves at her bird.
Calla Iris Waydelich gently pats her bird, asking her to turn around.
Calla Iris Waydelich whistles for her bird
Calla Iris Waydelich waves at her bird.
Calla Iris Waydelich gently pats her bird, asking her to turn around.
Calla Iris Waydelich whistles for her bird
Calla Iris Waydelich gently pats her bird, asking her to turn around.
Calla Iris Waydelich: Crap!
Calla Iris Waydelich: Sorry about that!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach chuckles
Wildstar Beaumont: hehe
Calla Iris Waydelich lowers her head.
Katie offers Calla a cup of tea
Calla Iris Waydelich: ((I bought one of those Teegle birds and some key got bound to her command gestures.))
Calla Iris Waydelich smiles and accepts the tea
Katie: đ
Wildstar Beaumont: Shall we get started ?
Katie: yes please
Liz Wilner: yes please đ
Wildstar Beaumont: đ
Katie: đ
Wildstar Beaumont: Hello everyone and welcome to this monthâs Salon
Symeon Siamendes: Yes please
Wildstar Beaumont: Yes, I know. Me again! Sorry. I promise you wonât be seeing me again until September đ
Ceejay Writer smiles at Wildstar, fully expecting to be mesmerized. But no pressure!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach chuckles
Wildstar Beaumont: The topic of this talk is electricity, and in particular electric ships, and how this electricity became the dominant source of propulsion for all those magnificent vessels that sail both the seas and the skies of our steam-diesel-vernian-punk world.
Wildstar Beaumont: No âŚ
Wait âŚ
Wildstar Beaumont: This is wrong ⌠this months is not about sailing ⌠not even electric sailing âŚ
Wildstar Beaumont: Oh well .. Sorry ⌠I was looking at the notes for a future September Salon.
And I must be careful not to mix electric ships and electric sheep. Thatâs even another thing. Androids, High Castles and Flowing Tears included.
Ceejay Writer: Gasp!
Liz Wilner: lol
Oriella Charik: !!
Wildstar Beaumont: No, no, no. Sorry about the mix-up. Anyway ⌠Todayâs topic is actually from the history of that mythical world called real life, and it concern a pivotal moment in the introduction of electricity: the so called War of the Currents
Ceejay Writer: Zante vs. Fresh?
Wildstar Beaumont: In the late 19th century, three brilliant inventors, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, battled over which electricity systemâdirect current (DC) or alternating current (AC)âwould become standard.
Wildstar Beaumont: During their bitter dispute, dubbed the War of the Currents, Edison championed the direct-current system, in which electrical current flows steadily in one direction, while Tesla and Westinghouse promoted the alternating-current system, in which the currentâs flow constantly alternates.
Wildstar Beaumont: Let us talk a bit about our contenders here and let us get to know them.
Manisha eagerly takes notes about her source of nutrition.
Wildstar Beaumont: Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and even more a savvy businessman who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery and one of the earliest motion picture cameras.
Wildstar Beaumont: One of the most famous men in the world by the time he was in his 30s, Edison, on top of his technical talents, was highly skilled at marketing his inventionsâand himselfâto the public.
Wildstar Beaumont: Born in 1847, Edison developed hearing loss by 12 and dropped out of school. When he was 13, he was already making 50$ per week (a substantial amount back then) by selling food and newspapers to train passengers.
Wildstar Beaumont: During the civil war he became interested in the telegraph, but since his hearing problems put him at a disadvantage with auditory signals, he started working on devices (such as a printer converting electrical signals to letters) to overcome his problem. By 1869 he left telegraphy to become a full time inventor
Wildstar Beaumont: Edison worked out of Newark, NJ, and despite some financial difficulties, by 1876 â with some help from his father â he was able to build a laboratory and machine shop in Menlo Park, NJ
Wildstar Beaumont: Some historians consider Edisonâs âinvention factoryâ the prototype of modern R&D labs, after which AT&T Bell labs, Xeroxâ Palo Alto Research Center and others were modeled after.
Wildstar Beaumont: In following years Edison developed the carbon transmitter, to improve the quality of telephone calls, the phonograph, and the electric light bulb, inexpensive replacement to the gaslight, a challenge scientists had been after for the past 50 years.
Wildstar Beaumont: With the help of prominent investors, the Edison Electric Light Company was founded, which, eventually, after the events of the War of the Currents, merged with another company to become General Electric.
Wildstar Beaumont: In his later years he had the idea of linking the phonograph to a zoetrope, a device that strung together a series of photographs in such a way that the images appeared to be moving. This effort eventually led to the Kinetograph, a motion picture camera, and a viewing instrument, the Kinetoscope.
Wildstar Beaumont: He was in legal battles with his competitors in the raising motion-picture industry for several years, and by 1918 he had stopped working on the fields.
Wildstar Beaumont: In 1912, automaker Henry Ford asked Edison to design a battery for the self-starter, which would be introduced on the iconic Model T.
Wildstar Beaumont: Despite limited success of his later inventions, Edison kept working well into his 80s eventually dying in 1931
Wildstar Beaumont: Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1863 Teslaâs brother Daniel was killed in a riding accident. The shock of the loss unsettled the 7-year-old Tesla, who reported seeing visionsâthe first signs of his lifelong mental illnesses.
Wildstar Beaumont: He studied math and physics at the Technical University of Graz and philosophy at the University of Prague. In 1882, he had the idea for a brushless AC motor, making the first sketches of its rotating electromagnets in the sand.
Ceejay Writer: Really!
Katie: awesome!
Liz Wilner: some say Tesla was actually an alien
Manisha giggles
Wildstar Beaumont: Later that year he moved to Paris and got a job repairing direct current (DC) power plants with the Continental Edison Company. Two years later he immigrated to the United States.
Wildstar Beaumont: Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 and was hired as an engineer at Thomas Edisonâs Manhattan headquarters. He worked there for a year, impressing Edison with his diligence and ingenuity.
Wildstar Beaumont: At one point Edison told Tesla he would pay $50,000 for an improved design for his DC dynamos.
Katie hisses liar
Wildstar Beaumont: After months of experimentation, Tesla presented a solution and asked for the money. Edison demurred, saying, âTesla, you donât understand our American humor.â Tesla quit soon after.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Very funny.
Katie: hisses again
Ceejay Writer hisses with Katie
Wildstar Beaumont: After an unsuccessful attempt to start his own company and a stint digging ditches for $2 a day, Tesla found backers to support his research into alternating current.
Manisha: Yay!
Katie: yes!
Kali: Yay!
Wildstar Beaumont: In 1887 and 1888 he was granted more than 30 patents and invited to address the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on his work. His lecture caught the attention of George Westinghouse, the inventor who had launched the first AC power system near Boston and was Edisonâs major competitor in the âBattle of the Currents.â
Wildstar Beaumont: Tesla also experimented with X-rays, gave short-range demonstrations of radio communication and piloted a radio-controlled boat around a pool in Madison Square Garden. Together, Tesla and Westinghouse lit the 1893 Worldâs Columbian Exposition in Chicago and partnered with General Electric to install AC generators at Niagara Falls, creating the first modern power station.
Phrynne: There’s a larger-than-life statue of Tesla at Niagara Falls
Katie claps delightedly
Wildstar Beaumont: In 1895 Teslaâs New York lab burned, destroying yearsâ worth of notes and equipment. Tesla relocated to Colorado Springs for two years, returning to New York in 1900.
Calla Iris Waydelich: Radio controlled boatâŚ
Calla Iris Waydelich writes that one down for the next time her daughters get sassy on her.
Katie giggles
Wildstar Beaumont: He secured backing from financier J.P. Morgan and began building a global communications network centered on a giant tower at Wardenclyffe, on Long Island. But funds ran out and Morgan balked at Teslaâs grandiose schemes.
Wildstar Beaumont: Tesla lived his last decades in a New York hotel, working on new inventions even as his energy and mental health faded.
Wildstar Beaumont: His obsession with the number three and fastidious washing were dismissed as the eccentricities of genius. He spent his final years feedingâand, he claimed, communicating withâthe cityâs pigeons.
Wildstar Beaumont: Tesla died in his room on January 7, 1943. The AC system he championed and improved remains the global standard for power transmission.
Katie: đŚ
Mary Layton whispers: đŚ
Katie: about him dying
Mary Layton nods
Wildstar Beaumont: Our third player is George Westinghouse.
Mary Layton: I was happy to have been able to donate to the reconstruction of Wardenclyffe a few years back. Hope to visit someday
Wildstar Beaumont: George Westinghouse was one of the most prolific inventors and businessmen of the Industrial Revolution. After serving in the Union Army and Navy, he patented several devices, particularly for railroads. He would eventually start the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company to improve alternating current (AC) power generators
Katie: that’d be cool!
Wildstar Beaumont: Born in 1846 in Central Bridge, New York, Westinghouse, when his father opened a machinery shop, a young George would spend his time there and develop a keen interest in steam engines.
Ceejay Writer: Mary, I got in on a kickstarter for Wardenclyffe.
Wildstar Beaumont: However, the Civil War forced George to put his experiments on hold, and he served in the Union Army and later, as an assistant engineer for the Navy.
Mary Layton: Yes, Ceejay – that was the one I donated to!
Wildstar Beaumont: Although he enlisted in college, he dropped out just months later, when he received his first patent for a rotary steam engine invention.
Liz Wilner: hi OldeâŚget off the stage! LOLOL
Wildstar Beaumont: Westinghouse’s major contributions started with inventions revolving around railroad safety, most notably his compressed air brake system which eventually became a standard of safety not only in the US but also in Canada and Europe.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Welcome, Lord OldeSoul.
Mary Layton: Hi Olde!
Liz Wilner hugs Olde
Oriella Charik: My typist also was a Wardenclyffe supporter
Wildstar Beaumont: that’s what you expect from groupies (referring to Olde đ )
Symeon Siamendes: Hi Mr Olde
Mary Layton: hehehe đ
OldeSoul Eldemar: Thank you – laughs
Wildstar Beaumont: Westinghouse’s interest in alternating current technology came after working on natural gas control and distribution projects, in which he invented a valve that helped take high-pressure gas and bring it down to low-pressure use. From that experience, he turned his attention to electricity, believing that a similar approach could distribute power for widespread use.
Mary Layton: Hi Cassie!
Liz Wilner: hi Cassie đ
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Welcome, Countess.
Cassie Eldemar: hi everyone;)
Phrynne: hi Cassie
Wildstar Beaumont: Confident that developing alternating current (AC) technology â converting high voltage to low through a transformer â was the way of the future, Westinghouse founded the Westinghouse Electric Company in 1886, entering fierce competition with Edison.
Katie claps
Wildstar Beaumont: Westinghouse’s business empire prospered for years. Within a decade of founding the Westinghouse Electric Company in 1886, the inventor would accrue a company net worth of $120 million, 50,000 workers on his payroll and manufacturing entities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.
Wildstar Beaumont: However, a disastrous financial panic in 1907 forced the inventor to cut all ties to it by 1911. It was then that his health took a turn for the worse. Suffering from heart problems, he died in 1914.
Katie: đŚ
Wildstar Beaumont: Let me get technical for a second and let me try to explain is simple terms â also for those not adept in electro-technical themes â what the dispute was about (beside money, of course)
Wildstar Beaumont: Alternating current (AC) power is the standard electricity that today comes out of power outlets and is defined as a flow of charge that exhibits a periodic change in direction.
Wildstar Beaumont: Direct current (DC) power, as you may infer from the name, is a linear electrical currentâit moves in a straight line, like in a battery or a fuel cell.
Wildstar Beaumont: There are many plus and minuses for either system, but what makes the big difference, and eventually led AC to become dominant on the grid is that AC, despite being more hazardous and complex, is much more suited for distribution of electrical power, efficiently and at lower costs.
Wildstar Beaumont: Despite their many other achievements, the war of the currents is probably the event for which our characters are remembered the most.
Wildstar Beaumont: In the late 19th century, Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse battled over which electricity system would become standard.
Wildstar Beaumont: During their dispute, Edison championed the direct-current system, while Tesla and Westinghouse promoted the alternating-current system,.
Wildstar Beaumont: After developing the worldâs first practical light bulb in the late 1870s, Edison began building a system for producing and distributing electricity so businesses and homes could use his new invention. He opened his first power plant, in New York City, in 1882, and DC was the standard by then.
Wildstar Beaumont: DC has one problem though: It is not easily converted to higher or lower voltages. AC can be converted to different voltages relatively easily using a transformer.
Wildstar Beaumont: Tesla, as we already mentioned, went to work for Edison. Tesla helped improve Edisonâs DC generators while also attempting to interest his boss in an AC motor heâd been developing; however, the inventor from Menlo Park, firmly supporting DC, claimed AC had no future.
Wildstar Beaumont: Tesla quit his job in 1885 and a few years later received a number of patents for his AC technology. In 1888, he sold his patents to George Westinghouse, whose Westinghouse Electric Company had quickly become an Edison competitor.
Wildstar Beaumont: Feeling threatened by the rise of AC, which could be distributed over long distances much more economically than DC, and not wanting to lose the royalties he was earning from his direct current patents, began a campaign to discredit alternating current, Edison launched a propaganda campaign to discredit AC and convince the public it was dangerous.
Wildstar Beaumont: As part of the campaign, animals were publicly electrocuted with AC, and when New York State sought a more humane alternative to hanging its death-penalty prisoners, Edison, once an opponent of capital punishment, recommended alternating current-powered electrocution as the fastest, deadliest option.
Wildstar Beaumont: In 1890, convicted murderer William Kemmler became the first person to die in the electric chair. The apparatus, designed by an electricity salesman secretly on Edisonâs payroll, was powered by a Westinghouse AC generator.
Wildstar Beaumont: The fierce competition between Edison and Westinghouse over electricity spilled into a legal battle called The Seven Years War or the Currents War
Wildstar Beaumont: Ultimately, however, Edison failed in his efforts to discredit AC. The Chicago Worldâs Fair — also known as the Worldâs Columbian Exposition — took place in 1893, at the height of the Current War.
Wildstar Beaumont: General Electric which was formed in 1892 by a merger involving Edisonâs company, bid to electrify the fair using Edisonâs direct current for $554,000, but lost to George Westinghouse, who said he could power the fair for only $399,000 using Teslaâs alternating current.
Katie: Yay!
Wildstar Beaumont: The expo became a dazzling showcase for Teslaâs AC system.
Wildstar Beaumont: Westinghouse also received an important contract to construct the AC generators for a hydro-electric power plant at Niagara Falls; in 1896, the plant started delivering electricity all the way to Buffalo, 26 miles away.
Wildstar Beaumont: By this time General Electric had decided to jump on the alternating current train, too and the Niagara Falls achievement was regarded as the unofficial end to the War of the Currents, and AC became dominant in the electric power industry.
Katie: Yay!
Wildstar Beaumont: Today our electricity is still predominantly powered by alternating current, but computers, LEDs, solar cells and electric vehicles all run on DC power. And methods are now available for converting direct current to higher and lower voltages. Since direct current is more stable, companies are finding ways of using high voltage direct current (HVDC) to transport electricity long distances with less electricity loss.
Wildstar Beaumont: So, it appears the War of the Currents may not be over yet. But instead of continuing in a heated AC vs. DC battle, it looks like the two currents will end up working parallel to each other in a sort of hybrid armistice.
Cassie Eldemar: đ
Wildstar Beaumont: I teased you in my opening with the concept of electric sheep ⌠ahem ⌠ships. Well, let me conclude with that as well.
Calla Iris Waydelich: Sounds like the Current War remains a current thing?
Manisha throws marzipan at her mom.
Wildstar Beaumont: There has been recently another line of resurgence for a larger adoption of DC, that goes beyond its use on battery powered environments, like computers and cell phones.
Ceejay Writer intercepts treat
Katie: and Tesla cars
Wildstar Beaumont: DC has been recently opening a new offensive in large industrial applications. Ship builders, for example, have started exploring DC for marine propulsion. Engineers are looking at using DC current to build better and more efficient âgreenâ ships.
Calla Iris Waydelich: Intriguing.
Wildstar Beaumont: The Royal Navy, for instance, is working on the development of the technology for next-next generation ships.
Wildstar Beaumont: But thatâs the future. And any innovation that will lead us into new applications will be built on the experience started by those epic events that took place 130 years ago
Wildstar Beaumont: Thank you very much for you attention today and see you in September for my usual naval related salon
Calla Iris Waydelich: Applause!!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach applauds
Oriella Charik: The Second Electric Revolution is here!
Manisha applauds!
Ceejay Writer: Well done, Wildstar!
Kali applauds broodily
Symeon Siamendes: Thank you Admiral
Ceejay Writer: For anyone who would like to review the transcript at a later date, I’ll have it up at the website in a few days.
OldeSoul Eldemar: that was awesome !! So sorry we were late
Manisha giggles and shares more candies with Kali
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Vielen dank, Admiral.
Ceejay Writer: https://aethersalon.home.blog/
Katie: Yes! Many thanks!
Wildstar Beaumont: my pleasure, Herr Baron
OldeSoul Eldemar: I will catch up on the Website. Thank you CeeJay
Ceejay Writer: My pleasure!
Calla Iris Waydelich: Marvelous salon!
Phrynne: thank you, Wildstar
Liz Wilner: ty Wild! that was fascinating!
Mary Layton: Thank you, Wild!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Remember, if you would like to express your appreciation to the Admiral, you may tip him via the Tipbot on the front of the stage.
Phrynne: apologies, I must go
Liz Wilner: tc Phrynne đ
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: To appreciate the Salon, pay the little airship above.
Calla Iris Waydelich: My homeland has had a longtime interest in alternative power. This salon was most illuminating – no pun intended.
Manisha groans
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach chuckles
Katie: and it felt like ohm
Kali groans
OldeSoul Eldemar: laughs Calla – love it
Katie: (sorry couldn’t resist)
Cassie Eldemar: thank you Wild:)
Wildstar Beaumont: đ
Ceejay Writer: I must go do many things with the help of electricity now! This was excellent. Have a good week ahead, everyone.
Liz Wilner: see ya Ceejay!
Manisha: Byeeeeeee
Liz Wilner: tc Calla! đ
Liz Wilner: tc Manisha đ
Katie: TC everyone! Thankee again Wildstar!
Kali: Until next time!
Katie curtsies and poofs
Symeon Siamendes: Thanks again – good night all tc
Wildstar Beaumont: thank you all for being here today đ
Symeon Siamendes: yvw
Symeon Siamendes: very interesting
Symeon Siamendes: without electricity none of us would be here
Wildstar Beaumont: very true
Symeon Siamendes: Bye!
Wildstar Beaumont: one little interesting fact
Wildstar Beaumont: why AC is dangerous ?
Liz Wilner: tc Symeon đ
Symeon Siamendes: I forget
Symeon Siamendes: I used to know the answer
Wildstar Beaumont: first of all ⌠all electricity is dangerous. DC can kill you as well if it finds a path through you body
Wildstar Beaumont: but
Wildstar Beaumont: while in most cases DC will give you a shock that will make you disconnect from whatever charged circuit you have touched
Calla Iris Waydelich laughs
Calla Iris Waydelich: Sounds like my car!
Wildstar Beaumont: AC, changing direction many times per second will basically trick your bosy in staying in contact ⌠causing eventually much larger damage
Wildstar Beaumont: and interfering with your heart
Symeon Siamendes: I see
Wildstar Beaumont: body*
Mary Layton: Tricksy, that AC
Wildstar Beaumont: and now .. since we have past the top of the hour you may go đ grins
Aether Salon 