Option_Attack
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 391 |
09-02-12 12:59 PM
Quote from d08:
OT: Among other things, Edison was one twisted pervert. Taking the pets and electrocuting them to convince people how "bad" alternating current was. If he had gotten his way, none of us could afford electricity today.
Agree, Edison was a jerk who didn't invent much of anything. What he did do was relentlesly push his team of real scientists and engineers to invent in his name. The "current wars" with Tesla are fascinating to us technogeeks. A great injustice was the super genius Nikola dying nearly forgotten and poor.
But as it turns out, in some cases Edison was correct - DC is better for power transmission. Of course he had no concept of the voltage and equipment needed...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVDC
A high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current for the bulk transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses. For underwater power cables, HVDC avoids the heavy currents required by the cable capacitance. For shorter distances, the higher cost of DC conversion equipment compared to an AC system may still be warranted, due to other benefits of direct current links. HVDC allows power transmission between unsynchronized AC distribution systems, and can increase system stability by preventing cascading failures from propagating from one part of a wider power transmission grid to another...
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