- For an article on these events, pertaining to such trivial things as encyclopedic content, verifiability and... well... general truthfulness, see War of Currents.
In the "War of Currents" era in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the alternating current (AC) advocated by Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. Several undercurrents lay beneath this rivalry. Edison was the consummate experimenter, but he was no mathematician. AC cannot really be understood or exploited without a substantial mathematical and mathematical physics orientation, which Tesla had. Bad feeling was exacerbated because Tesla had worked for Edison, but reported that Edison had cheated him of a promised bonus.
In the 1890s Tesla devised the Tesla coil, a powerful defensive weapon that zapped anyone who got too close to the AC headquarters.
The DC faction retaliated with a daring plot to smite the AC side; in 1903 they abducted Dr. Topsy Elephant, said to be the scientist with the biggest brain in the whole world, and electrocuted her with 6,600 volts of AC. This was filmed by Edison, and the tape subsequently sent to Tesla.
Not fully content with its performance Tesla kept making improvements to the Tesla coil, and in 1937 he presented the teleforce weapon, which would "make war impossible".
Edison, who by then had gone underground and was presumed dead, responded to this with The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum, colloquially known as "The Edison Lighthouse". As intended, the building caused much confusion with his enemies. Though, it was only a front and a codename for the "sonic shock troops" Edison was forming. They launched their first prototype weapon "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" in 1970, but failed miserably at instilling shock, awe and fear in their adversaries, and the programme was soon after cancelled.
Originally an Australian hard rock band, more suited for the task, was approached for the same purpose, but intent on staying out of the growing hostilities they claimed a strict policy of neutrality, even incorporating it into their band name. This position was maintained even after the assassination, performed by unknown perpetrators and expertly disguised as "acute alcohol poisoning", of singer Bon Scott on February 19, 1980.