After his flash of inspiration in Budapest, Tesla worked for various European power companies to improve their direct current (DC) systems. In his free time, he attempted to interest investors in his alternating current (AC) motor, to no avail. Tesla decided that to meet with any kind of success, he would have to travel to America to meet his hero and fellow inventor, Thomas Edison, who had helped introduce electricity to New York in the 1870's.
Edison's New York ran on DC power, carried through hastily erected power lines. Although the streets became so perilous that Brooklyn's baseball team called themselves the Dodgers after becoming accustomed to avoiding electrocution in the street, demand for electricity could barely be met. Edison's time and ideas were in high demand and he was fast becoming a mogul.
Tesla came to New York at the age of 28 with four cents, a drawing of an idea for a flying machine, some computations, and a letter from Charles Batchelor, his former employer and a business associate of Edison's to serve as an introduction. This letter read as follows:
"My Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man."
Upon introduction, Tesla explained his plans for an AC motor and his reasons for coming to New York. Edison, successful because of the introduction of direct current and ignorant of the advantages of alternating current, saw Tesla and his ideas as competition and declared his lack of interest immediately. He did, however, hire him to make improvements at his DC plant, and offered him $50,000 if he could complete what he requested. Tesla was upset and discouraged at having been dismissed by a man he admired, but the sum of money, the equivalent of almost $1,000,000 today, appealed to him and his empty pockets, so he agreed.
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