by The Champions of the Alternating Current System
This nomination for Nikola Tesla, the visionary inventor of the polyphase alternating current (AC) motor and generator system, and George Westinghouse, the pragmatic industrialist who bet his company on it. Their partnership waged and won the “War of the Currents” against Thomas Edison’s direct current (DC) system. Tesla’s AC technology could transmit power over long distances with less loss, making large-scale electrical grids feasible. Westinghouse provided the capital, manufacturing, and business strategy, licensing Tesla’s patents and underbidding Edison to power the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Their crowning achievement was harnessing Niagara Falls to power Buffalo, NY, in 1895, proving AC’s supremacy for the electrical age. This duo proved that a superior technology requires both a brilliant inventor and a daring entrepreneur willing to challenge an entrenched standard. Their victory established the technical foundation for the modern electrical power industry and the grid that powers the world.
