Oliver Heaviside
Scholar
Born	May 18, 1850 Camden Town, London, England
Died	February 3, 1925 Paignton, Devon, England

Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 - February 3, 1925) was a self-taught British engineer, mathematician and physicist. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.

Contents

1 Biography 1.1 Early years 1.2 Middle years 1.3 Later years 2 Innovations 3 See also 4 Publications 5 Further reading 6 External links and references

Biography

Early years

Heaviside was born in Camden Town, London (England). He was short and red-headed, and suffered from scarlet fever during his youth, the illness having a lasting impact on him, leaving him partly deaf. Although he was a good scholar (placed fifth out of five hundred students in 1865), he left school at 16 and began learning about Morse code and electromagnetism.

Heaviside became a telegraph operator, initially in Denmark and, later, at the Great Northern Telegraph Company . Heaviside continued to study and, in 1872, while working as a chief operator in Newcastle upon Tyne, he started an analysis of electricity. In 1874, Heaviside left this position and researched in isolation at his parents' house. Here he helped develop transmission line theory (also known as the "telegrapher's equations").

Heaviside showed mathematically that uniformly distributed inductance in a telegraph line would diminish both attenuation and distortion, and that, if the inductance were great enough and the insulation resistance not too high, the circuit would be distortionless while currents of all frequencies would be equally attenuated. Heaviside's equations helped further the implementation of the telegraph.

Middle years

In 1880, Heaviside researched the skin effect in telegraph transmission lines.

Heaviside, after 1880, recast Maxwell's mathematical analysis from its original quaternion form to its modern vector terminology, thereby reducing the original twenty equations in twenty unknowns down to the four differential equations in four unknowns we now know as Maxwell's equations.

The four re-formulated Maxwell's equations describe the nature of static and moving electric and magnetic charges, and the relationship between the two, namely electromagnetic induction.

Between 1880 and 1887, Heaviside developed the operational calculus (involving the D notation for the differential operator, which he is credited with creating), a method of solving differential equations by transforming them into ordinary algebraic equations which caused a great deal of controversy when first introduced, owing to the lack of rigour in his derivation of it. He famously said, "Mathematics is an experimental science, and definitions do not come first, but later on." He was replying to criticism over the use of operators that weren't clearly defined.

In 1887, Heaviside proposed that induction coils should be added to the transatlantic telegraph cable (increasing self-induction) in order to correct the distortion which it suffered. For political reasons, this was not done. Michael Idvorsky Pupin later devised means of extending the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils (of wire) at intervals along the transmitting wire which followed up on the ideas of Heaviside's research.

Around 1889, after Joseph John Thomson's research into the electron, Heaviside worked on the concept of electromagnetic mass. Heaviside treated this as "real" as material mass, capable of producing the same effects. Wilhelm Wien later verified Heaviside's expression (for low velocities).

Later years

In 1902, Heaviside proposed the existence of the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer of the ionosphere which bears his name (which was originally investigated by Nikola Tesla around July 3, 1899). Heaviside's proposal included means by which radio signals are transmitted around the earth's curvature. The existence of the ionosphere was confirmed in 1923.

In later years his behaviour became quite eccentric, having been at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life. Heaviside would sign correspondences "W.O.R.M." during this time. Heaviside also started painting his fingernails pink and had granite blocks moved into his house for furniture. Heaviside died in Paignton, Devon (England). Most of his recognition was gained posthumously.

Innovations

Heaviside coined the term "electret" for the electric analogue of a permanent magnet, or, in other words, any substance that exhibits a quasi-permanent electric polarization (e.g. ferroelectric). He also developed the Heaviside step function, which he used to model the flow of current in an electric circuit.

Other

• Four vector equations reformulation of the original Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.
• Ionosphere prediction of the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer.
• Operator method for linear differential equations.
• Poynting vector (independent co-discovery)
• Transmission line theory (also known as the "telegrapher's equations").
• Vectors (and vector calculus).

See also

• Physics: Kennelly-Heaviside Layer, Mad scientist, Microwave, 1850 in science
• Mathematics: Analytical Society, Differential operator, Heaviside step function, Maxwell's equations, Quaternions
• People: William Rowan Hamilton, James Clerk Maxwell, Willard Gibbs, Mihajlo Pupin, Nikola Tesla
• Other: Heaviside condition
• Lists: list of electrical engineers, list of electronics topics, list of English people, list of mathematical topics, list of people widely considered eccentric, list of physicists, list of physics topics

Publications

• Heaviside, Oliver, "Electromagnetic induction and its propagation". The Electrician, 1885, 1886, and 1887.
• Heaviside, Oliver, "Electrical Papers" 1887.
• Heaviside, Oliver, "On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field". Philosopical Transaction of the Royal Society, London, 1893.
• Heaviside, Oliver, "A gravitational and electromagnetic analogy http://www.as.wvu.edu/coll03/phys/www/Heavisid.htm ". The Electrician, 1893.
• Heaviside, Oliver, "Electromagnetic theory: The complete & unabridged edition". 1951. ISBN B0000CI0WA
• Heaviside, Oliver, "Electromagnetic Theory". American Mathematical Society, 1970. ISBN 082840237X
• Heaviside, Oliver, "Electrical Papers". American Mathematical Society, 1999. ISBN 0828402353
• Heaviside, Oliver, "Electrical Papers". American Mathematical Society, 2003. ISBN 0821828401

Further reading

Sorted by date.

• Lee, G., "Oliver Heaviside". London, 1947.
• "The Heaviside Centenary Volume". The Institution of Electrical Engineers. London, 1950.
• Josephs, H, J., "Oliver Heaviside : a biography". London, 1963.
• Josephs, H, J., "The Heaviside Papers found at Paignton in 1957.". Electromagnetic Theory by Oliver Heaviside. New York, 1971.
• Moore, D. H., "Heaviside Operational Calculus". New York, 1971. ISBN 0444000909
• Buchwald, J. Z., "From Maxwell to microphysics". Chicago, 1985. ISBN 0226078825
• Searle, G. F. C., "Oliver Heaviside, the Man". St Albans, 1987. ISBN 0906340055
• Nahin, P. J., "Oliver Heaviside, Sage in Solitude". IEEE Press, New York, 1988. ISBN 0879422386
• Laithwaite, E. R., "Oliver Heaviside - establishment shaker". Electrical Review, November 12, 1982.
• Hunt, B. J., "The Maxwellians". Ithica NY, 1991.ISBN 0801482348
• Lynch, A. C., "The Sources for a Biography of Oliver Heaviside". History of Technology, Vol. 13, ed. G. Hollister-Short, London & New York, 1991.
• Yavetz, I., "From Obscurity to Enigma: The Work of Oliver Heaviside, 1872-1889". Basel, 1995. ISBN 3764351802
• Pickover, Clifford A., "Strange Brains and Genius, The Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madmen". June 2, 1999. ISBN 0688168949
• Nahin, Paul J., "Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age". November, 2002. ISBN 0801869099

External links and references

• The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, "Oliver Heaviside http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Heaviside.html ". School of Mathematics and Statistics. University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Heather, Alan, "Oliver Heaviside http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Miscellaneous/other_links/Heaviside.htm
    l ". Torbay Amateur Radio Society.
• "Mr. Oliver Heaviside http://www.aam314.vzz.net/Heaviside.html ". Obituary, The Times. (GIF File format)
• Katz, Eugenii, "Oliver Heaviside http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/heaviside.html ". Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Lienhard, John H., "No. 426: Oliver Heaviside http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi426.htm ". The Engines of Our Ingenuity.
• Ghigo, F., "Pre-History of Radio Astronomy, Oliver Heaviside http://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/hist_prehist.shtml#heaviside (1850-1925)". National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, West Virginia.
• Wolfram, Stephen, "Heaviside, Oliver http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Heaviside.html (1850-1925)". Wolfram Media, Inc.
• Cook, Nigel, "Electromagnetic Theory, The Foundation of Physical Science http://www.wbabin.net/physics/cook.htm. ".
• Naughton, Russell, "Oliver W. Heaviside http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/HEAVISIDE_BIO.html : 1850 - 1925". Adventures in CyberSound.
• Bexte, Peter, "Kabel im Denkraum http://www.freitag.de/2002/44/02441801.php " (German)
  • Tr. "Cable in the thinking area"
• McGinty, Phil, "Oliver Heaviside http://www.torbytes.co.uk/op/tm2/lv2/item932-def.htm ". Devon Life, Torbay Library Services.
• Gustafson, Grant, "Heaviside's Methods http://www.math.utah.edu/~gustafso/HeavisideCoverup.pdf ". math.utah.edu. (PDF)
• The Dibner Library Portrait Collection, "Oliver Heaviside http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/fullsize/SIL14-
  H003-03a.jpg ".
• "Physical units http://78.1911encyclopedia.org/U/UN/UNITS_PHYSICAL.htm ". 1911 Encyclopdia

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.