Seminars

Oliver Heaviside and the Technological Roots of “Maxwell’s Equations”

Friday, October 5, 2012

Dr. Bruce J. Hunt

Abstract

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the James Clerk Maxwell’s publication of his theory of the electromagnetic field, in his 1861–62 paper “On Physical Lines of Force.” But one will not find there the familiar set of four vector equations now known as “Maxwell’s Equations.” Those equations have instead been drawn from papers the English electrical engineer Oliver Heaviside published in the mid-1880s. Heaviside’s version of Maxwell’s theory had deep roots in the British telegraph industry of the late 19th century, and examination of how Heaviside came to take up and transform Maxwell’s work will shed light on important questions concerning the relationship between science and technology.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Hunt's urrent work focuses on the relationship between technology and science in the 19th century, and particularly on the interaction between theory and practice in the Victorian telegraph industry. He also has strong interests in the history of nuclear weapons and of evolutionary theory.