From Obscurity to Enigma

Oliver Heaviside'¬"s contributions to electromagnetism, electrical engineering, and applied mathematics have consistently attracted attention. Of late they have become a major source for the study of the development of field theory after Maxwell. From Obscurity to Enigma: The Work of Oliver Heaviside, 1872-1889 is a systematic, in-depth study of the most creative period in Heaviside'¬"s scientific career. During this period he wrote the essays and articles that constitute his two-volume Electrical Papers. Here he presented his novel reformulation of Maxwell'¬"s equations, created the elements of vector algebra, produced the first comprehensive theory of transmission lines, suggested the inductive «loading» of telegraph and telephone lines to improve long-distance communications, introduced his innovative version of the operational calculus, and made several important contributions to the electrodynamics of moving bodies. From Obscurity to Enigma traces the evolution of Heaviside'¬"s ideas against the background of growing knowledge in basic electromagnetic theory, telegraphy, and telephony at the time. It reveals the thematic coherence that unifies his various publications, and sheds considerable light on the reason for the exclamations of incomprehension that greeted his work from the time of its publication to the present. The book is an important contribution to the history of science and technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and will be appreciated by electrical engineers, physicists, and applied mathematicians.