What was the first consumer device to use inductive charging?

March 10, 2022 2:17 PM

I’m surprised how hard it is to find specific information about this. I imagine it was an electric toothbrush or razor since I think they were among the first rechargeable devices. Would it maybe not have been considered a notable innovation, as the only apparent difference would’ve been the absence of metal contact points on the base of the device?
posted by theory to Technology (3 answers total)

just farting around I found this patent from 1963 for a tooth brush charging system. it references som older patents but none of them are consumer devices.
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:55 PM on March 10, 2022

If you look at the history section of this page, it would suggest headlamps for miners, which would make sense because you would not want any possibility of the charging leads creating sparks in any way in a mine, so they could be completely encased. As it also states, the concept of induction dates back close to the invention of electricity and, although not directly related to your question, there are voltage transformers that work on the principal of induction.
posted by Short End Of A Wishbone at 8:42 PM on March 10, 2022

there are voltage transformers that work on the principal of induction.

Um, *ALL* transformers work on the principle of induction. It's just that 'inductive charging' has taken the meaning of "using induction to bridge an air gap", which is basically building the two halves of a transformer in separable parts of the device (miners' headlamps, toothbrushes, cellphones, etc.). Sometimes the halves do include their part of the actual transformer core, others are just the coils themselves.

There's now nearly always a bit of electronics involved at both ends as well, to allow more energy to be transmitted while using coils small enough to fit in the removable part, and to stop feeding the source coil when the receiving coil is not present.
posted by Stoneshop at 1:01 AM on March 11, 2022 [2 favorites]