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The Illumination of the White City
Nikola Tesla adjusted his silk cravat and stepped onto the wooden dais inside the vast machinery hall of the Columbian Exposition. Below him, twelve massive Westinghouse alternators hummed like a subterranean hive, their copper armatures casting long, spinning shadows across the concrete floor. Across the partition stood Mr. Sterling, the chief consulting engineer representing Edison's direct current syndicate, holding a stopwatch in one hand and a leather ledger in the other.
"The opening procession begins tomorrow evening, Mr. Tesla, yet your polyphase dynamos have not completed a continuous two-hour load test," Sterling shouted above the dynamos. "If you cannot do so before midnight, the exposition committee will disconnect your transmission lines. Edison advised us to cancel the contract, and so did several members of our board."
"Edison believed direct current was the only practical medium, but he was mistaken," Tesla replied calmly.