Behind the throne there is the power. Behind the inventor Thomas Edison sat the financier JP Morgan. In 1889, Morgan had orchestrated the merger of Edison’s business interests into Edison General Electric Company.
At the time, DC man Edison was enmeshed in the costly battle of the currents with AC man George Westinghouse.
In 1890, Edison and Westinghouse’s AC rival Thomson-Houston Electric Company manoeuvred successfully to ensure that Westinghouse’s AC generators would power New York’s first execution by electric chair. Westinghouse, at least on this occasion, lacked Edison’s knack for self-advertisement, remarking after the ordeal that “They would have done better using an axe”.
Morgan’s business was business and not battles. On 15 April 1892, the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric was announced. In reality, the management of Thomson-Houston Electric took over. Edison had been kept in the dark and his name was dropped from the new entity, General Electric.
(c) Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library