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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Not 120 V at 60 Hz
Message-ID: <986@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Jul-84 16:46:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.986
Posted: Fri Jul 13 16:46:50 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Jul-84 17:17:48 EDT
References: <7829@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 23

************
Edison was right, even if he was wrong.  Back then it may have been
a ``good thing'' that Tesla won out, ... 
************
I don't know about Tesla, but in the UK it was Ferranti who led
the fight for AC power distribution.  Even Punch had comments about
it.  Ferranti built the Battersea (I think; maybe it was Deptford)
power station, and eventually built his company into one of the
premier electric (and later electronic) companies.  While it was
totally owned by the Ferranti family, the company was always more
interested in future development and engineering effectiveness than
in current profits.  Eventually, this led to their downfall, when
they entered a low bid on a fixed-price missile guidance project.
As one would expect, they factored in costs for engineering redesign
and debugging, but the system worked first time, six months early
and 5 million pounds under budget.  The press and the Govt got after
them as black profiteers, and they had to pay back L5,000,000 cash.
The alternative was a threat that they would never again get a Govt
contract.  Engineering excellence does not always pay!
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt