The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-06

sight. None knows whether he is married
or single, where he lives, or what he eats
or anything else of a personal nature con-
corning him. He is simply secretiveness
personifed. An incident illustrating this
is told In English scientific circles.
1t was known that the mathematician
had no income except the rather limited
one which he received, for his weekly ar
ticle to the Electrician. Several of the
scientific men of England, in admiration
for his great talent, determined to give
him pension. But how TO get him to ac-
cept it was a question. Communications
on the subject by means of a grocery store
postofHce, remained unanswered, and
other little incidents which cropped out
during the correspondence showed that
Heayysides was annoyed by the PROPOSE
ton. letter was written to him, ia
which 1t was said that his residence had
been found al last, and that if he did not
at once accept this pension a delegation
composed of the leading scientific men of
London would march to his house and pre-
sent it 10 him in person. Evidently this
was to him fearful threat, and he belisy-
ed ii TO be true, for he wrote back. stating
that he would accept the pension il the
delegation would stay away. He has been
receiving it ever since, and Il is fondly
believed by his friends, who have never
seen him, that he is now living in comfort
No biography has ever been written
about this very queer man, except in the
most fragmentary manner, as facts con-
corning his life have cropped out No
picture of him has ever been taken, and
therefore, no description OF the man can
be given. Whether he is school bred or
not no one knows, but that he is a giant
in his particular hobby cannot be rain
said. He is savant of the highest order,
and few people who fall short of his own
caliber are able TO read his books II Is
said that but six people in the world are
really able to understand them at first
hand. Lord Kelvin is one of these per-
sons. A. e. Kennedy, the electrical en-
gineer and associate of Prof Houston, Is
another, but he is the only one in America.
Heavysides is so thoroughly a ma therna-
tician that he invents new systems of
mathematics as he goes along, In writ
ing book he will develop a new theory
and explain IL by means of mathematics
of his own invention, so TO speak. After he
has proceeded for five or six chapters in
this manner he will state that now he
will explain the system of mathematics
used in the preceding chapters" So that
in order to understand the book at IL,
one must first go through it and pick out
these explanatory chapters, and having
thoroughly encompassed them, use them
a basis for understanding the rest of
the book. On the other hand, to read his
books in parts, one would think them to
be the composition of any one but The
very staid person who writes them. For
he is addicted most abominably to making
very bad English puns, and these he in
serts In the heart of the most serious part
of the book. This Is, doubtless. part Of
his general eccentricity. For instance he
"a the iuUanf0r Of cl1ah
pedence," INDULGENCE" and other words
of this character, used in electrical no.
menclature In fact nearly all the TO-
menclature of the alternating current orig
mated with Heavysides. Yet, in suggest
ing the word Impotence" he hoped in
parenthesis, that none of mis- readers would
accent 1t upon the first syllable as this
would be too much like "impudence
He Is well abreast of all scientific
thought, and several times had pointed out
the fact that many new theories had al
ready been developed in his own books,
and given the number of the pages where
on the facts were 10 be found And these
were not the bare claims Of an imposter
who wished TO set up as the originator
of some accepted theory. He really had
developed the theories himself, but as It
proved, no one understood them at the
time. He did not care very much for
the credit of having been first to point
out the new paths, but he felt 1t his duty
to tell these theorists that they were
wasting time IN developing things which
already had been done. This, however, Is
typical OF his character. He never seems
to see that the theories might as well
never have existed at all as far as the
general public We're concerned, because
they were quite unable TO extract them
from his books. The fact that he him
self understood them and was deeply in
terested IN them. seems TO have been sum
Gent reason 10 him why All other people
must understand them also
Henry Appleton.