The Alternating Current Wed, Aug 03, 2016

Thomas Edison created the first electricity-generating plant in the 1870s. At this time, and up until the late 1880s, all electricity ran through a direct current. It wasn’t until 1888, when a physicist by the name of Nikola Tesla released his polyphase induction motor, that electricity changed. Polyphase motors are used in an alternating current. To keep it simple, an alternating current is more efficient than the commonly used direct current.

So what does this history/physics lesson have to do with anything? Well, at that time, if you were using electricity, you were using a direct current; that’s just how it was. But Tesla, being the inventor that he was, went into the unknown and developed a more efficient way to transmit power.

Granted, he did not do this all on his own, Tesla created the most common form of electricity that we use today. He had no idea what his polyphase motor could turn into or what it could do for the world, but he still went for it. Go ahead and take a risk, you never how big your small idea could become.

-Connor