Lindsey Graham

The images I saw were wonderfully sharp and clear.

What Tesla had envisioned was a fundamental redesign of how a motor could be powered by electricity.

Instead of relying on the sparking, friction-prone commutators that plagued existing dynamos, his design harnessed a rotating magnetic field to induce electrical current.

It was the beginning of what would become a new, more advanced and practical form of generating alternating current.

But even with a design fully mapped out in his mind, Tesla had to translate his vision into a functioning machine.

With the help of his friend Seghetti, he spent the next few months in Budapest testing and refining the concept.

But the experimentation was costly and time-consuming, so to make extra money, Tesla returned to work in telegraphy.

By this time, Thomas Edison's enterprise had expanded abroad, and Edison's international division was the leading commercial force in electrical power in Europe.

Tesla was soon recruited to work at Edison's headquarters in Paris, and there he impressed his bosses with his understanding of electrical engineering and ability to troubleshoot complex problems.

Among those who took note of Tesla's unique intelligence was Edison's trusted assistant, Charles Batchelor.

Batchelor thought Tesla was a skillful yet eccentric engineer, so paid close attention to his work.

But while installing and maintaining Edison's power generators, Tesla was struck by their limitations.

Unlike alternating current, which periodically reverses direction, Edison's system used direct current, which flowed in just one direction.

As a result, the power generated by direct current was limited in distance because as the electrical line stretched farther, resistance caused the power to diminish.

This meant that whenever a factory or business wanted to use electricity, a new power station needed to be built nearby, within half a mile, which added cost and time to every new installation.

But Edison prided himself on direct current safety because it ran on lower voltage than alternating current.

but that also meant that extending its range required increasingly thick and expensive copper wiring.

Repeatedly, Tesla urged his bosses in the Paris office to consider his proposed modifications to the Grom design, even sharing with them his vision for an improved alternating current model.

But his plans, still lacking detail, were dismissed.

Edison's staff were satisfied that customers already wanted their direct current design.