Physics promises wireless power
Wireless Energy Lights Bulb from Seven Feet Away
Wireless Energy Transfer May Power Devices at a Distance
Wireless Energy
The "Magic Pad": A Wireless Mobile Device Charger
Project Tesla
Wireless power in action (Cool Video!)
Is the name "Tesla" anathema to mainstream science? This goes for both the scientists and the reporters who write their stories. You would think none of them has ever heard of Nikola Tesla (save the NYT article). Why, if you read the above articles about wireless electricity you would walk away thinking this was a radical new concept! It's not.
Nikola Tesla imagined, developed and repeatedly demonstrated wireless technology one hundred years ago! In case you don't know who Nikola Tesla is... reach over and turn the light off... then turn it back on... now think of where that power came from. It came from the mind of Nikola Tesla. He invented alternating current. He designed and built the first AC power-generating station at Niagara Falls. He invented the radio. He discovered VLF waves. He... well, he did a lot of other things for which people today still refuse to give him credit (as evidenced by the absence of his name in the above articles).
So what is wireless energy? It is the transmission of electrical power without the use of wires... and it's very old technology that has been waiting for a century to be put to practical use. It involves resonance. This is best described by thinking of two similar instruments and how one will resonate when the other is played. The same is true with electricity. Take two identical copper coils, one transmitting and the other attached to, say, a light bulb. Place them a few feet apart. Activate the transmitter attached to the one coil and the bulb attached to the other coil will light up. The waves produced by the one coil cause the second coil to resonate with the same energy... thus producing electricity.
The first practical use I saw was a "charging pad" for cell phones and PDAs. While all wireless charging is not resonant it still is one method being used.
Practical Use?
I could go on... both on this technology and on the man who invented it a century ago. You can read all about both above. What I do want is to tell you how this can be used.
- First consider (go read) my previous post on supercapacitors.
- Now consider wireless power transmission stations along highways... remember that it takes seconds to charge a supercapacitor.
- What do you have? You have a technology that eliminates the need to stop and fill up (recharge) your car. You just keep driving!
No comments:
Post a Comment