United States. Westinghouse (with Nikola Tesla’s patents) and General Electric (with Elihu Thomson and Charles Bradley’s patents) are locked in a patent dispute over multi-phase AC motors and generators. The legal battle has obvious implications for the contest established by banker Edward Dean Adams (formerly head of the Cataract Construction Company in Niagara): the International Niagara Commission, to determine the best method for extracting and distributing electrical energy from the falls. The contest extends to 28 countries worldwide and includes several American companies and participants. Edison (obviously) considers using direct current (DC), while Westinghouse (before consulting with Tesla) envisions using compressed air pipes to transmit the power. Adams opts for electric current. The (newly formed) General Electric (with Edison) then proposes DC for Niagara and AC for Buffalo (more distant) in 1892. This is until Westinghouse arrives with his patents, filed by Tesla. These are then contested by GE. In fact, the Wetinghouse proposal submitted for the Niagara contest in March 1893 envisaged two-phase 90-degree systems, while the GE proposal envisaged three-phase 120-degree systems.
