- Hunt , B.J. 1983 . “Practice vs. Theory”: The British Electrical Debate, 1888–1891 . Isis , 74 : 341 – 355 .
- Lodge's lightning studies have been reprinted in Lodge Oliver Lightning Conductors and Lightning Guards London 1892
- Hughes's experiments and the reaction to them are studied in considerable detail in Jordan D.W. D. E. Hughes Self-Induction and the Skin Effect Centaurus 1982 26 123 153
- Brittain , James E. 1972 . The Introduction of the Loading Coil: George A. Campbell and Michael I. Pupin . Technology and Culture , 11 : 36 – 57 .
- See for example Whittaker E.T. Oliver Heaviside Electromagnetic Theory Chelsea Publishing Company New York 1970 3 XXI XXIII in a preface to Oliver Heaviside I [hereafter Electromagnetic Theory].
- See Hunt B.J. “Practice vs. Theory”: The British Electrical Debate, 1888–1891 Isis 1983 74 341 355
- Hughes , D.E. 1886 . The Self-Induction of an Electric Current in Relation to the Nature and Form of its Conductor . The Electrician , 16 : 255 – 258 .
- Hughes , D.E. 1886 . The Self-Induction of an Electric Current in Relation to the Nature and Form of its Conductor . The Electrician , 16 : 256 – 256 .
- Heaviside , Oliver . 1970 . Electrical Papers , Vol. 2 , 44 – 44 . New York : Chelsea Publishing Company . II [hereafter Electrical Papers].
- Electrical Papers , II 49 – 50 .
- Electrical Papers , II 100 – 100 .
- Electrical Papers , II 3 – 3 . (see footnote 29).
- Hughes , D.E. 1886 . The Self-Induction of an Electric Current in Relation to the Nature and Form of its Conductor . The Electrician , 16 : 256 – 256 .
- Preece , W.H. and Sivewright , J. 1876 . Telegraphy 126 – 127 . New York Bain's chemical recorder was invented in 1846. The basic principle of operation involved passing an electric current through a moving paper strip soaked in an electrolyte. The point of contact between the moving paper strip and the electrode darkened in proportion to the strength of the current.
- Thompson , S.P. 1910 . The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs , Vol. 2 , 328 – 328 . London : Macmillan and Co. . I
- Consider, for example, the way Preece attempted to justify his emphasis on the line: ‘The real problem rests with the wire and not with the apparatus … For perfect working the line must be free from electro-static and electro-magnetic induction, and, given such a line, the kind of telephone attached to it was of small importance.’ (From the authorized account in The Electrician 1887 18 291 291 One needn't be a connoisseur of Maxwell's treatise to see how strange this statement is. Both electrostatic and magnetic inductions manifest themselves in the dielectric surrounding the wire, and this on the point of view of Faraday and Kelvin whose authority Preece never questioned. It simply makes no sense to speak of the wire being free of inductance and capacitance. Even a perfect conductor in the most perfectly insulating dielectric, namely empty space, must still be endowed with inductance and capacitance in linear circuit theory.
- Jordan , D.W. 1982 . The Adoption of Self-Induction by Telephony 1886–1889 . Annals of Science , 39 : 445 – 445 .
- Heaviside . Electrical Papers , II 305 – 305 . or Philosophical Magazine, 24 (July, 1887), 82.
- On Electromagnetic Waves, Especially in Relation to the Vorticity of the Impressed Forces; and the Forced Vibrations of Electromagnetic Systems . Electrical Papers , II 375 – 467 .
- See Lodge Oliver Lightning Conductors and Lightning Guards London 1892
- Most prominent among these was Lodge's observation that when violent current oscillations exist in a conductor, they give rise to rapidly varying electromagnetic fields which spread out from the location of the conductor. In the case of a lightning conductor, such oscillation fields may induce powerful current surges in neighbouring isolated conductors. Should two such conductors be close enough to each other, flashover may occur between them without any visible connection to the struck lightning conductor Lodge Oliver Lightning Conductors and Lightning Guards London 1892 402 403
- From the summary of the debate The Electrician 1888 21 645 645
- From the summary of the debate The Electrician 1888 21 644 646
- Lodge , Oliver . 1888 . Sketch of the Electrical Papers in Section A at the Recent Bath Meeting of the British Association . The Electrician , 21 : 622 – 622 .
- 1888 . The Electrician , 21 : 662 – 663 .
- ‘As a general assistance to those who go by old methods—a rising current inducing an opposite current in itself and in parallel conductors—this may be useful. Parallel currents are said to attract or repel, according as the currents are together or opposed. This is, however, mechanical force on the conductors. The distribution of current is not affected by it. But when currents are increasing or decreasing, there is an apparent attraction or repulsion between them…. Thus, send a current into a loop, one wire the return to the other, both being close together. During the rise of the current it will be denser on the sides of the wires nearest one another than on the remote sides. It is an apparent force, not between currents (on the distance-action and real motion of electricity views), but between their accelerations.’ Electrical Papers II 31 31
- Heaviside pointed that out explicitly in the following description of a pulse propagating along a line: When we speak of a charge travelling along a wire at speed v, it should be always remembered what this implies. There are two conductors, parallel to one another, and the positive charge on the one is accompanied by its complementary negative charge on the other (correction due to parallel wires, etc. are ignored here). The two charges move together. More comprehensively, the whole electromagnetic field, of which the charges are a feature only, is moving along at speed v, in the space between the wires, into which it also penetrates to a greater or less extent. In the distortionless system this penetration is assumed to be perfect and instantaneous, so that the resistance and the inductance are strictly constants; and, by the ratio R/L being made equal to K/S, we make any isolated disturbance travel on without spreading out behind. Electrical Papers II 129 129 (my italics).
- It is instructive to observe how carefully Heaviside distinguished between Lodge's use of Maxwell's theory in his analysis and the conclusions he wished to draw from the study. Heaviside welcomed the former warmly, and treated the latter with great caution: Dr. Lodge's recent work on lightning discharges, especially the experiments described in his second lecture, deserves the most careful attention, as a substantial addition to our knowledge of the subject, and also because it is, so far as I know, the first serious attempt to treat the subject electromagnetically. The fluids are played out; they are fast evaporating into nothingness. The whole field of electrostatics must be studied from the electromagnetic point of view to obtain an adequately comprehensive notion of the facts of the case; and it is here that Dr. Lodge's experiments are also useful. Independently of this, I should not be surprised to find that a new fact is contained in some of the experiments. Now a new fact is a serious matter, and its existence can only be granted upon the most conclusive evidence, of varied nature. Electrical Papers II 486 486 Note that Heaviside says nothing in this about the validity of Lodge's critique of lightning protection principles. The last paragraph probably refers to Lodge's assertion that a copper wire offers greater obstruction to a sudden discharge than an iron wire of similar dimensions.
- 1888 . The Electrician , 21 : 679 – 680 .
- Preece suggested that the physicists' notion of electricity differs so vastly from the engineers', that they should start using the word ‘Coulombism’ instead of electricity; see The Electrician 1888 21 568 568 To this, The Electrician responded in a lead article that: We are a little surprised to learn from Mr. Preece that ‘the engineer and the physicist are completely at variance’ on the question of ‘what is electricity’.… We must, respectfully but firmly decline to adopt Mr. Preece's new-coined term ‘Coulombism’ which is indeed, to our ears, what Walt Whitman calls a ‘barbaric yawp’. The Electrician, 21 (1888), 547–8.
- 1888 . Practice versus Theory . The Electrician , 21 : 730 – 731 . Heaviside's reaction to this leader may be found in Electrical Papers, II, 488–90.
- Notebook 7, p. 94, Heaviside collection, IEE, London. To the best of my knowledge, only P. J. Nahin quoted Heaviside's rhyme in full. See Nahin P.J. Oliver Heaviside: Sage in Solitude New York 1988 163 163 see also p. 183, note 83.
- Baker , E.C. 1976 . Sir William Henry Preece, Victorian Engineer Extraordinary 83 – 87 . London It appears, however, that in his theoretical outlook William Edward Ayrton was a Maxwellian. See J. Z. Buchwald, From Maxwell to Microphysics (Chicago, 1985), p. 74. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Ayrton passed the B.A. examination of the University of London with second class honours in mathematics, and entered the Indian telegraph service in 1867. Under the government's auspices, he was sent to Glasgow to study under Kelvin and then received practical training at the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. In September 1868 he was appointed assistant-superintendent of the fourth grade in the Indian telegraph service in Bombay, where he devised various methods for locating faults in telegraph cables. In 1872 he returned to England and was placed in charge of testing at the Great Western Railway telegraph factory under Kelvin and Fleeming Jenkin. In 1873 he was recruited by the Japanese government to the post of professor at the technical university of Tokyo, where he established a laboratory for the teaching of applied electricity. In 1878 he returned to London as scientific adviser to the telegraph works of Latimer Clarck and Alexander Muirhead, and then began his career in technical education in London. By vocation, then, he was a practical telegraphist, his education gave him a mixed background of practice and theory, and his theoretical outlook was undoubtedly Maxwellian. In his mature career he was committed to technical education. This throws further doubt on the usefulness of discussion in terms of the postulated antagonism between theoretical and practical camps, when practice and theory are so harmoniously and fruitfully united in a single individual.
- 1881 . The Electrician , 6 : 308 – 308 .
- 1887 . The Electrician , 20 : 54 – 55 .
- 1887 . The Electrician , 20 : 19 – 19 .
- 1880 . The Electrician , 4 : 76 – 77 .
- See Jordan D.W. The Cry for Useless Knowledge Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 1985 132 598 598 part A
- Hunt , B.J. 1983 . “Practice vs. Theory”: The British Electrical Debate, 1888–1891 . Isis , 74 : 355 – 355 .
- For an account of Preece's involvement with Marconi, and his effective mediation later on between Marconi and Lodge, see Aitken Hugh G.J. Syntony and Spark: The Origins of Radio New York 1976 179 182 210–17, 223–6, 166–7.
- Preece , W.H. 1887 . Fast Speed Telegraphy . The Electrician , 19 : 423 – 426 . (p. 425).
- Preece , W.H. 1887 . On Copper Wire . The Electrician , 19 : 372 – 374 . (p. 373).
- Preece , W.H. 1887 . On Copper Wire . The Electrician , 19 : 372 – 374 .
- 1879 . The Electrician , 3 : 188 – 189 .
- 1879 . Notes on Mr. Willoughby Smith's Paper on “The working of Long Submarine Cables” . The Electrician , 3 : 237 – 238 .
- 1879 . The Electrician , 3 : 304 – 305 .
- Webb , F.C. 1879 . Momentary Currents in Wires . The Electrician , 2 : 286 – 287 .
- Webb , F.C. 1879 . Momentary Currents in Wires . The Electrician , 2 : 275 – 275 .
- 1879 . The Electrician , 3 : 243 – 244 .
- 1879 . The Electrician , 3 : 259 – 260 .
- Sumpner , W.E. 1887 . The Measurement of Self-Induction, and Capacity . The Electrician , 19 : 127 – 128 . 19 (1887), 149–50; 19 (1887), 170–2; 19 (1887), 189–90; 19 (1887), 212–13; 19 (1887), 231–2.
- 1887 . The Electrician , 19 : 17 – 21 . 19 (1887), 39–41; 19 (1887), 58–60; 19 (1887), 83–5.
- Rayleigh , Lord and Strutt , John William . 1886 . On the Self-Induction and Resistance of Straight Conductors . Philosophical Magazine , 21 May : 381 – 394 .
- Oliver Lodge made the point early in 1888, in the course of his Mann Lectures on lightning: ‘…I must take the opportunity to remark what a singular insight into the intricacies of the subject [of skin conduction and its effects], and what a masterly grasp of a most difficult theory, are to be found among the writings of Mr. Oliver Heaviside. I cannot pretend to have done more than skim these writings, however, for I find Lord Rayleigh's papers, in so far as they cover the same ground, so much pleasanter and easier to read; though, indeed, they are none of the easiest’. Lodge Oliver Lightning Conductors and Lightning Guards London 1892 46 46
- Electrical Papers , II 402 – 402 . In Electromagnetic Theory, I, 433–7, Heaviside reinforced this account with more details concerning his brother's influence on the discovery of the condition. See also Electromagnetic Theory, I, 2 for another statement to the effect that the distortionless condition grew out of considering this practical telephony problem.
- Electrical Papers , II 44 – 76 .
- Sumpner , W.E. 1932 . The Work of Oliver Heaviside . Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers , 71 : 837 – 851 . (p. 837).
- Whittaker , E.T. 1970 . “ Oliver Heaviside ” . In Electromagnetic Theory , Vol. I , 403 – 403 . New York : Chelsea Publishing Company . in a preface to Oliver Heaviside 3 vols
- van Valkenburg , M.E. 1974 . Network Analysis 21 – 22 . Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
- Technologists can manufacture limited reference theories even in the absence of explicit guidance by basic theory similar to that supplied by Maxwell's theory to linear circuit theory. See Vincenti Walter G. The Air Propeller Tests of W. F. Durand and E. P. Lesley: A Case Study in Technology Methodology Technology and Culture 1979 20 712 751 However, in the absence of boundaries outlined by such a basic theory, the search for limited reference theories may become very difficult. Harry Ricardo's failed attempt to unravel the causes of gasoline engine knock may be a case in point (ibid. p. 745). The security and efficiency provided by a general theory which, in Heaviside's words, allows one to ‘be always in contact with a possible state of things’ can hardly be overestimated.
- In Germany, for example, the art of drawing limited reference theories on the basis of carefully formulated approximations was a cornerstone of F. E. Neumann's seminar for physics. See Olesko Kathryn M. Physics as a Calling: Discipline and Practice in the Koenigsberg Seminar for Physics Ithaca, N. Y. 1991 165 166
- Heaviside , Oliver . On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field . Electrical Papers , II 521 – 574 . For an analysis of this paper, see J. Z. Buchwald, ‘Oliver Heaviside, Maxwell's Apostle and Maxwellian Apostate’, Centaurus, 28 (1985), 288–330.
- That is not to suggest he was not interested in the project. When John Stone of the Bell Telephone Company wrote to him for advice regarding the problem in 1891, Heaviside apparently responded with some useful answers; see Nahin Oliver Heaviside: Sage in Solitude New York 1988 275 275 By 1900, George Ashly Campbell, one of Stone's successors at the Bell Telephone Company, had a successfully operating loaded cable. While there is no indication that Heaviside actively assisted Campbell's design work, it does appear that Heaviside's association with the development of the practical loaded transmission line involved more than its general theory and basic concept found in his published work.
- For a discussion of the gradual organization of basic research at Bell Telephone, see Hoddson Lillian The Emergence of Basic Research in the Bell Telephone System Technology and Culture 1981 22 512 544 (see p. 514 note 3, p. 530, and pp. 534–5 for the meaning ‘basic research’ was given in an industrial environment).
- See Channell David F. The Harmony of Theory and Practice: The Engineering Science of W. J. M. Rankine Technology and Culture 1982 23 39 52 The explicit realization that telegraph engineering could benefit from a theorist ‘who was at the same time a practical man’ also dates back to the same time. It was expressed in 1857 in a letter to Kelvin from a former colleague of his, Lewis Gordon, who was working at the Submarine Telegraph Works at Birkenhead; see C. Smith and N. Wise, Energy & Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge, 1989), p. 666.
- The evolution of the induction motor suggests that basic industrial research marked by a conscious effort to formulate limited reference theories was emerging more or less concurrently in the realm of electric power engineering. See Kline Ronald Science and Engineering Theory in the Invention and Development of the Induction Motor Technology and Culture 1987 28 283 313 (p. 309).
- The deliberate organization of basic industrial research seems to go as far back as the beginning of the twentieth century; see Hughes T.P. Networks of Power Baltimore 1983 164 164 The common term ‘science based industry’ suggests a hierarchical relationship between science and technology, with the latter as critically dependent on, or even derived from the former. However, some recent work seems to shun this image. See W. G. Vincenti, ‘The Air Propeller Tests of W. F. Durand and E. P. Lesley: A Case Study in Technological Methodology’, Technology and Culture, 20 (1979), 712–51; ‘Control Volume Analysis: A Difference in Thinking between Engineering and Physics’, Technology and Culture, 23 (1982), 145–74; R. A. Moxley, ‘Some Historical Relationships between Science and Technology with Implications for Behavior Analysis’, Behavior Analyst, 12 (1989), 45–57. At the same time, there can be little doubt that modern technology reaped immense benefits from a close association with scientific work, in practical end results and novel methodological approaches. Therefore, the term ‘science enriched industry’ seems preferable.
- ‘… to see scientific technological research almost exclusively as a post-1900 phenomenon is to miss the crucial years of its birth and early evolution. Tracing social changes by their institutional manifestations can be deceptive: the formal institutional change may ratify a change that has already taken place informally…’, from Layton Edwin T. Jr Scientific Technology, 1845–1900: The Hydraulic Turbine and the Origins of American Industrial Research Technology and Culture 1979 20 64 89
- See Hoddson Lillian The Emergence of Basic Research in the Bell Telephone System Technology and Culture 1981 22 512 544 69 and 70.
- Hoddson . 1981 . The Emergence of Basic Research in the Bell Telephone System . Technology and Culture , 22 : 522 – 522 .
- It seems Heaviside truly desired to reach the scientifically literate practical engineer with the operational calculus, as the following quote suggests: …resistance operators combine in the same way as if they represented mere resistances. It is this fact that makes them of so much importance, especially to practical men, by whom they will be much employed in the future. I do not refer to practical men in the very limited sense of anti- or extra-theoretical, but to theoretical men who desire to make theory practically workable by the simplification and systematisation of methods which the employment of resistance-operators and their derivatives allows, and the substitution of simple for more complex ideas. Electrical Papers II 355 355
- For a discussion of Heaviside's contribution to the evolution of the operational calculus, see Lutzen J. Heaviside's Operational Calculus and the Attempts to Rigorize it Archive for the History of the Exact Sciences 1979 21 161 200
- 1886 . The Electrician , 15 : 255 – 255 .
- ‘… we find that when the resistance is balanced to a perfect zero for the stable period, loud sounds are given out in the variable period, requiring a fresh adjustment or balancing of the resistance of the wire, as well as a compensating opposing induction current from the sonometer to balance the self-induction. If we balance the resistance or the extra currents alone there is no possible zero, but when both are compensated we find at once a perfect zero for the resistance of the wire, and for its extra currents.’ The Electrician 1886 15 256 256
- This was first explicitly stated in the course of the discussion immediately following Hughes's presentation by Professor George Forbes: ‘Lord Rayleigh had explained the application of the theory developed by Maxwell but he (Prof. Forbes) thought there was something more. He showed that the E. M. F. of induction must be greater in the centre than in the outside of a wire, and consequently there may be sometimes a current in the centre of the wire contrary in direction to the main current, the outer part of the wire forming a short circuit to this induced current. The energy consumed by such an eddy current, or by the main current being confined to the outer part of the wire, is in the nature of resistance, … This explains how Prof. Hughes obtained a different value for the resistance of a wire in the variable state.’ The Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians The Electrician 1886 15 289 289 Note how Forbes here discusses skin conduction and its effects in terms that are fully compatible with the non-Maxwellian notion of mutual induction at a distance between current strands in the wire. It is also interesting that he seems to imply that skin conduction is absent from Maxwell's discussion. Maxwell, in fact, brings out the measurable effects on inductance and resistance as a direct function of the current's rate of time variation. He does not associate these changes with particular forms of current distribution, and only observes in general, qualitative terms that deviations from homogeneous current distribution will be associated with these measurable effects. J. C. Maxwell, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, third edition, edited by J. J. Thompson, 2 vols (Oxford, 1891), II, section 689, pp. 320–3.
- Heaviside , O. 1886 . Self-Induction of Wires . The Electrician , 16 : 471 – 472 . or Electrical Papers, II, 28–9.
- Nahin . 1988 . Oliver Heaviside: Sage in Solitude 145 – 146 . New York
- The above is an elaboration of Heaviside's first published discussion of the distortionless condition Electrical Papers II 123 123 It will be noticed that this derivation is somewhat indirect, as it follows from an a-priori imposition of the demand for distortionless transmission on the telegraph equation. In a later paper, Heaviside showed how distortionless transmission emerges directly from the equation. (Electrical Papers, II, 368–70.)
- Preece , W.H. 1879 . Multiple Telegraphy . The Electrician , 3 : 34 – 36 .
- Electrical Papers , II 307 – 323 .
- Electromagnetic Theory , I 2 – 2 .
- IEE, London, Heaviside collection, Notebook 10 202 – 202 .
- Electromagnetic Theory , I 16 – 18 .
- Electromagnetic Theory , I 2 – 2 . See also Electrical Papers, I, X.
Annals of Science
Volume 50, 1993 - Issue 2