George Westinghouse
April 15, 1892: General Electric Corporation is founded in New York. This is generally considered to be the end of "The War of the Currents."
This was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems. It grew out of two lighting systems developed in the late 1870s and early 1880s: Arc lamp street lighting, running on high-voltage alternating current (AC); and large-scale low-voltage direct current (DC) indoor incandescent lighting, being marketed by Thomas Edison's company.
In 1886, the Edison system was faced with new competition: An alternating current system initially introduced by George Westinghouse's company, which used transformers to step down from a high voltage, so AC could be used for indoor lighting. Using high voltage allowed an AC system to transmit power over longer distances from more efficient large central generating stations.
As the use of AC spread rapidly with other companies deploying their own systems, the Edison Electric Light Company claimed in early 1888 that high voltages used in an alternating current system were hazardous, and that the design was inferior to, and infringed on the patents behind, their direct current system.
In the spring of 1888, a media furor arose over electrical fatalities caused by pole-mounted high-voltage AC lines, attributed to the greed and callousness of the arc lighting companies that operated them.
In June of that year, Harold P. Brown, a New York electrical engineer, claimed the AC-based lighting companies were putting the public at risk using high-voltage systems installed in a slipshod manner. Brown also claimed that alternating current was more dangerous than direct current and tried to prove this by publicly killing animals with both currents, with technical assistance from Edison Electric.
The Edison company and Brown colluded further in their parallel goals to limit the use of AC with attempts to push through legislation to severely limit AC installations and voltages. Both also colluded with Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, to make sure the first electric chair was powered by a Westinghouse AC generator.
By the early 1890s, the war was winding down. Further deaths caused by AC lines in New York City forced electric companies to fix safety problems. Thomas Edison no longer controlled Edison Electric, and subsidiary companies were beginning to add AC to the systems they were building. Mergers reduced competition between companies, including the merger of Edison Electric with their largest competitor, Thomson-Houston, forming General Electric in 1892.
Edison Electric's merger with their chief alternating current rival brought an end to the War of the Currents, and created a new company that now controlled three-quarters of the U.S. electrical business.
Westinghouse won the bid to supply electrical power for the World's Columbia Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and won the major part of the contract to build Niagara Falls hydroelectric project later that year, partially splitting the contract with General Electric. DC commercial power distribution systems declined rapidly in numbers throughout the 20th Century, and the last DC utility in New York City was shut down in 2007.
Thomas Edison lost the War of the Currents. But he is still better-remembered than George Westinghouse, and not just because Edison made the 1st practical light bulb (even if he didn't, strictly speaking, "invent the light bulb"). In 1901, the Consolidated Gas Company bought the Edison Illuminating Company. By 1920, it was called the New York Edison Company, and it was the leading supplier of electricity and gas to New York City and adjoining Westchester County.
On February 18, 1936, an annual report issued by Consolidated Gas Company of New York, Inc. revealed that roughly 75 percent of their gross operating revenue came from electricity, leading to discussion by the company's officers about changing the company's name to better reflect its nature. On March 16, 1936, stockholders of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, Inc. voted to change the company's name to Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. -- a.k.a. "Con Edison" or "Con Ed."
The main electric company in Boston became Boston Edison, until 1999, when it was merged with Cambridge Electric Light Company, Commonwealth Electric Company, and NSTAR Gas Company, to form NSTAR, and later Eversource Energy.
The main electric company is Chicago became Commonwealth Edison, or "ComEd." In Cleveland, it was Ohio Edison, which merged with Centerior Energy in 1997, to form FirstEnergy. The leading company in Los Angeles is Southern California Edison, or "SCE."
In contrast, Westinghouse Electric Corporation no longer exists: It was bought out by television network CBS in 1997, meaning their assets and history are now owned by Viacom.
Which makes some sense, as General Electric, or "GE," bought RCA, the parent company of NBC, in 1986. They sold it to Comcast in 2013.
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April 15, 1892 was a Friday. There were 4 games played in baseball's National League, the only major sports league in existence in North America at the time:
* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-6 at Union Park in Baltimore.
* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0 at League Park in Cincinnati. Cleveland's home was also named League Park.
* The Chicago Colts beat the Louisville Colonels, 8-4 at Eclipse Park in Louisville, Kentucky.
* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-3 at the 1881-98 version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
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