Would Nikola Tesla be impressed? Would he be proud of us? Or would he simply shake his head in mild disappointment and ask, “What took you so long?”

Tesla invented an early form of remote control, which he demonstrated by steering a small boat in a water tank. Observers were reportedly so bewildered by his demonstration that they demanded he open up the boat so they could see whether there was a trained monkey inside, doing the actual steering! While this was actually a demonstration of radio waves, Tesla realized that if information could be transmitted without a physical connection between his control box and the boat, then, at least in theory, the waves should be able to deliver power at a distance as well.

With the backing of American industrialist J. P. Morgan, Tesla began to build a facility on Long Island, N.Y., to demonstrate large-scale wireless transmission of electrical energy in 1901. Unfortunately, a stock market crash caused Morgan to withdraw funding, and the facility was abandoned. The buildings themselves were demolished in 1917, and Tesla never received enough funding for another attempt.

A number of companies have picked up where Tesla left off, however. Perhaps you are aware of wireless charging technology for devices such as cell phones and tablets. The “charging mats” simply require that the device be placed on the mat, with no physical connection to the device. Various demonstrations have been held worldwide of charging electric vehicles wirelessly, and Michigan is in the process of building the first mile (1.6 km) of public road that will charge electric vehicles while they are being driven over road.¹

Whether this technology will be able to provide sufficient power to operate the vehicle and charge the battery simultaneously remains to be seen, but at the very least, such a system could extend the range of an electric vehicle and allow vehicles to charge while parked on such a pavement, allowing consumers who don’t have easy access to a charging facility at their residence (apartment dwellers, for example) to charge their vehicles overnight or any other time the vehicle is not in use.

While proving something can be done is an important step, proving it can be done for a reasonable cost-to-benefit ratio can be an elusive goal. Although we are a long way from large-scale highways that power electric vehicles while they drive, I like to think of Dr. Robert Goddard, who demonstrated the liquid-fueled rocket in 1926.² The rocket reached a maximum altitude of 41 feet (12.5 m). This proof of a scientific principle allowed engineers to improve on the capabilities of this basic design until, in 1969, the liquid-fueled Saturn V rocket carried men to the moon, and back again. Would Goddard have been impressed, or would he simply ask us, “What took you so long?”

REFERENCES
1. Click here.
2. Click here.

Ed Becker is a Fellow and Past President of STLE. He is currently president of Friction & Wear Solutions, LLC and can be reached through his website at www.frictionandwearsolutions.com.