Book ID: CBB660307267

The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside: A Maverick of Electrical Science (2017)

unapi

Mahon, Basil (Author)


Prometheus Books


Publication Date: 2017
Physical Details: 296 pages
Language: English

This biography of Oliver Heaviside profiles the life of an underappreciated genius and describes his many contributions to electrical science, which proved to be essential to the future of mass communications. Oliver Heaviside (1850 -1925) may not be a household name but he was one of the great pioneers of electrical science: his work led to huge advances in communications and became the bedrock of the subject of electrical engineering as it is taught and practiced today. His ideas and original accomplishments are now so much a part of everyday electrical science that they are simply taken for granted; almost nobody wonders how they came about and Heaviside's name has been lost from view. This book tells the complete story of this extraordinary though often unappreciated scientist. The author interweaves details of Heaviside's life and personality with clear explanations of his many important contributions to the field of electrical engineering. He describes a man with an irreverent sense of fun who cared nothing for social or mathematical conventions and lived a fiercely independent life. His achievements include creating the mathematical tools that were to prove essential to the proper understanding and use of electricity, finding a way to rid telephone lines of the distortion that had stifled progress, and showing that electrical power doesn't flow in a wire but in the space alongside it. At first his ideas were thought to be weird, even outrageous, and he had to battle long and hard to get them accepted. Yet by the end of his life he was awarded the first Faraday Medal. This engrossing story will restore long-overdue recognition to a scientist whose achievements in many ways were as crucial to our modern age as those of Edison's and Tesla's.

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Reviewed By

Review Paul J. Nahin (2018) Review of "The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside: A Maverick of Electrical Science". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 165-167). unapi

Review William Liles (December 2018) Review of "The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside: A Maverick of Electrical Science". IEEE Technology and Society Magazine (pp. 8-10). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB660307267/

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Authors & Contributors
Morus, Iwan Rhys
Astorgano Abajo, Antonio
Bevilacqua, Fabio
Burke, Colin
Carlson, W. B.
Carlson, W. Bernard
Journals
Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
History of Technology
Llull: Revista de la Sociedad Española de Historia de las Ciencias y de las Técnicas
Publishers
University of Washington
Allen & Unwin
IEEE
Institution of Engineering and Technology
Macmillan
MIT Press
Concepts
Electricity; magnetism
Biographies
Communication technology
Technology
Inventors and invention
Information technology
People
Tesla, Nikola
Crookes, William
Della Porta, Giovan Battista
Faraday, Michael
Garzoni, Gilbert Leonardo
Grove, William Robert
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
18th century
16th century
17th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Paris (France)
Rome (Italy)
Europe
Spain
Institutions
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
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