Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER NINE ideas were crystallized into a series of drawings and working models of all aspects of his transmission system. By the end of the year some forty patents had been applied for. Under the agreement Tesla had made with his investors, he would retain fifty per cent of the rewards from his invention. The following year represented the climax of Tesla's career. On May 8, 1888, the major patents were granted and a week later he lectured on high-voltage power transmission to the American Association of Electrical Engineers. A copy of this lecture reached the desk of George Westinghouse, who immediately arranged a meeting with Tesla. Their encounter was to sow the seed from which our modern age would grow, for a combination of Westinghouse's corporate resources and Tesla's inventions would sweep the continent. Westinghouse offered Tesla $1 million plus royalties for the patent rights. Tesla insisted on a royalty of $1 per horsepower. The two men shook hands and the 'War of the Currents' began. Westinghouse at once began to manufacture the various components of the Tesla system and offered his partner $2,000 per month plus one-third of royalties to supervise his Pittsburgh plant. Tesla declined, for he was more interested in returning to the peace and quiet of his New York laboratory, where he had begun to experiment on ultra-high voltages and frequencies. The inventor was not destined to spend long in this ivory tower, however, for the War of the Currents was hotting up. Edison had placed all his corporate eggs in the basket of DC power and now he was faced with a rival system. To make matters worse, he had once been offered the chance to buy Tesla's inventions before they had even been patented. In the heat of battle Edison wrote, in the North American Review for November, 1889: My personal desire would be to prohibit entirely the use of alternating currents. They are as unnecessary as they are dangerous. Edison was a showman and having the town lights switched on by Thomas A. Edison was an event to remember. The town of Anaheim, California, 84
