Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a scientist who lived from 1856 to 1947. He worked with AC power, rather than the DC power which Edison used at the time. The two would become bitter rivals, Edison had the edge in business; however, Tesla would eventually win out due to the almost perfectly superior AC power. AC power is safer and can travel over long distances without the need for substations.

Tesla’s work could best be described in his wireless energy emitting Tesla Coil. The Tesla Coil was the first method of wireless energy transmission. When activated, electricity moves around the coil and builds up. When the electricity is built up in the secondary coil to the point where it can no longer store any more, it is released in an lighting bolt-like electrical burst, pictured below.

The Tesla Coil is amazing to look at, even though it doesn’t have a practical application anymore. It is a great demonstration of electrical projection and is easy to understand.

A WPT (wireless power transfer) system is the modern day version of Tesla’s work with wireless energy. In most WPTs, two copper coils (akin to a Tesla Coil) send electricity between each other. This wireless transmission of electricity is known as resonant inductive coupling. At IMTO University, researchers are developing a high efficiency WPT which uses two spherical dielectric resonators.

A problem that most WPT’s have is power loss during the electricity transfer. The new system aims to remedy this problem using a a frequency known as magnetic quadrupole mode. This is more efficient than the standard dipole mode that most WPT’s use.

Despite being over 100 years old, Tesla’s work is still being refined and implemented to this day. In the future, these WPT technologies could replace wires or even electrical lines. It will be interesting to see in 100 more years (2116 as of the time this is published) if wires are used less or completely eliminated from everyday use, which could very well happen if developments in this field continue.

Sources:
http://www.biography.com/people/nikola-tesla-9504443
http://www.livescience.com/46745-how-tesla-coil-works.html
Tesla Coil picture: fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/iu-rph020316.php