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List Price: $24.95 | | Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Salesrank: 257379
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| Our Price: $16.00 |
| Used Price: $7.45 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
AC/DC tells the little-known story of how Thomas Edison wrongly bet in the fierce war between supporters of alternating current and direct current. The savagery of this electrical battle can hardly be imagined today. The showdown between AC and DC began as a rather straightforward conflict between technical standards, a battle of competing methods to deliver essentially the same product, electricity. But the skirmish soon metastasized into something bigger and darker. In the AC/DC battle, the worst aspects of human nature somehow got caught up in the wires; a silent, deadly flow of arrogance, vanity, and cruelty. Following the path of least resistance, the war of currents soon settled around that most primal of human emotions: fear. AC/DC serves as an object lesson in bad business strategy and poor decision making. Edison's inability to see his mistake was a key factor in his loss of control over the operating system for his future inventions–not to mention the company he founded, General Electric.
AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War Reviews:
Not enough meat 
2008-07-26 - McNichol's description of the AC/DC Wars is most interesting when he discusses the personalities involved, but it is very superficial. His description of electricity is primitive and in places misleading (I am an electrical engineer). His historical research is superficial and incomplete, and, in places, padded with extraneous material (I did not care about Edison's childhood). Fortunately, the book is short and an easy read. But it could be so much better.
History of an important chapter of science
2008-07-11 - This very short book provides a simple chronological history of the development and spread of electricity in the US from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Three characters are focused on; Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla. The amount of science and engineering is kept to a minimum with only the most superficial explanation of technical terms and inventions. Instead, the book focuses on the individual rivalries and relationships that dominated the electrical industry at the turn of the 20th century. The story makes for fun reading, and the author adds a little commentary to each chapter. The book could have been vastly improved by the inclusion of several dozen photos and diagrams. Many key technical concepts and inventions could have been better presented with photos and diagrams included. I consider this an appropriate book for someone interested in learning a little of the Industrial Revolution, and its affects on society.
The Original Standards War 
2007-11-28 - Something that everyone takes for granted, electricity, has a very interesting history. The book, AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War, by Tom McNichol, does a very nice job of giving the reader an overview of the early days of electrical power generation. I say "overview" because at 190 pages, there isn't a lot of room for an exhaustively researched subject. But for what McNichol does, he does it quite well.
Contents:
Prologue: Negative and Positive
Chapter 1: First Sparks
Chapter 2: Lightening in a Bottle
Chapter 3: Enter the Wizard
Chapter 4: Let There Be Light
Chapter 5: Electrifying the Big Apple
Chapter 6: Tesla
Chapter 7: The Animal Experiments
Chapter 8: Old Sparky
Chapter 9: Pulse of the World
Chapter 10: Killing an Elephant
Chapter 11: Twilight by Battery Power
Chapter 12: DC's Revenge
Epilogue: Standards Wars: Past, Present, and Future
Further Reading in Electricity
Picture a world without electricity. Hard to do, isn't it? Everything we use consumes electricity. But there was a time when there was no electricity. But as some people began to study it, there arose two competing men, who would fight to have their standard be the one that delivered power to the masses. The great inventor, Thomas Edison backed DC. An industrial titan, George Westinghouse, and a very eccentric inventor, Nikola Tesla, backed AC. Each man, Edison and Westinghouse, had factories churning out parts for their standard. They employed any means possible to get the public to back their method of electrical distribution. Edison, for his part, developed (or perfected) the electric chair, using AC, to show that it kills. McNichol gives you a couple of chapters on the electrocution of animals and humans, which were unnerving.
You might think that a subject like electricity would be boring, but McNichol focuses primarily on the central characters. There is little technical information, so the novel moves quickly. The personalities of the men, Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse, are brought to life and help the reader to understand why Edison lost the war (mainly stubbornness and a lack of vision as to customer needs and wants) and how Westinghouse and Tesla were able to win (Westinghouse could anticipate some needs, and Tesla - well, he was a person unto himself). One of the most interesting facts is the distances electricity could travel using AC or DC. AC could span great distances, a fact that was not lost on Westinghouse. In fact, a power plant that he built to light Telluride, CO, is still working as is the one at Niagara Falls, NY (which supplies New York and Buffalo with power).
This is a great read for those looking for an overview of early days of electricity, electrical distribution, and a fierce standards war. McNichols' Epilogue tells a tale of VHS versus Betamax and Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD. But the lessons in the book could equally be applied to OOXML and other tech standards wars.
We Take It for Granted 
2007-05-22 - What a fascinating study concerning a facet of our everyday life that we assume we've always had at our beckoned call! Who would have thought that Edison would have gone too such lengths to maintain that direct current was the safest,cheapest, and most efficient method of conveying electricity to the populace. It only goes to prove that even the greatest among us have flaws that overshadow their thinking when blindly following an indefensible theory or ideal. We owe a debt of graditude to Mr.McNichol
for taking our hand and leading us through the murky waters of what could have been a complex and somewhat difficult concept for the average layman unschooled in the underlying principles of electrical energy.
AC/DC informs easily about early electricity experimenters and experiments
2007-01-05 - McNichols does an excellent job from explaining in clear terms about electricity, to the relevant background of the two main experimenters and producers -- exponents of either Alternating AC or Direct DC current, the competitors Edison and Westinghouse -- and finally to the modern equivalent of their wars. McNichol introduces the whole subject with his own personal dangerous episodes with both currents. Then the book has a fascinating section explaining the element, just like recent books on ice and salt. The one very difficult and long part to read is the animal experiments done electrocuting dogs and horses, to prove falsely that AC was more dangerous than DC. But the characters of Edison, whose stubbornness doomed him with only DC, and the savvy of Westinghouse to adopt AC, are vivid. Intriguing to learn that Telluride, Colorado was one of the first places where they experimented with the feasibility of AC in the mountains. And it is interesting to see the modern equivalent wars with formats for taping, starting with the early Beta vs. VHS.
