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You need to read up on Nikola Tesla, Barnes & Noble has a neat book in print about him. Most of the patents for the Tesla/Westinghouse system were granted in the early 1880's and the stories of the "Current Wars", the feud between Tesla/Westinghouse and the Edison/GE proponents of DC make fascinating reading. Tesla got the contract to light the 1892 Chicago World's Fair over Edison basically because Tesla's ac system took tons less copper wire.
