Editing Format war (section)

==19th century==
*[[Rail gauge]]. The [[Gauge War]] in Britain pitted the [[Great Western Railway]], which used [[broad gauge]], against other [[Rail transport|rail companies]], which used what would come to be known as [[standard gauge]]. Ultimately standard gauge prevailed. 
*Similarly, in the United States there was incompatibility between railroads built to the [[standard gauge]] and those built to the so-called [[Russian gauge]]. During the initial period of railroad building, standard gauge was adopted in most of the [[northeastern United States]], while the wider gauge, later called "Russian", was preferred in most of the southern states. In 1886, the Southern railroads agreed to coordinate changing gauge on all their tracks. By June 1886, all major railroads in North America were using what was effectively the same gauge.
*[[Direct current]] vs. [[alternating current]]: The 1880s saw the spread of [[electric light]]ing with large utilities and manufacturing companies supplying it. The systems initially ran on direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) with low voltage DC used for interior lighting and high voltage DC and AC running very bright exterior [[Arc lamp|arc lighting]].<ref>Quentin R. Skrabec, The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO - 2012, page 86</ref> With the invention of the AC [[transformer]] in the mid 1880s, alternating current could be stepped up in voltage for long range transmission and stepped down again for domestic use, making it a much more efficient transmission standard now directly competing with DC for the indoor lighting market. In the U.S. [[Thomas Edison]]'s [[Edison Electric Light Company]] tried to protect its patent controlled DC market by playing on the public's fears of the dangers of high voltage AC, portraying their main AC competitor, [[George Westinghouse]]'s [[Westinghouse Electric Company]], as purveyors of an unsafe system, a back and forth financial and propaganda competition that came to be known as the [[war of the currents]],<ref>AC Power History: http://www.edisontechcenter.org/AC-PowerHistory.html</ref> even promoting AC for the [[Electric chair#The_New_York_Medico-Legal_Commission|Electric chair]] execution device. AC, with its more economic transmission would prevail, supplanting DC.
*[[Musical box]]es: Several manufacturers introduced musical boxes that utilised interchangeable steel disks that carried the tune. The principal players were [[Polyphon]], Symphonion (in Europe) and [[Regina Company|Regina]] (in the United States). Each manufacturer used its own unique set of disc sizes (which varied depending on the exact model purchased). This assured that once the purchaser had bought a music box, they had to buy the music discs from the same manufacturer.