The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-09
OLIVER HEAvYslDES.
He Is the Most Eccentric Scientist
In the World.

Not only his actions, but his very ma
ture is eccentric. Some men are &c
centric for mercenary reasons, because
of the advertising which results there
from, and other men are eccentric, or
at least considered so, simply because
their methods are not the conventional
ones approved by society, but Oliver
Heavysides is eccentric to the inner
most core of his character. On the
other hand, he is by no means quack;
he is legitimate, and is recognized as
a great savant by Lord Kelvin, Mas
cart and men of that class He has
been called the intellectual successor
of Maxwell and his achievements in
the science of advanced mathematics
seem to bear out the justice of this
appellation.
No one ever sees Oliver Heavyside,
at least, no one can be found who has
seen him for some time. He holds him
self much like yelled prophet, and his
communications have the spirit of the
letters of Junius. He is no Junius, how
ever. He is living person. 1t is said
that he was once in the employ of the
British telegraph system, where he
worked under the leadership of Will
liam Henry Preece. But they say in
scientific circles that Mr.. Preece once
brought out a new theory, or made
some statement concerning the per-
Torrance of some electrical phenome-
non, and that Heavysides wrote let
ter to scientific publication which so
utterly ridiculed, or at least discredit-
ed the theory of Preece, that the latter
exhibited his resentment by causing
the retirement of his critic from the
governmental service. This may be
simply an idle tale which has grown
out of the peculiar actions of Heavy
! sides, but at any rate he has not been
visible TO the general public since his
retirement from the government SER
vice.
once when Sir John Pindar was run
ming the London Electrician he received
a communication from a comparative
| ly unknown man, which not only ar
rested his attention, but caused him to
think that here at last must be a gen
! ius in the world of mathematics. The
communication was published and
caused some little comment in the
scientific world. 1t at once stamped
| its author as a man well worthy, in the
consideration of scientists, and the pa
per began receiving communications
| asking for information concerning this
new light. Sir John Pindar was unable
to answer these correspondents. He
! did not himself know who the new
writer was. The original corlmunica-
| ton had been sent through the mail,
! but no address accompanied the man
uscript, except that the editor was
asked, in case the manuscript was re-
| jected, to please send it to a certain
grocery store in a nearby district.
| And in case it was accepted he was
| asked to kindly leave whatever remu-
neration there would be due at the
same place. The editor of the Electri-
clan sent the said remuneration" to
the grocery store so named, and the
| practice has been in vogue ever since.
| In all the years that Heavysides has
! been writing for the Electrician he has
| never been in the office of the paper
/ None of the staff knows him by sight
| None knows whether he is married or
single, where he lives, or what he eats
or anything else of a personal nature
concerning him. He is simply secretive-
ness personified. An incident illustrat-
! ing this is told in English scientific cir
cles.
1t was known that the mathema-
tician had no income except the rather
limited one which he received for his
weekly article to the Electrician. Sew
! eral of the scientific men of England, in
admiration for his great talent. deter
mined to give him a. pension. But how
! to get him to accept it was question.
Communications on Inc subject, by
| means of a grocery store postoffice re-
| incidents which cropped out during the
| correspondence showed that Heavy
sides was annoyed by the proposition.
a scheme was then put on foot to
| compel him to accept the pension. a
letter was written to him, in which it
was said that his residence had been
| found out at last, and that if he did
not at once accept this pension, a dele
cation COMPOSED of the leading scien-
tifc men of London would march to
his house and present it to him in per-
son. Evidently this was to him fear
ful threat. and he believed it to be
true, for he wrote back, stating that ne
would accept the pension if the dele
cation would stay away. lie has been
receiving it ever since, and it is fondly
believed by his friends, who have never
seen him, that be is now living in COM
fort
No biography has ever been written
about this very queer man, eXcept in
the most fragmentary manner, as facts
concerning his life have cropped out.
NJ 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 can
! not be gainSaid. He is a SaVunt - the
highest order, and few peopla who fall
| short OF his own caliber are able to
read his books. 1t is said that but six
people in the world are raa',y able to
understand them at first nand. lord
| Kelvin is one Of these persons A. r..
! Kennedy, the electrical engineer ana
j, associate Of Professor Houston, is an
! other, but he is the only one in Amer
lea Heavysides is so thorough Il n1ath-
! ematician that he invents new systems
| of mathematics as he goes along. In
| writing @ book he will develop II new
theory and explain it by means of
| mathematics of his own invention so
to sneak 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 all, one must
first go through it and Dick OUT these
explanatory chapters, and, having thor
! oughly encomDassed them, Use them
as a basis for understanding the res
of the book. On the other hand to
read his books in parts. the Would
think them to be the composition OF
anyone but the very staid person who
writes them. For he is addicted most
| abominably to making very bad Eng
fish puns, and these he insci IS in the
heart ot the most serious part Of lie
book. This is, doubtless, Hart Of His
! general eccentricity. For instance, he
is the inventor of such terms as en-
pedence," INDULGENCE" and other
words Of this character. used in cleo
trical nomenclature. In fact, nearly all
the nomenclature of the alternating
current originated with Heavysides
Yet, in suggesting the 'tord 'imped-
ence" he hoped in parenthesis, that
none of his readers would accent upon
it upon the first syllable, as this would
be too much like 'impudence."
He is we'll abreast of all scientific
thought, and several times has pointed
out the fact that many new theories
had already been developed in his own
books, and given the numbers of the
pages wherein the facts were to be