HEAVISIDE, Oliver (1850-1925)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0108 SC MSS 005
Held at	: Institution of Engineering and Technology   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.theiet.org/resources/library/ ›
Full title	: HEAVISIDE, Oliver (1850-1925)
Date(s)	: 1872-1923
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 21 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Heaviside | Oliver | 1850-1925 | Physicist and electrical engineer

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born Camden Town, London, 18 May 1850, the youngest of four sons to Thomas Heaviside and his wife Rachel West, whose sister Emma had married Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1847. Thomas Heaviside was a wood engraver and his wife was a governess and had taught the Spottiswoode family, including Sir William Spottiswoode who became President of the Royal Society. However, the family were very poor and the poverty of those early years had a lasting influence on Oliver. His education began at a girls' school run by his mother, but when this failed he was taught by Mr F R Cheshire at the Camden House School. He did not go to university but became a telegraph clerk for the Anglo Danish Telegraph Company, later the Great Northern Telegraph Company, in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1868. He retired from work due to increasing deafness in 1874. He then began work on a series of problems in telegraphy and signal transmission using experimentation, mathematics and vector analysis. He worked on James Clerk Maxwell's equations concerning the electromagnetic theory of light. He predicted the existence of an ionised reflective layer in the atmosphere which would bounce radio signals back to earth - the ionosphere - which is known as the Heaviside layer in his honour, and also predicted the existence of sub-atomic particles and the idea that the mass of an electric charge increases with its velocity. Heaviside was a difficult and eccentric man, partly caused by his deafness, who cared nothing for the opinions of other scientists, but was convinced of the correctness of his workings using mathematical notation (vector algebra) which was almost impossible to understand by his contemporaries but which forms the basis of important areas of electrical engineering theory to this day. He had long and famous disagreements with Sir William Henry Preece over the introduction of inductance to long distance communication cables to improve the transmission of signals, and with Lord Kelvin over the process by which electricity travelled down wires, leading to the production of Heaviside's transmission line equations, and over Kelvin's use of heat diffusion theory to calculate the age of the earth; however, they remained life-long friends. Heaviside moved to Paignton in Devon with his parents to live near his brother Charles and his family. His parents died in 1894 and 1896 and in 1897 Heaviside moved to Newton Abbott where he lived until 1908 when he moved in with his sister in law's sister, Miss Mary Way in Torquay. He lived there until his death on 3 February 1925. He was awarded the Faraday Medal by the IEE and was an Honorary Member of the AIEE. His published works include numerous papers and articles, Electromagnetic Waves (1889), Electrical Papers (1892) and Electromagnetic Theory (3 vols 1893-1912).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Working notes, correspondence, annotated papers and printed pamphlets relating to telegraphy, collected by Heaviside 1872-1921. The collection comprises: Notebooks mainly consisting of mathematical equations and calculations with drafts and transcripts of papers submitted to the Philosophical Magazine and the Electrician, covering subjects such as problems with long distance signal transmission and the development of a non-distortional circuit, duplex telegraphy, the age of the earth including the development of equations for heat loss from a spherical body, measurement of resistance, eletromagnetic theory of light, the transmission of an electric charge along a wire, Maxwell's equations, vector operators for mathematical calculations; Pamphlets and publications mainly relating to telegraphy, many annotated, including works on the analysis of cathode rays, radiation, radioactivity and early attempt to define the workings of the atom, telegraphy and telephony; Papers, comprising rough notes and calculations, including drafts of papers such as Operators in Physical Mathematics Parts 2 and 3, proof copies of Electromagnetic Theory with notes and calculations on the reverse, and correspondence with The Electrician and other periodicals over the publication of his articles; Official awards and honours presented to Heaviside and other assorted items, including the award of Cedergren Medal and Gottingen University Honorary Doctorate, 1924; Notes by Heaviside on plane waves and electrification, the application of zonal harmonics on physical problems, magnetic induction, gravitational dimensions, the magnetism of the earth, on the backs of old letters; Correspondence from notable scientists and mathematicians including Sir Oliver Lodge, W E Ayrton, W H Bragg, S P Thompson, and Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs; Material found at Paignton, 1957, including Preliminary drafts of articles for Electromagnetic Theory; annotated galley proofs of Electromagnetic Theory; assorted papers, spare proofs of papers and miscellaneous correspondence, and additional correspondence sent to Heaviside.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Arranged into two main series, the first series being material originally purchased in 1927, comprised of notebooks, pamphlets and publications, rough notes and calculations, official awards, notes and correspondence with other scientists and the second series being material found in Paignton in 1957, comprised of preliminary drafts, annotated galley proofs, assorted papers, and additional correspondence sent to Heaviside. Wherever possible, original order has been retained, except for correspondence which has been arranged alphabetically.

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

Refer to IET Archivist

Finding aids:

Online item level catalogue.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The main series of Heaviside's papers were sold to the IEE in an incomplete state by Charles Heaviside, Oliver's brother, in 1927. The remainder of the collection was found beneath the attic floorboards of the house where Heaviside had lived in Paignton, Devon in 1957.

Allied Materials

Related material:

IET Archive collections SC MSS 006, 067, 068, 107, and 140. IET Library Rare Books Collection includes the Heaviside Library, holding works by Oliver Heaviside.

Archive material held at London University: University College London (UCL) Special Collections; Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
National Register of Archives

Rules or conventions:
NCA Rules for construction of personal, place and corporate names (1997), and ISAD (G), Second edition.

Date(s) of descriptions:
4 March 2009