Big names in wireless charging: Tesla and Faraday

Some ideas heralded as futuristic are actually more than 100 years old.

In 1833, long before modern consumers were charging their mobile phones and toothbrushes wirelessly, Michael Faraday was experimenting with the physics of inductive charging. And in the first decade of the 20th century, mercurial Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla dreamed of powering the world's industries wirelessly from a giant tower on Long Island.

The two innovators are so revered today that modern electric-car companies are named after them: Faraday Future and Tesla Motors.

Of the two, Tesla's experiments were the most sensational. He hoped to supply wireless power to New England and beyond by transferring electrical energy from Niagara Falls to a 187-foot, mushroom-shaped tower he built in Shoreham, on New York's Long Island, in 1901-02. 

Wall Street mogul J.P. Morgan financed the structure, known as Wardenclyffe Tower, at a cost of about $200,000. 

Tesla explained his theory at the time: "I thought that with the machine now completed I can disturb the electrical conditions of the earth. That I shall be able to transmit thought or information I am convinced; and I hope with equal assurance to supply power to distant localities on this earth without the medium of wires. At Niagara it may be possible to generate electrical energy that can be used to drive mills in New England, railroad trains across the prairies and steamships across the sea." 

But the tower never functioned as Tesla dreamed. Morgan became disenchanted as Tesla asked for more money. The tower was ordered torn down in 1917 by the federal government, which feared it was being used by German spies. It was sold for scrap to help pay for some of Tesla's debts.

The English scientist Faraday preceded Tesla by about 70 years. He showed that current could be generated by inserting a moving electric magnet in a coil of wire. 

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology publication Spectrum, "In 1831, Faraday showed that an oscillating electric current in one coil of wire creates a magnetic field that induces current in a nearby separate coil of wire."

In 1821 Faraday also demonstrated the use of electromagnetic force, which eventually resulted in the invention of the electric motor and the electric generator. He also demonstrated electrolysis and an early version of the Bunsen burner. 

Albert Einstein reportedly kept a picture of Faraday on the wall of his office, along with a picture of Isaac Newton.