– Adapted from sources listed below: [link]
Though Oliver Heaviside may be well known for his contributions, such as his work regarding the Heaviside layer, Heaviside Step functions, and of course the Telegrapher’s equations, far less attention is given to his reclusive, eccentric personal life he led behind his work.
Born into low class Victorian England in 1850, he received minimal formal education, acquiring most of his knowledge through self studying. Heaviside’s uncle was Charles Wheatstone the famous Telegrapher, who took him under his wing to get him a job at the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company. There, he continued his studies and published an article on the best arrangement of a Wheatstone Bridge, which later led him to join the Society of Telegraph Engineers. Following Maxwell’s newly published Treatise on Electromagnetism, Heaviside was determined to master the treatise, and afterwards, create his own interpretations, allowing him to contribute to the field. This is when Heaviside mathematically determined the Telegrapher’s equations, and began his groundbreaking work in Electrical Engineering.
Socially, though, Heaviside was considered to be “inept” and an eccentric character. He was “incapable of conducting himself properly in most elementary social interactions.” He would leech off of his family and friends for money, striving to live in wealth, yet would not work for it. He only maintained limited contact with women, having no children or wife, yet attracted a group of loyal supporters from within his family, and scientific community. In his final years, Heaviside became evermore reclusive, not even meeting with his publishers for the work he was doing. He reportedly painted his fingernails pink and had granite blocks moved into his house for furniture as well. Heaviside ultimately passed away in 1925 after falling off a ladder. His story is as a paradoxical figure, one of intellectual brilliance in science and personal dysfunction in society, yet one whose legacy remained etched in history forever.
Sources:
Nahin, P. J. (2002). Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age. JHU Press.