The Current War (Film)

Just been to watch 'The Current war' at the pictures. Not a documentary so I'm not sure of the timelines and accuracy but it gives a great insight into the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse, and Tesla gets in on the action too! Very watchable film kept me entertained for nearly two hours or so. Some of it was filmed at Cragside in UK, the first house in the world to be lit by hydro electricity in 1880.

I can recommend the film to anyone with an interest in engineering, electrical or mechanical.

Ian

I think Edison was a bit of a gangster to be honest, ethics and fair play were not things he let bother him too much.

This was late 19th century America, not the playing fields of Eton! Ethics and fair play don't figure much in modern US business methods come to that.

Not sure how much fair play was involved in the Eton Wall Game!

From what little I’ve read about Edison he wasn’t a very nice person. Do you need to be nasty to be a successful, I don’t know. I have to say I’ve worked for some nice folks in the past and they ran successful businesses at the time.

Thank heavens for our Old Etonians! I say, you can jolly well rely on those chaps to be completely above board and thoroughly honest going, and when the chips are down and our backs are to the wall you can be sure they will have the little mans prosperity and livelihoods uppermost in their red boxes.

Can't you?

Guy

Hear hear! stated in the plummiest voice achievable with my tongue stuck firmly in my cheek.

MP's expenses, "Affairs of state" (Major/Curry, Redwood, Johnson etc  ?

A Cynic

Didnt Edison electrificute an elephant to death just to show how dangerous Westinghouse electrickery was?

I can see how business men might need a tough streak but not to that extent. Imagine doing that in the Dragons den lol.

Isn't it true that to be a success in business etc you have to be a sociopath if not borderline psychopath?

In the film Edison electrocuted a horse to prove how deadly A/C was. This ploy backfired a bit because the authorities, who were obviously impressed by the quick 'painless' death, asked Edison for his expert advice on how to develop the electric chair, using A/C of course! oops!

I think he killed a few Elephants as well - in real life that is ! 

I think his intelligence was only like  a speck of dust compared to Tesla .

Edited By XD 351 on 30/07/2019 20:43:14

How the heck do you kill an elephant with electrickery? It must take some serious current to get through that thick skin!!! And you'd need a step ladder to put the head harness on, where do you attach the electrodes? and how do you keep it still? Too many questions and I'm thinking about it too much!

Yes Tesla was a genius way before his time

One review I read mentions the intrusive and jittery camera work, especially in the first twenty minutes. Did you notice it? As someone who regularly shouts stop doing that! at the television, I wonder whether to save my money until it is televised. Then I can shout at it or turn it off according to my own preference.

George

I was reading about Sir Joe Whitworth a while ago, he was another borderline nutcase , he fell out with absolutely everyone he had any dealings with, notably Armstrong, his former friend. He could cause a row in an empty house.

George Stephenson, was very good at claiming others hard work as his own, such as the laying of the railway over Chat moss when really it was Joseph Locke who devised how to do it. Stephenson was also good at, if anything went wrong, blaming everyone else.

Henry Ford and his well known anti-semitism, his private "security" guards and his controlling ways ? Hitler actually based a lot of his ideas on Fords scribblings, and the gestapo were modelled on Fords security force. There was a brilliant documentary about Ford on PBS a while ago, if Ford wanted to get rid of someone from his employ, he would set his thugs to bully him into leaving, and then he would be dragged into a secluded place and have the life half beaten out of them.  

Ethics in Business, what was the name of that delightful chappy who fell off the back of his yacht about 30 years ago after raiding everyones pension fund ?

Edited By ronan walsh on 30/07/2019 23:22:26

Yes, Tesla was an actual engineer, but a bit of a recluse, its only at this distance in time we can see how good he really was.

I saw this i a documentary about Edison , Tesla and Westinghouse many years ago - iirc it was something like the men who powered America or something along those lines .

Warning the following youtube video may distress some viewers !

**LINK**

Another was Faraday , without him Tesla and Edison couldn’t exist IMHO!