"DBWI Edison did not irredeemably slow down technological progress by half a century?"You'd need ASB's to force us not to use AC since it's so much easier to transmit. Nevertheless:
No rural electrification, too expensive for every East Pineyville to have their own DC power station.
No TVA or Hoover Dam, since no cities nearby to consume the electricity. No Las Vegas later, since dam never built.
No nuclear power, how would you even locally consume a gigawatt unless you built it downtown in a major city.
No rural electricity == no air conditioning == much slower economic growth in the humid South and desert West
When rare earth magnets and photocells become available starting in the 1970s, rural customers finally start to electrify their homes using low voltage wind or solar.
Ironically (as my country at least is currently phasing out nuclear), we might actually be talking about introducing it right now, due to the energy needs of large computing centres in the 2020s.No nuclear power, how would you even locally consume a gigawatt unless you built it downtown in a major city.
You missed the opportunity to add:JaredVoldemort Jnr
Joined:
Mar 9, 2004
Location:
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If Edison wins the current war, his opponents would be shocked.
That almost HURT!
Actually DC to AC is easy. Have a DC motor connected to an actual generator. Nice sine waves and everything, which is tough even with solid state.Taking AC power and making it DC with 1900 tech is doable, the other way around not so much - need solid state for that. In any case the problem is power transmission from the generating station (whatever it is) to the consumer. If the ASBs give Edison room temperature superconductors, then DC power transmission over distances becomes a non-problem.
Only at very high voltages. At voltages seen in the early days, or within cities, DC suffers unacceptable losses.DC current has actually lower losses when transmitted over wire - for example undersea power cables generally speaking transfer DC.