AC/DC
The Savage Tale of the First Standards War

Long before there was VHS versus Betamax, Windows versus Macintosh, or BluRay versus HDDVD, the first and nastiest standards war was fought over how electricity would be transmitted around the world: alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). The savage showdown between AC and DC changed the lives of billions of people, shaped the modern technological age, and set the stage for all standards wars to follow. AC/DC tells the littleknown story of how Thomas Edison bet wrong in that war, eventually losing control over the operating system for his future inventionsnot to mention the company he founded, which would later become General Electric. Todays Digital Age wizards can take lessons from Edisons fierce battle: control an inventions technical standard and you control the market.