Witricity | Witric [.com]
The Witricity Resource
Witricity’s Roots
Posted on June 2007 
in Articles 
A brief look around at all the comments appearing on news sites and blogs would appear to suggest that we live in a new world of Tesla experts, with many people keen to enthuse how MIT haven’t done anything new here with witricity. Tesla did it first apparently. So I thought blimey, everyone’s a Tesla expert bar me - ’bout time I learnt what went on there!
OK, potted bio: born a Serb in 1856, moved to America, did loads of interesting stuff, won some medals for his work, got ostracised for being mad (are you reading MIT?), died penniless at 86 - you can Wiki the rest! Fair enough - a job well done and recognition where it’s due - it’s not everyday you get a scientific term named after you, eh! And yes, he did demonstrate the “transmission” of electricity from one place to another without wires which has become known as the Tesla Effect - the method uses a coupled-tuned-circuit oscillator - well 4 of them in fact. But as it turns out, he wasn’t actually the first to transfer energy without wires. Nor even the second.
Before Tesla there was Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867) most famous for providing the foundations of electric motor technology. Faraday discovered that by moving a magnet through a loop of wire, an electric current flowed through the wire. So there you go - the first instance of wireless electricity? Nope…
Looks to me like Nicholas Callan (1799 - 1864), while born after Faraday, was the first to recognise and demonstrate that a magnetic field could cause energy to flow through a strip of wire. Callan demonstrated this in 1831 and he went on to invent the first “induction coil” in 1836.
All these guys have very interesting bios and it’s worth looking them up if this is a field that interests you. But - and I’m no scientist trust me - it strikes me that what MIT have done, while bearing clear similarities to the work of Callan, Faraday and Tesla, is quite different in that the MIT concept revolves around resonance. Two objects resonating at the same frequency. Yes it involved magnetism, yes it involves coils, and yes I’m sure the research of the guys above significantly contributed to the concept. After reading about the pioneers’ achievements, what MIT have done sounds quite different to me.
Footnote: it is also worth remembering that we already use wireless technology in everyday life in the form of “transformers” which use the magnetic coupling method at very close range to transfer current from one circuit to another.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.