“First, alternating current was his idea, Edison’s direct current lost out.”
Alternating current wasn’t his idea. He was a proponent of using AC electricity for the power grind since it was a lot more efficient to transfer electricity from the power station to customers using AC vs. DC. He invented the AC induction motor if memory serves.
DC can’t be transferred efficiently at lower voltages due to various parasitic effects in transmission lines (parasitic resistance, capacitance, inductance adds up over the long haul).
Despite that, there’s been a lot of research recently in creating a new DC based power grid since a lot of those transmission line limitations encountered in the late 1800s have been overcome.
Two modern benefits of using DC vs. AC :
1> Almost everything we use these days uses DC electricity ... we have to convert AC to DC ... we lose power in that conversion mainly in the form of heat. There are lots of techniques we can employ to convert one DC voltage to another DC voltage with very little loss.
2> You don’t need to phase align power grids to transfer electricity from one grid to another. This requirement has led to widespread blackouts on occasion. Moreover, since you don’t have those synchronization issues, you can, in theory, destroy part of a DC power grid and still have it operational.
AC was the wise choice back then. DC would be better these days overall. It’ll be neat to see it all play out yet again :-).
Also, it’s a lot harder to electrocute yourself to death working with DC power, as Edison loved to point out when he was hocking it.