But I have to wonder if Edison’s vision of a DC electrical grid might have been environmentally better in the long run, as it would have been very, very decentralized, with a small power station necessary every couple of kilometers. It might have spurred an accelerated study into renewable sources of electricity, such as wind, even decades and decades ago.
As things turned out, Tesla/Westinghouse’s victory with AC allows these centralized and “too big to fail” behemoths to suck coal and spit out black smoke out of sight and out of mind for most people.
At first, absolutely yes, coal smoke everywhere, creating an untenable crisis within the cities themselves. That type of crisis would have been tackled as a priority, would have been an integral part of the loudest political dialogues and arguments, decades ago.
I still hear people praising Thomas “piece of shit reason we didn’t have wireless charging a hundred years ago” Edison.
But I have to wonder if Edison’s vision of a DC electrical grid might have been environmentally better in the long run, as it would have been very, very decentralized, with a small power station necessary every couple of kilometers. It might have spurred an accelerated study into renewable sources of electricity, such as wind, even decades and decades ago.
As things turned out, Tesla/Westinghouse’s victory with AC allows these centralized and “too big to fail” behemoths to suck coal and spit out black smoke out of sight and out of mind for most people.
Bold of you to assume that wouldn’t have just resulted in a coal burning power station every couple kilometers…
At first, absolutely yes, coal smoke everywhere, creating an untenable crisis within the cities themselves. That type of crisis would have been tackled as a priority, would have been an integral part of the loudest political dialogues and arguments, decades ago.
I get what your saying, but I think the benefits of DC power plants would have been short term, rather than long term.
Once scaling was introduced there’s no way Edison DC power stations every block would make any sense materially, financially or societally.
I can’t blame Tesla for toxic capitalism any more than I can blame the wright brothers for manipulative airline ticket prices today.
Same reason we didn’t have electric cars a hundred years ago
Unregulated capitalism and undeveloped antitrust laws are the culprit with respect to centralization, not innovation.