Tesla and Edison: Electricity rivals

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

By 1915, the two great rivals, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, had brought electricity to the world.

It was reported that they were set to share the Nobel Prize for Physics, but it never happened.

In 2011, Claire Bowes spoke to Tesla’s biographer Mark Seifer and relative William Terbo.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Nikola Tesla in c.1896 and Thomas Edison in 1893. Credit: Bettmann and SSPL/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Russell Kane here.
0:03.0	I'm back for another season of character assassinating the nice guy
0:06.4	and binging up the baddies in evil genius.
0:09.2	Yep, even the biggest legends have their skeletons.
0:12.0	So join me and a panel of brilliant comedians to weigh in
0:15.1	on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or more genius.
0:19.0	I just think every celebrity, said with respect, Russell, is out of their minds.
0:26.5	Evil genius with Russell Kane.
0:28.6	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.6	Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:40.8	Witness History takes you to a moment in history to hear the amazing memories of people who are there,
0:46.7	as well as powerful archive recordings.
0:49.2	It's just nine minutes long and comes out every weekday, so make sure you subscribe wherever you get your BBC
0:54.9	podcasts and turn your push notifications on so you never miss a thing.
0:59.8	Today, we're going back 110 years to the United States when two great rivals had brought
1:06.0	electricity to the world, and it looked like they were set to share the Nobel Prize for Physics,
1:11.6	but it never happened. Claire Bowes has the story.
1:15.0	It's November 1915, and the front page of the New York Times
1:19.2	reveals the names of two men who were to share the Nobel Prize for Physics,
1:23.8	a Serb called Nicola Tesla and the great American inventor Thomas Edison,
1:29.4	celebrated for his work with electricity and sound.
1:33.3	We present the actual voice of Thomas Alva Edison.
	...

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