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Westinghouse acquires Tesla’s polyphase motor and transmission patents

In May 1888 George Westinghouse’s company bought patent rights to Tesla’s polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers and motors. In the causal graph this event strengthens the driver Industrial-Policy Activism.

Sources: [1][2]

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In May 1888 George Westinghouse’s company bought patent rights to Tesla’s polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers and motors. The transaction is a licence instrument, not a generating station.

Context

Westinghouse already sold AC lighting. He needed a practical motor. Cash, notes and a royalty clause were the commercial machinery; a later royalty waiver is a separate worsening Fact.

Nikola Tesla is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

Why it matters

Industrial-policy path. High confidence on the licence; medium on any particular dollar figure in later retellings.

A licence is not Niagara. Name Lamme when the machines are built.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Nikola Tesla

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.5 · verified

    Complex: Tesla’s patents plus Westinghouse capital and shop. Direct sole manufacture is the wrong type.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactWestinghouse acquires Tesla’s polyphase motor and transmission patents
    2. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

    impact weight 0.55 · Effect from 31 May 1888 · verified

    Licensing polyphase patents to an industrial manufacturer channelled AC motors and transformers into a competing utility-equipment firm.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — Nikola TeslaEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Smithsonian Magazine — Edison, Westinghouse, Tesla and the current warsSmithsonian Magazine · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Britannica dates the May 1888 purchase. Smithsonian Magazine’s current-war account independently places the Tesla–Westinghouse licence in the 1888 industrial contest.

Established: Westinghouse acquired Tesla polyphase rights in May 1888. Not established: a unique fortune Tesla ‘should have’ kept, or that Tesla personally built every Westinghouse generator.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorNikola Tesla
  2. contributed toFactWestinghouse acquires Tesla’s polyphase motor and transmission patents
  3. strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Westinghouse acquires Tesla’s polyphase motor and transmission patents. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/us-tesla-westinghouse-license-1888

https://factrail.ai/facts/us-tesla-westinghouse-license-1888

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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