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History

Inspired by Tesla and his wireless transfer of power to electrodeless lamps

Nikola Tesla demonstrated wired and wireless transfer of power to electrodeless fluorescent and incandescent lamps in his lectures and articles in the 1890's, and subsequently patented a system of light and power distribution on those principles. In the lecture before the AIEE, May 20, 1891, titled Experiments with Alternating Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination [1] and US patent 454622, among many other references in the technical and popular press are found countless records for Tesla's priority in this field. A suit filed by Tesla against J.J. Thompson for priority on the patent was subsequently granted in Tesla's favor. The transcripts of the case still languish currently in archives, awaiting processing, and eventual publishing! Noting the diagrams in Tesla's lectures and patents, a striking similarity of construction to electrodeless lamps that are available on the market currently is readily apparent. Further, a statement in 1929 by Tesla, published in The World : "Surely, my system is more important than the incandescent lamp, which is but one of the known electric illuminating devices and admittedly not the best. Although greatly improved through chemical and metallurgical advances and skill of artisans it is still inefficient, and the glaring filament emits hurtful rays responsible for millions of bald heads and spoiled eyes. In my opinion, it will soon be superseded by the electrodeless vacuum tube which I brought out thirty-eight years ago, a lamp much more economical and yielding a light of indescribable beauty and softness."

Not quite the Dewar based fluorescent lamp Tesla had in mind, but Ury made a big step despite so much time under the glaring filaments of incandescent lamps.

The Sulfur Lamp, a microwave-powered electrodeless lighting system, benefited from two high profile demonstrations that helped the technology gain exposure and credibility. Michael Ury (photo) and his associates at Fusion Systems invented this radically new lamp in 1990, but faced a market reluctant to chance the technology. Given the system's potential for saving energy, Lee Anderson decided to lend Ury his support.

As lighting program manager in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs, Anderson was responsible for evaluating new lighting technologies. He arranged for two sulphur lamps to be installed outside the DOE's headquarters building, and three more to be installed inside the National Air & Space Museum's Space Gallery. In the lower photo, (also here) Anderson (who died in 1998) and Ury are showing off those five lamps prior to installation in October 1994.

" That was the longest five minutes of my life when those things were turned on."

In the quote above, Ury referred to the timing during the ceremonial activation of the demonstration lamps. While he was confident his lamps would work, if a missed stage-cue left the band playing in the dark, it would have been rather embarrassing.

The lamps started on cue however, and the demonstration succeeded in introducing the technology to a large audience, as well as building valuable field experience with the lamps. The three NASM demonstrators remained in service until September 1996, the two DOE units a year longer. All five were replaced with production models.

Demonstration unit consisting of the projector, power supply, and air compressor was transferred from NASM to the Electricity & Modern Physics Collections of the National Museum of American History after removal. The other four demonstrators were returned to their original configuration (as industrial ultraviolet curing systems).

Founder -
Clive Wing –
R&D Director
Based in UK - Microelectronics engineer in the 1980’s, Information Systems Technologist in 1990’s, founded Lighting division of Island Systems 2004 with focus on photoperiod manipulation for food production.

Founder -
Jorie Yu –
Sales Director
Based in China –
Working in the Lighting industry since 1990’s – started independent Asian based Lighting business in 2004 supplying mainly Chinese manufactured Energy Saving Lighting products to Europe.

Founder -
Boris Lutterbach -
Managing Director Based in Germany – Technologist and Entrepreneur working with major German car manufacturer in the 1990's, strong believer in J.I.T. methodologies and philosophy of J. Juran.

Previously working only with electrode and electrodeless fluorescent lighting Clive Wing and Jorie Yu first started investigating Sulphur Plasma Light Sources in 2004. Working only with early Chinese prototype bulbs and microwave parts salvaged from old systems, Clive built a wooden system which could dim during operation to 1000W, 850W, 600W and 500W power levels. At this time Boris Lutterbach (Frankfurt, Germany) joined forces with Clive (Essex, England), observing and suggesting many high frequency and high voltage experiments remotely using webcam and Skype.


Asian models: By the latter half of 2006, just over 100 Asian manufactured/sourced units had been sold by Jorie, Boris & Clive all over the world.

		It became obvious that existing Asian quality of manufacture and understanding of the technology was severely handicapped. In fact it was Jorie in China that first insisted the team made a plasma light system in Europe, the project was code named ESP (European Sulphur Plasma). Using the name ESP Systems the research and development needed to make the first truly European Sulphur Plasma Light System then commenced, this included building a team of individuals and contacts from around the globe including several scientists and members of the original American Fusion and Swedish CelsiusTech/IKL companies from the 1990’s.

Also in 2006, Swedish power supply design and production was chosen as possibly the most efficient, reliable and safe magnetron HV PSU in existance. This enables full dimming control of the lamp during operation either manually (original Swedish control switch shown) or remotely using PC based Swedish software. All other parts sourced were (and still are) of the highest quality and longest lifetime expectancy German, Swedish and British made. For patent purposes we can not comment on or show any reflectors or detail of the latest technologies used.

Our primary objective is to create an easily procured and versatile plasma light source that will (again) inspire the worldwide creation of new forms and methods of lighting, especially using third millenium materials and fabrication techniques that were not available or viable in the 1990s.