A Man Before His Time

I read with amusement an article today in London's Daily Mail describing how a scientist is predicting the end of electrical wiring. It seems that, in what is being proclaimed as "the first successful trial of its kind", scientists managed to transmit electricity without wires a whopping 7 feet to power a light bulb. You can read the full story here.

It is a shame that more scientists don't study a little history. One of the greatest minds of the electrical era is also, sadly, one of the least known. Nikola Tesla, born in 1856, essentially created the world we see around us every day. Without his ideas and inventions we would not have the electrical distribution system that is in place today, radar, radio, alternating current power generation, three phase motors even the electrical auto ignition. Tesla held over 700 patents and was a chief rival of Edison.

Tesla not only pioneered wireless electrical power transmisson but envisioned a world without wires, where electricity could be obtained anywhere at any time. This is his vision, spoken in his own words in 1908:

"..... it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant."

Tesla continued, "In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction. These few indications will be sufficient to show that the wireless art offers greater possibilities than any invention or discovery heretofore made, and if the conditions are favorable, we can expect with certitude that in the next few years wonders will be wrought by its application."