Editing Nikola Tesla (section)

=== Wireless lighting ===

[[File:TeslaWirelessPower1891.png|thumb|right|Tesla demonstrating wireless lighting by "electrostatic induction" during an 1891 lecture at [[Columbia College (New York)|Columbia College]] via two long [[Geissler tube]]s (similar to [[Neon light|neon tubes]]) in his hands]]

After 1890, Tesla experimented with transmitting power by inductive and capacitive coupling using high AC voltages generated with his Tesla coil.<ref name="Tesla1891">{{Cite book |url=http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1891-05-20.htm |title=Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination |first=Nikola |last=Tesla |publication-date=20 May 1891 |access-date=21 January 2017 |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306023235/http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1891-05-20.htm |url-status=live }}, lecture delivered before the [[American Institute of Electrical Engineers]], Columbia College, New York. Reprinted as a {{cite book |title = book of the same name by |publisher = Wildside Press |date = 2006 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=94eH3rULPy4C |isbn = 0-8095-0162-7 |access-date = 21 January 2017 |archive-date = 23 March 2024 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240323123047/https://books.google.com/books?id=94eH3rULPy4C |url-status = live }}</ref> He attempted to develop a wireless lighting system based on [[Near and far field|near-field]] inductive and capacitive coupling and conducted a series of public demonstrations where he lit [[Geissler tube]]s and even incandescent light bulbs from across a stage.{{sfn|Carlson|2013|p=132}} He spent most of the decade working on variations of this new form of lighting with the help of various investors but none of the ventures succeeded in making a commercial product out of his findings.<ref>Christopher Cooper (2015). ''The Truth About Tesla: The Myth of the Lone Genius in the History of Innovation'', Race Point Publishing, pp. 143–144</ref>

In 1893 at [[St. Louis]], Missouri, the [[Franklin Institute]] in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania and the [[National Electric Light Association]], Tesla told onlookers that he was sure a system like his could eventually conduct "intelligible signals or perhaps even power to any distance without the use of wires" by conducting it through the Earth.{{sfn|Carlson|2013|pp=178–179}}<ref name="Orton">{{cite book |last=Orton |first=John |title=The Story of Semiconductors |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |page=53}}</ref>

Tesla served as a vice-president of the [[American Institute of Electrical Engineers]] from 1892 to 1894, the forerunner of the modern-day [[IEEE]] (along with the [[Institute of Radio Engineers]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=Tesla's Connection to Columbia University|url=http://www.teslasociety.com/columbia.pdf|publisher=Tesla Memorial Society of NY|access-date=5 July 2012|first1=Kenneth L.|last1=Corum|first2=James F.|last2=Corum|name-list-style=amp|archive-date=18 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118002803/http://www.teslasociety.com/columbia.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>