Oliver Heaviside
- an overview of the life and work of Oliver Heaviside
The name of Oliver Heaviside may not be heard as much these
days but he made many major contribution to radio and wireless technology in his
day. In fact the ionospheric layers were often called the Heaviside layers in
honour of the fact using mathematical methods he postulated the existence of an
ionised layer above the Earth from which radio waves could be reflected or
refracted back to ground. However he made many more valuable discoveries using
his mathematical methods, explaining many of the problems that affected signal
transmission in his day.
As a person Oliver Heaviside lacked many social skills. He
was opinionated, and impatient with those less intelligent than himself. However
his intelligence could not be questioned, and it was all the more remarkable as
a result of the fact that he was largely self taught.
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Early years
Oliver Heaviside was born on 18th May 1850 in Camden Town which is now in
London. At the time it was a notoriously crime ridden area, Physically Oliver
Heaviside as short and he was also a red-head. Life was not easy in Camden Town
and the young Oliver had a difficult time. This was made worse by the fact that
he suffered from scarlet fever and this left him partially deaf - an impairment
that had a major impact on his life.
Heaviside was intelligent. He did not attend a neighbouring
school, but rather attended a school for girls run by his mother. Although this
protected him from the influence of the local boys it did not develop his social
skills and coupled with his hearing impairment he was unable to make friends
easily. Despite being a good student, Oliver Heaviside decided to leave school
at the age of sixteen.
After leaving school Oliver Heaviside did not stop his
studies. He was fortunate to have a learned uncle, Sir Charles Wheatstone - the
inventor of an early telegraph and the man who gave his name to the Wheatstone
Bridge. Under Wheatstone, the young Heaviside studied German and Danish as well
as learning some things about mathematics, electricity and the telegraph.
First job
With his understanding of telegraphy and Danish, Heaviside managed to secure a
job as a telegraph operator in Denmark. Here not only did he devote himself to
his job as a telegraph operator, but he also undertook some investigations of
his own. He noticed that the speed at which traffic could be sent varied
according to the direction. This had been thought by many to result from some
unknown properties of the undersea cable. However Heaviside looked at the
problem from a different perspective and he deduced mathematically that the
difference must have resulted from a different resistance at either end of the
cable. In simple terms one end had a lower resistance and was able to put more
current into the capacitance of the cable, and as a result data could be sent
more swiftly.
Heaviside left Denmark, moving to the Great Northern
Telegraph Company, and here he started an analysis of electricity. Then in 1874
he left the company to continue his researches on his own at his parent's house
where he could focus better on the topic in hand. Although effectively a
self-taught mathematician with a good understanding of calculus Oliver Heaviside
studied Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism which he found
particularly interesting.
Heaviside makes discoveries
Using mathematics, Heaviside applied Maxwell's theories to telegraph lines, and
in particular to ones which travelled long distances such as underwater cables
where the speed and shape of the signals were impaired by the effects of the
inductance in the cable. Contrary to the belief of many, Heaviside correctly
showed that the level of distortion could be reduced by adding induction coils
to 'load' the cable.
In this way Heaviside managed to solve one of the greatest
problems affecting telegraph systems of the time. In addition to this the same
solution was applied to early telephone systems which were unable to send voice
signals over any distance because the low and high frequencies traveled at
different speeds rendering the audio garbled over any distance. By adding small
inductors along the length of the cable, the problem could be solved.
Heaviside gained little recognition for his work. In the
first instance his papers were very difficult to read. Secondly, his manner was
very difficult, and he was often sharp and his comments lacked any form of tact
or diplomacy. As a result he created many enemies in the scientific community
and as a result his work was often suppressed or ridiculed. It took 20 years and
a rediscovery of the inductance idea by Silvanus Thompson. Only at this point
were long distance telephone calls able to become a reality.
Latter years
As he grew older Heaviside continued working on electromagnetic theory and its
applications. One of his major legacies of this time was that he developed the
concept of "operators" in the calculus equations and this reduced complication
of the mathematics. It actually results in a technique known as the "Laplace
Transform."
Also during his latter years, Heaviside introduced the
concept of reactance. He further postulated the concept of an ionised layer
above the Earth that reflected or refracted radio signals. Although this is now
known as the ionosphere, the regions in the ionosphere were for many years known
as the Heaviside layers or the Heaviside-Kennelly Layers. Kennelly also proposed
the idea of the layers.
As on old man, Oliver Heaviside spent his final years
comfortably, although his mental powers diminished. "I have become as stupid as
an owl," he once bluntly stated. Heaviside died at the age of 74 on 3rd February
1925.
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