In the late 1800s Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse engaged in what became known as the War of the Currencies, here referring to the question of which was better for power generation, direct current or alternating current. Edison was heavily invested in DC, whereas Westinghouse was looking at the more efficient AC for transmitting power over long distances, which the young inventor Nikola Tesla had developed while briefly working for Edison.
Edison tried to turn the public against AC with demonstrations of its killing power, using stray dogs and even a circus elephant as its victims. Exactly how Tesla responded to the challenge of proving the safety of AC is unclear but is emphatically dramatized in the movie,
The Secret of Nikola Tesla, an excerpt from which is shown below.
For more information on Tesla please see
Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla.
