Editing World's Columbian Exposition (section)

== Electricity ==
[[File:Agricultural Building at Night (3409426351).jpg|thumb|Electricity was used to decorate the buildings with incandescent lights, illuminate fountains, and power three huge spotlights.]]

The effort to power the Fair with electricity, which became a demonstration piece for [[Westinghouse Electric (1886)|Westinghouse Electric]] and the [[alternating current]] system they had been developing for many years, took place at the end of what has been called the [[War of the currents]] between DC and AC.<ref>{{cite book|title=The World's Columbian Exposition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6cWRxU9go4C&q=westinghouse+World%27s+Columbian+Exposition&pg=PR21|access-date=2015-11-21 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616192038/https://books.google.com/books?id=F6cWRxU9go4C&pg=PR21&dq=westinghouse+World's+Columbian+Exposition&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RPv2T5mzG8mQ0QHFj7nqBg&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=westinghouse%20World%27s%20Columbian%20Exposition&f=false |archive-date=2016-06-16 |isbn=978-0-313-26644-7 |last1=Bertuca |first1=David J. |last2=Hartman |first2=Donald K. |last3=Neumeister |first3=Susan M. |year=1996 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic}}</ref> Westinghouse initially did not put in a bid to power the Fair but agreed to be the contractor for a local Chicago company that put in a low bid of US$510,000 to supply an alternating current-based system.<ref name="Richard Moran 2007, page 97">Richard Moran (2007) ''Executioner's Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair'', [[Knopf Doubleday]], p. 97</ref>

Edison General Electric, which at the time was merging with the [[Thomson-Houston Electric Company]] to form [[General Electric]], put in a US$1.72 million bid to power the Fair and its planned 93,000 incandescent lamps with [[direct current]]. After the Fair committee went over both proposals, Edison General Electric re-bid their costs at $554,000 but Westinghouse underbid them by 70 cents per lamp to get the contract.<ref name="Richard Moran 2007, page 97" /><ref name=QRS>Quentin R. Skrabec, ''George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius'', pp. 135–137</ref> Westinghouse could not use the Edison incandescent lamp since the patent belonged to General Electric and they had successfully sued to stop use of all patent infringing designs. Since Edison specified a sealed globe of glass in his design Westinghouse found a way to sidestep the Edison patent by quickly developing a lamp with a ground-glass stopper in one end, based on a Sawyer-Man "stopper" lamp patent they already had. The lamps worked well but were short-lived, requiring a small army of workmen to constantly replace them.<ref name=QRS />{{rp|140}}

Westinghouse Electric had severely underbid the contract and struggled to supply all the equipment specified, including twelve 1,000-horsepower single-phase AC generators and all the lighting and other equipment required.<ref>L. J. Davis (2012) ''Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution'', [[Skyhorse Publishing]], Chapter 8: The Manufacture and the Magus</ref> They also had to fend off a last-minute lawsuit by General Electric claiming the Westinghouse Sawyer-Man-based stopper lamp infringed on the Edison incandescent lamp patent.<ref name=QRS />{{rp|142}}

The International Exposition was held in an Electricity Building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. A statue of [[Benjamin Franklin]] was displayed at the entrance. The exposition featured interior and exterior light and displays as well as displays of [[Thomas Edison]]'s [[kinetoscope]], [[search light]]s, a [[seismograph]], electric [[incubator (egg)|incubators]] for chicken eggs,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/e_court.html |title=American Experience &#124; Chicago: City of the Century &#124; People & Events |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=2017-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310044812/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/e_court.html |archive-date=2017-03-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Morse code]] [[telegraph]].<ref name=DCS />{{rp|22}}

[[File:Nikola Tesla's personal exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition Fair.png|thumb |Westinghouses' World's Fair presentation explaining [[Nikola Tesla|Tesla]]'s AC [[induction motor]]s and high frequency experiments]]
All the exhibits were from commercial enterprises. Participants included General Electric, Brush, [[Western Electric]], and Westinghouse. The Westinghouse Company displayed several [[polyphase system]]s. The exhibits included a [[Telephone switchboard|switchboard]], polyphase generators, step-up [[transformer]]s, transmission line, step-down transformers, commercial size [[induction motor]]s and [[synchronous motor]]s, and rotary direct current converters (including an operational railway motor). The working scaled system allowed the public a view of a system of polyphase power which could be transmitted over long distances, and be utilized, including the supply of direct current. Meters and other auxiliary devices were also present.

Part of the space occupied by the Westinghouse Company was devoted to demonstrations of electrical devices developed by [[Nikola Tesla]]<ref>Marc Seifer (1996) ''[[Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla]]'', p. 1744</ref> including [[induction motor]]s and the [[Electrical generator|generators]] used to power the system.<ref>John Patrick Barret, ''Electricity at the Columbian Exposition'', pp. 165–170.</ref> The [[rotating magnetic field]] that drove these motors was explained through a series of demonstrations including an ''[[Tesla's Egg of Columbus|Egg of Columbus]]'' that used the [[Two-phase electric power|two-phase]] coil in the induction motors to spin a copper egg making it stand on end.<ref>Hugo Gernsback, "Tesla's Egg of Columbus, How Tesla Performed the Feat of Columbus Without Cracking the Egg" ''Electrical Experimenter'', March 19, 1919, p. 774 [http://www.teslacollection.com/tesla_articles/1919/electrical_experimenter/h_gernsback/the_tesla_egg_of_columbus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200327222415/http://www.teslacollection.com/tesla_articles/1919/electrical_experimenter/h_gernsback/the_tesla_egg_of_columbus|date=March 27, 2020}}</ref>

Tesla himself showed up for a week in August to attend the [[International Electrical Congress]], being held at the fair's Agriculture Hall, and put on a series of demonstrations of his wireless lighting system in a specially set up darkened room at the Westinghouse exhibit.<ref>Marc Seifer (1996) [[Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla]], p. 120</ref><ref>Thomas Commerford Martin, The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla: With Special Reference to His Work in Polyphase Currents and High Potential Lighting, Electrical Engineer – 1894, Chapter XLII, p. 485 [https://archive.org/details/inventionsresear00martiala]</ref> These included demonstrations he had previously performed throughout America and Europe<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIuK7iLO9zgC&q=Tesla+1893+World%27s+Fair++bulbs&pg=PA79|title=Tesla|access-date=2015-11-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519102357/https://books.google.com/books?id=HIuK7iLO9zgC&pg=PA79&dq=Tesla+1893+World's+Fair++bulbs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1cHxT_m3HeGR0QHm2Nn6Ag&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Tesla%201893%20World%27s%20Fair%20%20bulbs&f=false|archive-date=2016-05-19|url-status=live|isbn=978-1-4516-7486-6|last1=Cheney|first1=Margaret|date=2011-11-08|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> including using a nearby coil to light a wireless [[gas-discharge lamp]] held in his hand.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nikola Tesla: A Spark of Genius|last=Dommermuth-Costa|first=Carol|page=90}}</ref><ref name="auto1" />

Also at the Fair, the [[Chicago Athletic Association Football team]] played one of the first [[night game#Gridiron football|night football]] games against [[Army Black Knights football|West Point]] (the earliest being on September 28, 1892, between [[Mansfield University of Pennsylvania|Mansfield State Normal]] and [[Wyoming Seminary]]). Chicago won the game, 14–0. The game lasted only 40 minutes, compared to the normal 90 minutes.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Chicago Lights Up Football World | journal=LA 4 Foundation | volume=XVIII | issue=II | year=2005 | pages=7–10 | url=http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv18/CFHSNv18n2c.pdf | author=Pruter, Robert | access-date=2011-09-12 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613012622/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv18/CFHSNv18n2c.pdf | archive-date=2010-06-13 | url-status=live }}</ref>