Previously, on "The Men Who Built America":
The country has bounced back from a long civil war,
and is now stronger than ever.
Cornelius Vanderbilt used brute force
and intimidation to build a railroad empire
that unites the country.
John D. Rockefeller rose from humble beginnings,
and with complete confidence and ruthlessness,
created a total monopoly of the oil industry.
Then, a new product transformed the American landscape.
I am convinced that steel is the future.
And thanks to Andrew Carnegie's steel,
America's cities now reach the sky.
Nothing's impossible.
But after his name is linked
to one of the worst disasters in American history,
Carnegie's empire begins to fray.
His chairman, Henry Frick, pushes his workers
to the breaking point...
...causing them to fight back...
All of those in favor of striking,
raise your hands.
...barricading Carnegie Steel's flagship plant,
and when Frick decides to take it back by force...
Fire!
... an attempt is made on his life.
Mr. Frick!
Andrew Carnegie is forced
to rethink everything.
(Blues Saraceno playing "Save My Soul")
♪ When I got to Memphis ♪
♪ To put my ol' baby down ♪
♪ He said, "I can't take you to Heaven" ♪
♪ "I can't save your soul" ♪
♪ "I can't promise forever" ♪
♪ Whoa, yeah, got my heart in your hands ♪
♪ I can't feel ♪
♪ Feel my soul ♪
With his chairman shot,
and his workers rebelling, Andrew Carnegie's back
is against the wall.
His company-- and his reputation--
are under threat.
And the empire he spent a lifetime building
is on the verge of collapse.
Hoping to salvage his legacy,
Carnegie cuts short his trip abroad,
and returns to Pittsburgh.
Henry Frick survives the attempt on his life.
Ahh!
Only three days after being shot and stabbed,
he's back in his office at Carnegie Steel.
Frick's brush with death only
strengthens his resolve.
But for his boss, Andrew Carnegie,
it's a reminder that his chairman is a liability.
There came a time when Frick
thought to himself, "I'm running this business.
I'm the one in Pittsburgh.
I'm the one working the twelve-hour days.
I'm the one taking the bullet in the head.
I deserve to be number one."
Carnegie's relationship with Frick
deteriorates,
and he realizes he needs to make a change.
Carnegie isn't happy.
He whispers to newspaper reporters in Pittsburgh
that if he had have been around,
it would've been different.
That there wouldn't have been this bloodshed.
That he had more respect for the workers.
And he undercuts Frick.
But Frick refuses to accept
any responsibility.
Outraged that Carnegie has hung him out to dry,
he even goes behind his back and attempts
to orchestrate a hostile takeover.
Carnegie Steel is eroding from the inside out.
But the biggest challenge to Carnegie's empire
isn't coming from within.
A new threat is emerging.
J.P. Morgan is a banker,
who's made a fortune consolidating broken industries,
buying out failing companies,
and returning them to profitability.
Companies like Carnegie Steel.
You look at J.P. Morgan,
the way he controlled the banks.
Basically he's one man who just literally dominated
the banking industry, and, essentially,
dominated financing in the country.
Morgan most recently consolidated
parts of the broken railroad industry,
making them profitable
by eliminating unnecessary competition.
We need an answer. We'll win this war.
You wanna come to war?
I've heard enough.
This is what's going to happen.
There's going to be an end to this war.
The Morgan Bank will buy the West Shore
and lease it to the Central.
They'll also buy the central stake in the South
Pennsylvania in exchange for a share in other railroads.
MAURY KLEIN: He excelled at taking warring parties,
who were destroying an industry,
and bringing peace on terms that were suitable to them,
profitable to him,
and which gave him leverage in the business itself.
Anyone who knew anything about him realized that,
like him or not, he got things done.
Due to Frick's callousness,
Andrew Carnegie fears he might become Morgan's next target.
He makes a bold move.
One that's become all but inevitable.
Andy?
Henry. How are you?
- Fine. - Good.
The board of managers met yesterday.
I was unaware.
The board has decided that it's best
if Carnegie Steel invoked the provision
of their agreement with you.
You will have to surrender your interest in the company.
You will, of course, receive full compensation
at book value.
Carnegie!
As Carnegie struggles to repair
his broken empire,
J.P. Morgan continues to target failing companies,
working alongside his legendary father.
Junius Morgan is the founder
of one of the world's first modern investment banks,
a financial empire that will come to be known
as the House of Morgan.
J.P. Morgan was born
into the banking business.
His father was one of the first generation
of trans-Atlantic bankers, and as a result
he identified finance as the industry
that was going to command all other industries.
From the time he could count,
J.P. is taught there is only one way to do business:
the Morgan way.
Investing other people's money
to make a fortune for yourself.
I will return tonight.
See that these accounts balance by then.
JENNIFER TONKOVICH: Morgan's father
had a controlling presence.
Junius really didn't sort of take his eye off Morgan
for so many years.
It was very difficult for him to bear.
Go ahead. Open it.
Now pick it up. Feel the weight.
You know what that is?
That's what it feels like to hold a million dollars.
Now,
learn to earn it yourself.
J.P. Morgan's strained relationship
with his father continues.
And by age forty, he's looking to create
an identity of his own.
Is all this furniture really necessary?
That painting's four hundred years old.
Yes, sir.
I don't see why you feel the need
to pillage Europe of its art.
I bought a few paintings, Father,
not a whole gallery.
The bank of England have asked me to handle
their next bond issue, so I'm assuming
you're accompanying me back to London?
I have plenty of work to do here.
Just remember where our loyalties lie, Pierpont.
I'll try not to forget.
Let me know how you get on.
I'll leave you in peace to arrange your paintings.
J.P.
Morgan understood the game,
and at some point he realized that,
as successful as his father had been,
he could become even more successful.
Morgan's father always taught him
to avoid taking big risks,
but J.P.Morgan is tired of doing things his father's way.
He doesn't want to simply buy businesses,
he wants to build them from the ground up.
He's watched as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie
have built empires from nothing,
and he wants to be next.
But to do that, Morgan needs to find
an innovation to call his own.
He sets his sights on one of the world's most famous inventors.
Thomas Edison has been a renowned innovator
since the age of nineteen.
He first made his name by perfecting the telegraph
before going on to invent the stock ticker,
and the phonograph.
In his lifetime, Edison will secure
over one thousand patents.
But now, at thirty-one, Edison is on the verge
of his greatest innovation yet.
RICHARD PARSONS: Edison had that unique ability
to sort of look at this thing,
then figure out how to use it in a way
that no one had thought of to use it before.
So this is where genius resides.
"Genius is eternal patience."
Michelangelo.
One invention catches Morgan's eye:
the light bulb, and the electricity that powers it.
A stream of invisible energy that heat
tiny filaments in the bulbs that like magic,
make them glow.
Electric light will revolutionize the world.
Like fire, or the wheel, it will transform human existence.
J.P. Morgan sees the potential in the revolutionary new
technology immediately,
and knows it's his chance
to create his own legacy.
One that will change the world forever.
As the turn of the twentieth century
approaches, America is the most rapidly growing
country on earth.
Rail,
oil,
and steel
have driven the expansion.
But a new technology is emerging
that may be even more powerful.
Electricity has the potential
to completely change the world,
and J.P.Morgan sees it as something he can own.
RUSSELL SIMMONS: Most people are too busy
looking on the outside to really check
what their barometers say inside,
so as an entrepreneur,
if you look inside, you'll find things
that they all need that could become immensely popular,
if someone had the courage to promote.
Or to build it.
For years,
J.P. Morgan has lived in the long shadow
of his legendary father.
He's desperate for a way to make his own mark,
and electricity might be it.
Morgan is considering an investment in Thomas
Edison's company, and his newly-developed
electric light bulb.
He hires Edison to install electric lighting in his
home on Fifth Avenue, in New York.
Sometimes you've got to take ownership.
They call it "eating your own dog food", right?
If you aren't willing to use your own product,
then how is anybody else going to trust it and have confidence?
You know, some people might call that being
a showman, I call it demonstrating trust
in your product, which any smart business has to do.
The Morgan home quickly turns
into a laboratory for Thomas Edison's
famous electric experiments.
Edison installs a small power plant in a shed
on Morgan's property.
He then runs four thousand feet of wiring through
the walls and ceilings of the house,
and installs nearly four hundred electric light bulbs,
some of the first to ever be manufactured.
After months of trial and error,
the home is ready to be displayed.
JERRY WEINTRAUB: When I believe in something,
and I want to sell it to somebody,
I want to put it in the best light.
I don't just package it, I creatively package it.
Morgan invites many--including his father--
to see the marvel of electric lighting
for the first time,
knowing the demonstration will put him
at the forefront of a new industry.
Ladies and gentlemen,
behold the miracle of modern science.
The gas lamp is dead.
Long live the electric light.
Every light you see is powered by electricity.
There is no gas, no oil, no flame.
Just a invisible stream of energy.
JILL JONNES: Electricity was viewed
as something miraculous, and people were amazed.
First of all, they didn't understand how it worked,
because you can't see electricity,
and so it was viewed as something almost magical
by most people.
J.P. Morgan's home
is the first private residence in the world
to be lit with electricity.
Well Father, what do you think?
You disappoint me, Pierpont.
I thought you knew better.
This is the future.
This is the stuff of carnivals and fairs.
And you've been played for a fool.
Despite his father's disappointment,
Morgan's event is a success.
You're about to become a very busy man.
Darius Ogden Mills wants you to electrify his home.
He'll have to wait.
The Vanderbilt family's next on my list.
Electricity becomes a must-have
for the country's elite,
with one notable exception,
John D. Rockefeller.
Rockefeller has created the largest fortune
in America by refining oil for kerosene lamps.
He realizes electric light has the potential
to replace kerosene as America's primary light source.
If the technology goes mainstream,
Rockefeller will face his biggest challenge ever.
Following the success of his home lighting display,
Morgan believes that electricity could be
the opportunity he's been waiting for,
his chance to control a new business from its start,
and become a pioneer like Carnegie and Rockefeller.
But investing in Edison goes against everything
J.P. Morgan's father has ever taught him.
DONNY DEUTSCH: You have to be able to take risk.
You can't have greatness in anything without
putting it on the line.
Otherwise, everybody would have it.
If there was no apparent loss,
if there was no chance of tremendous failure
or tremendous setback, you can't have the upside.
To what do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Morgan?
There's a noise in the basement.
It's upsetting my wife.
It's the generator.
I'll send someone around to soundproof it.
JUNIUS MORGAN: You disappoint me, Pierpont.
I thought you knew better.
J.P. MORGAN: This is the future.
This is the stuff of carnivals and fairs.
And you've been played for a fool.
How much competition do you have, Edison?
Nothing worthy of note.
You know, if you could help me raise money
to install a central power station,
there'd be no need to have a generator
in your basement.
I could power anything within a half-mile radius.
What would it take to light all the homes in New York City?
I'd need a network of power stations.
What would the cost be?
EDISON: I'll have to go through my figures.
Bring them to me Monday morning.
That model train set-- powered by electricity?
Yes.
I want one for my daughter's birthday next week.
For Morgan, the potential reward is too great.
Against his father's advice,
he invests everything in electricity,
determined to create his own legacy,
even if it means going against everything
he's ever been taught.
America is undergoing amazing changes.
Steel is building futuristic cities
of unimaginable height, and kerosene is lighting homes
across the country.
But, a magical new innovation is emerging,
and J.P. Morgan is determined to bring it to the world.
Electricity has captured
the public's imagination, but the technology is
still unproven, and virtually unused.
But partnered with Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan
is convinced he can bring electricity
to the entire country.
There is no success without risk taking,
and I think that is actually what distinguishes
the captains of industry from others.
Morgan gives Edison what amounts
to eighty-three million dollars today,
and together they form a new business,
the Edison Electric Light Company.
Funding Edison is a huge risk for Morgan,
and goes against everything his father taught him.
For years, Morgan was instructed to avoid
investing in new and unproven industries.
But where his father sees risk,
J.P. Morgan sees opportunity.
STEVE CASE: I think what's great
about the truly transformative inventions
and the entrepreneurial ideas that really end up having
a significant impact is they start relatively small
and most people don't quite understand
even what you're talking about, and they take some time
before they get traction, but eventually they break
through and the impact's far broader than anybody,
you know, could have imagined.
Morgan and Edison get right to work,
transforming a building in Lower Manhattan
into the world's first central power station,
a high-tech wonder filled with massive generators
capable of lighting thousands of homes.
The idea was that from this central station
would flow all this direct current,
but it also meant that it had to be transmitted.
The future of electricity
wasn't just illumination.
It was power, and power required transmission
over long distance.
Edison's workers labor day and night,
digging a network of ditches over fifteen miles long.
They lay over one hundred thousand feet of thick
copper wire, connecting Edison's power station
to hundreds of homes and businesses throughout New York.
Edison's power grid becomes the model for how electricity
is transmitted in the United States.
JILL JONNES: He had never worked so long
and so hard at any invention to make it functional
as he did with electricity.
With Edison's power station up and running,
a new era dawns.
The city lights up for the first time ever.
And soon, Edison's power grid covers half of Manhattan.
Electric streetlights line avenues,
and homes throughout New York are buzzing with electricity.
JIM CRAMER: Edison had a big think approach
which said that, "We can build giant distribution centers
and make it so that electricity is cheap
enough for the masses."
What a brilliant idea.
J.P. Morgan
and Thomas Edison stand to make a fortune.
But their success is bad news
for the most powerful man in the country.
Until now, John Rockefeller has been
virtually unchallenged while providing light
to homes from coast to coast.
But as Edison's power grid expands over a greater
and greater area, he realizes his kerosene empire is at risk.
Every home Edison wires with electricity
is a lost customer for John Rockefeller.
The great titans of the late 1800s,
like Rockefeller, they tended to be very ruthless.
They were interested in dominating the market,
and moved in every way they could to get as big
a chunk of the market as they could in order to
ensure their own profits.
The industrialists
of that time are naked capitalists.
They absolutely wanted to get rich,
and they wanted to build something that lasted.
Rockefeller wanted Standard Oil
to be the greatest oil company in the world.
Rockefeller launches a targeted
campaign against electricity.
Painting the new technology as dangerous,
even deadly, he warns of mass electrocutions
and out-of-control fires.
Rockefeller knows if he can frighten the public,
kerosene will continue to be the dominant light source.
I am not a good enemy.
I'm a terrible enemy.
So, if you screw around with me, or you hurt me,
I'm gonna hurt you back.
Now that doesn't mean physically, but I will,
in the end, win.
Because I'm a winner, and I don't lose.
But John D. Rockefeller
is about to become the least of Morgan's problems.
A new competitor emerges.
Ladies and gentleman, Nikola Tesla!
A war over the future of electricity is coming,
and J.P. Morgan could be the first casualty.
America's explosive change transforms
the world's view of the country.
Where many once saw failure,
innovation is now leading the nation into a new age.
Railroads, oil, and steel have rebuilt the country,
and electricity is creating unimagined advances.
J.P. Morgan's attempt to unseat John D. Rockefeller
as the man lighting America has led him
to partner with Thomas Edison to form
one of the first electric companies, and together,
they're electrifying homes throughout New York.
The inventions, the things that literally
almost come out of nowhere,
require incredible vision and support
from leadership, because those are big leaps.
If a leader doesn't take that invention
and really embrace it and own it, it won't happen.
Morgan has gone against his father's
advice by backing Edison, but he's maintained
one of the rules he's learned.
How much competition do you have, Edison?
Nothing worthy of note.
Edison is ignoring what's
potentially the biggest challenge to his design
for electricity, and it comes from inside his own lab.
His apprentice, Nikola Tesla.
Nikola Tesla,
from a very young age, was obsessed with electricity.
And when he first meets Thomas Edison,
initially he worships him...
Mr. Edison, sir.
What is it?
I was wondering if you had chance to look
at my AC motor design.
Nobody's interested in your design, Tesla.
Alternating current is not safe,
which is why we use direct current.
Tesla has developed a new form
of electricity known as "alternating current", or "AC".
But Edison believes that higher voltage AC
is more dangerous than the direct current electric standard
he's pioneered.
I think Edison probably saw Tesla
as a junior employee.
I mean, remember.
Edison is world-famous, and Tesla's just one
of many very bright young men who work for him,
and the fact that he's pushing AC is no big deal
to Edison, because Edison sees himself as the person
who's really solved this problem and made it commercial.
What's this?
My resignation.
You won't find anybody else to employ you.
I'll set up my own company.
Good luck finding an investor.
Now free to pursue his own ideas,
Tesla begins looking for an investor
to back his AC technology.
He finds one in inventor-turned-businessman
George Westinghouse.
TESLA: The magnetic field, when it moves,
it carries the motor around.
Motor powers itself.
How far do you think you can take AC?
I mean, what is its potential?
Build one power plant,
can supply enough electricity to eastern
part of United States.
That's amazing.
Morgan and Edison may have lit up New York,
but Westinghouse and Tesla believe alternating
current's greater power is more effective...
Thank you.
...and they set out to prove it.
Good luck, Nikola.
Thank you, Mr. Westinghouse.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome the new wizard of electricity,
Nikola Tesla!
My first demonstration is for those amongst you
who fear that AC and high voltage will make
the world unsafe.
Tesla travels the country,
showing AC pulsing through him.
The successful demonstrations have orders
for Westinghouse power stations pouring in.
People who understood the science of electricity
realized that Tesla was a new giant,
and a significant rival.
J.P. Morgan
suddenly finds himself in an unfamiliar position.
I thought you didn't have any competition.
None that are worthy of note.
I have just seen the drawings and descriptions
of an electrical machine lately patented by
Mr. Tesla, which will revolutionize the world's
electrical business.
AC has a very high voltage, and is lethal.
A young boy touched a straggling wire
and was killed instantly.
You, sir. You have DC running through your home.
None of your family are at risk.
Edison, I see that the electrical industry
has two competing systems right now: AC and DC.
This world has room for only one of 'em.
J.P. Morgan
is staking everything on Thomas Edison.
But as the battle to electrify the nation heats up,
the pressure Morgan puts on Edison sends him
down a dark path.
America's advancement in the last three decades
is staggering.
Railroads have replaced wagon trails to unite the nation,
and the country's cities stand tall on steel.
First kerosene transformed the night,
and now,
electricity is about to light homes from coast to coast.
Only John D. Rockefeller isn't about to let
J.P.Morgan and Thomas Edison put him out of business.
He's determined to keep kerosene the leader
in the light game.
He begins a campaign to stop electricity before
it gains traction, though he may underestimate the draw
of this magical new power.
J.P. Morgan
has more to worry about than Rockefeller.
Morgan's father always told him to avoid
competition at all costs.
And now he and Thomas Edison are locked in
a heated battle over what will become the dominant
form of electricity.
Nikola Tesla has developed a whole new way
to transmit electricity, and his technology threatens
to destroy everything Morgan and Edison have built.
J.P. MORGAN: The electrical industry
has two competing systems right now: AC and DC.
This world has room for only one of 'em.
If Morgan loses,
he risks ruining his reputation, and his name.
Morgan ratchets up the pressure on Edison,
telling him to take out the competition in any way he can.
ALAN GREENSPAN: J.P.Morgan was, really,
an extraordinary character.
He was steely-eyed, determined, very smart,
and somebody who had that characteristic
"I'll take charge".
And he did.
Feeling the pressure from Morgan,
Edison sets out on a mission to prove his
direct current is the safest form of electricity.
The War of the Electric Currents is the dark side
of Thomas Edison.
The tactic that Edison took was to persuade
people that alternating current was the killer current.
It is a side of Edison we don't normally see.
He begins using Tesla's
alternating current in a series of demonstrations,
hoping to scare the public about AC's power.
Edison used all sorts of dirty tricks
to try to discredit AC.
He killed animals before an audience.
But nothing seems to be slowing
the enthusiasm for Tesla's stronger current.
Growing ever more desperate to please Morgan,
Edison is relieved when a letter arrives
that could be his opportunity.
A New York state prison has been looking
to replace hanging as a means of execution.
Many have come to believe that the medieval method
is cruel and inhumane.
Electricity could provide a useful alternative.
The design Edison envisions is simple,
yet groundbreaking.