The War of Currents
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Edison was a huge advocate of Direct Current, and he could not entertain the idea of Alternate Current, perceiving it to be dangerous and a huge risk. However, the direct current had two significant limitations; it could only be transmitted over a short distance, and it could not be adjusted to a higher or lower voltage. Nikola saw a way around this through the alternating current, which he was still experimenting with. Alternating current could transmit power over long distances, but it needed a transformer to regulate the power of the voltage. A motor that utilized alternating current did not exist at this point.