Tesla was right in the end about so many things, it seems.
An assistant to Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla advocated and developed alternating current over Edison’s direct current as the best means of distributing electricity.
Although Tesla invented the spark plug for the internal combustion engine, his invention of the AC induction engine has led to electric cars, such as Tesla Motors’ 130mph sports car, threatening to replace petrol-powered ones.
Edison also believed the filament was the best method for generating light, while Tesla, the inventor of radio, advocated radio-frequency powered discharges.
I have just had a Tesla-like demonstration proving he was right, from a Silicon Valley company called Luxim.
On Monday, it released a solid-state high-intensity light source it hopes will be adopted in place of current TV studio lights and rigs used in theatres and concert venues.
Tony McGettigan, chief executive, put the light, powered by a single bulb the size of a large matchstick head, next to a standard spotlight and aimed them at colour cards. The Luxim light had the same intensity and rendered the colours truly while the spotlight gave them a washed-out appearance.
Luxim says its “LIFI” solution reduces power consumption by 50 per cent compared to conventional High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs and lasts 10 times longer. It promises its bulbs will pay for themselves in savings over two years.
Although it is solid state, this is not LED technology. Luxim instead has borrowed from Tesla’s thinking and the mobile base station technology of the wireless industry.
Radio frequencies oscillate within an electrically-charged alumina drum containing the bulb, but instead of the energy build-up being released outwards generating radio waves, it is contained by an outer core and focused inwards on the bulb, provoking a chemical reaction inside and generating intense light.
Sunnyvale-based Luxim, backed by VC firm Sequoia Capital, started out providing bulbs for rear-projection TVs, but that market has collapsed from 5m units a year to around 300,000 this year.
Now it is focusing on event and architectural lighting before moving into street lighting, where it says switching to LIFI from HID bulbs would cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by 500m tonnes worldwide.
