Perhaps the chief American inventor in the domain of the
alternating current is Elihu Thomson, who began his useful career
as Professor of Chemistry and Mechanics in the Central High
School of Philadelphia. Another great protagonist of the
alternating current was George Westinghouse, who was quite as
much an improver and inventor as a manufacturer of machinery. Two
other inventors, at least, should not be forgotten in this
connection: Nicola Tesla and Charles S. Bradley. Both of them had
worked for Edison.
The turbine (from the Latin turbo, meaning a whirlwind) is the
name of the motor which drives the great dynamos for the
generation of electric energy. It may be either a steam turbine
or a water turbine. The steam turbine of Curtis or Parsons is
today the prevailing engine. But the development of
hydro-electric power has already gone far. It is estimated that
the electric energy produced in the United States by the
utilization of water powers every year equals the power product
of forty million tons of coal, or about one-tenth of the coal
which is consumed in the production of steam. Yet
hydro-electricity is said to be only in its beginnings, for not
more than a tenth of the readily available water power of the
country is actually in use.
The first commercial hydro-station for the transmission of power
in America was established in 1891 at Telluride, Colorado.
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