The quest to use electricity to power products can trace part of its origins to Benjamin Franklin's experiments with lightning in the 18th century. Now Nokia is working on an experiment that could lead to lightning being used to charge products such as a smartphone.
In a new video posted on Nokia's YouTube channel, it shows how the company is working with the University of Southampton on this project. The brief clip shows voltage that comes from the bottom of a floor, which is then boosted by a transformer to 200,000 volts. There's a gap where the lightning is then discharged. That charge is then pushed down into another transformer and then up to a charging circuit where a Nokia Lumia 925 is in place to collect the energy.
The video says that the key part of the experiment is getting the Lumia 925 to smooth out the rather erratic charge produced by the lightning for use in charging its battery. This is clearly a very early step in the development of this kind of technology but it may lead to this kind of energy being used to charge smartphones and other types of electrical devices in the future.
Source: Nokia on YouTube
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