Electricity Battle Movie Finally Coming to Cinemas in 2019

Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison

The movie, The Current War, is a film based on true life events of the feud between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. This film is about the race between them to power New York, and ultimately the world, with electricity.

From The Vintage News

“The film, which is a dramatization of real-life events, will follow the tumultuous journey of Thomas Edison, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, as he attempts to use his DC technology to introduce light to Manhattan,” said Variety. “However, his initial efforts are obstructed when businessman George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon)  and his partner Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) rival the inventor with Tesla’s own AC electrical current.”

(read the full article here: Edison Tesla Film )

I suspect the film will be quite interesting, and likely entertaining for those of us interested in both history and radio. One of the actors is a favorite of mine from one of the recent British adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories, Benedict Cumberbatch.

Cheers! Robert

Robert Gulley, K4PKM (formerly AK3Q), is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.       Robert also blogs at All Things Radio.

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5 thoughts on “Electricity Battle Movie Finally Coming to Cinemas in 2019

    1. Jason

      The main requirement for long distance power transmission is high voltage, not necissarily AC vs. DC. In fact, High voltage DC can be more effective for very long distances: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current

      Confusion is understandable thorough. In Tesla’s time, we knew of no way of converting large DC currents to very high voltages for power distribution. For AC, on the other hand, there was transformers, and so AC was superior.

      Reply
      1. TomL

        Very interesting! I wonder if we had DC power systems instead, would that lessen the crazy amounts of noise from lights and power supplies we have to endure now listening to radio???

        Reply
        1. RonF

          Probably not. You’d still require some way of efficiently converting from distribution DC to service DC in the network, and from the service DC at the wall to the internal DC within each appliance. Currently, and for the foreseeable future, the only really efficient way to do both of those is some sort of switchmode converter.

          Every other way is horribly inefficient, basically wasting the difference between V(in) @ A(required) and V(out) @ A(required) as heat. Switchmode converters, on the other hand, basically convert W(in) to W(out) at 80~90% or more efficiency. And, though most switchmode converters _could_ be quieter than they currently are, they’re still inherently noisy – so you’ve just added a bunch more of them to distribution, and probably doubled the number within your home :/

          Reply

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