Goodbye Wires

Generally, if MIT's doing it, it must be good. In an earlier post I mentioned Powercast, a new technology where a coin-sized receiver in a laptop or phone could charge itself when within range of a base station. Today I happened upon this article at physorg.com that describes the technology, coupling resonance.

Basically instead of sending the electricity wastefully radiating out in all directions, they make a small magnetic field of frequencies in the MHz range, which allows the electricity to pass through it. The first obvious application is for cellphones, and the inventor Soljacic credits a dying cellphone for his inspiration.

The author of the article does go on to wonder why no one thought of this before, it seeming like such a simple and good idea. I wonder why there is no mention of Tesla or any of his work. While I think he did try the radiation method instead, he was instrumental in developing our understanding of the science of resonance. No offense to the author of course, maybe he's a huge Tesla fan, and the site seems to have some other good stuff about him.

I guess what I'm getting at is that Tesla seems almost forgotten from the ivy-league technical schools and smithsonian type institutes while Edison is like a national hero. Maybe we're only now realizing how many things Tesla really did invent a hundred years ago. I think it will take several hundred years before we really understand all his work completely. It just seems that after Tesla's death, with the whole FBI intervention, and all his files and patents getting pretty much appropriated, there was also an effort to effectively scrub his name from the history books.

With sheer number of inventions, Tesla surpasses pretty much any inventor you can name. But it's the all derivative inventions and discoveries that wouldn't have happened without Tesla's experimental tinkering that really set him apart. Where would modern science be without alternating current, electron microscopes and flourescent lights?