The Bell System Technical Journal 



July. 1925 



Oliver Heaviside 



By F. GILL 



ALTMOrciH abler pens' liave exjjressed ajjpreciation of the late 

 ()li\er Heaviside, it is perhaps pcrmissil)le for an English tele- 

 phone engineer to present a note reRardinR him. Of his hfe-history 

 not very much is known; but he may ha\e been influenced in his 

 choice of a career by the fact that he was a nephew of the famous 

 telegraph engineer Sir Charles Wheatstone. Hea\iside was born in 

 London on May 13, IS.iO; he entered the service of the GreatNorthern 

 Telegraph Company, operating sui>marine cables, and he remained 

 in that service, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, until 1874. While he was 

 with the Telegraph Compan\-, he published in 1873 a paper showing 

 the possibility of quadruples telegraphy. 



.■\t the age of about 24, owing, it is suggested, to increasing deafness, 

 he left the ser\ice of that Compan>- and look up mathematical research 

 work. How he acquired his mathematical training does not seem to 

 be known;- perhaps he was self-taught, — in some of his Papers he 

 implies it. By whatever means he mastered the principles, it is 

 evident that he was an ardent student of Maxwell, for constantly 

 in Heaviside's own writing runs a vein of appreciation of Maxwell. 

 For some time he lived in London, then he mo\-ed to Paignton in 

 Devonshire; his KIcctrical Papers are written from there, and he died 

 at the neighboring town of Tor(|uay on February 4, 1925, in his 

 7.^th >ear. 



That is about all the personal history at present available, and yet 

 it gives a clue to a dominant note in his character, viz., reluctance to 

 come into prominence, originating, perhaps, in a kind of shyness, 

 which ultimately led to the recluse state. It is strange that so remark- 

 able an investigator should, in his earlier manhood, have convinced 

 so few, notwithstanding the fact that his voluminous writings made 

 his name well known. It must, however, be remembered that his 

 articles were very difficult, even for advanced mathematicians to 

 follow, for he used a system of mathematics which, at that time 



' The FJedrician, \"ol. XCI\', p. 174, by Sir Oliver Lodge. F.R.S., O.M. Nature, 

 Vol. 115, p. 2J7, by Dr. .•\lex. Russell, F.R.S. 



' Was he the youth with the frown in the library? He says he "then died," but 

 also says "he was eaten up by lions." (E.M.T., V'ol. Ill, pp. 1 and 135.) 



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