Before World War II, little progress was made in wireless power transmission. Radio was developed for communication uses, but couldn't be used for power transmission since the relatively low-frequency radio waves spread out in all directions and little energy reached the receiver. In radio communication, at the receiver, an amplifier intensifies a weak signal using energy from another source. For power transmission, efficient transmission required transmitters that could generate higher-frequency microwaves, which can be focused in narrow beams towards a receiver.