V-23
installations and therefore the only feasible traction system
38
would pick low voltage current from third rail. This company, along
with the Thomson-Houston Company, were the major rivals to
Edison the electric lighting field. Much of
this kind work was initiated and financed Edison
personally. Westinghouse used the
Sawyer-Mann lighting patents challenge the Edison monopoly
of incandescent lighting and the two companies were locked a
bitter struggle for the new lighting markets opening the
late 1880s.
Alternating current was the most dangerous electrical
technology its time not only because the high voltages
used but also because greatly increased the size of
electrical systems. There
is little doubt that, the time its introduction, the a/c
system produced Westinghouse was complex, experimental, and
. the systems got larger, more people were
at risk and magnitude potential accident increased. maintained unrelenting opposition to
a/c, insisting that the Edison Electric Light Company drop its
option the ZBD patents— the easiest access alternating
current technology.
The intensive investigation all new alternating
current equipment carried out the laboratory staff did
little assuage Edison's fears about the danger high
voltage currents. The Westinghouse Company had such
reservations about the danger high voltage current and began
to market a/c equipment vigorously 1888
