Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company was an electric lighting company in
Rahway, New Jersey
Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...
that operated from December 1884 through 1886.
History
Based at the site where 1571-1579 Irving Street now stands, on Irving Street between Coach and Elizabeth, Rahway, New Jersey, Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company was started in December 1884 after the inventor
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
's employment following a disagreement over payment. The company was formed in a partnership between Tesla, Robert Lane and Benjamin Vale with Tesla given the task of designing an arc lighting system, a fast growing segment of the new electric light industry used mostly for outdoor lighting. Tesla designed an arc lamp with automatic adjustment and a fail-switch as well as improved dynamos. These were the first patents issued to Tesla in the US. By 1886 he had installed a central station based system in Rahway lighting streets as well as a few factory buildings.
The investors showed little interest in Tesla's ideas for new types of motors and electrical transmission equipment and, with the market already heavily controlled by Brush Electric Illuminating Company and the
Thomson-Houston Electric Company
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a manufacturing company which was one of the precursors of the General Electric company.
History
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was formed in 1882 in the United States when a group of Lynn, Massa ...
, they came to the conclusion it was better to develop an electrical utility than invent new systems. By the fall of 1886 they had formed the Union County Electric Light & Manufacturing Company spelling the end for Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing and leaving Tesla penniless. Tesla even lost control of the patents he had generated since he had assigned them to the company in lieu of stock.Carlson, W. Bernard. ''Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age''. Princeton University Press - 2013, pages 74-75
Patents
Tesla had already been issued the following patents:
* - ''Dynamo-Electric Machine'' - 1886 January 14 -
* - ''Commutator for Dynamo Electric Machines'' - 1886 January 26 - Elements to prevent sparking on dynamo-electric machines; Drum-style with brushes.
* - ''Electric arc lamp'' - 1886 February 9 - Arc lamp with carbon electrodes controlled by electromagnets or solenoids and a clutch mechanism; Corrects earlier design flaws common to the industry.
* - ''Electric arc lamp'' - 1886 February 9 - Arc lamp's automatic fail switch when arc possesses abnormal behavior; Automatic reactivation.
* - ''Regulator for dynamo electric machines'' - 1886 March 2 - Two main brushes connected to helices coil ends; Intermediate point branch shunt connection for third brush.
* - ''Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines'' - 1886 March 2 - Auxiliary brush sshunting a portion or whole of the field helices coil; Regulates energy flow; Adjustable level of current.
* - ''Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines'' - 1886 October 19 - Automatic regulation of energy levels; Mechanical device to shift brushes.
Further reading
* ''Tesla: Life and legacy'' ''Coming to America ', PBS.
''Tesla: Life and legacy: Coming to America'', PBS.
* "Nikola Tesla: Research in High Frequency Phenomena, 1894." Nikola Tesla: Recognized Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. .