Among the giants: oliver heaviside: genius and curmudgeon: he called establishment mathematicians `woodenheaded′ when his powerful new methods perplexed them. his fellow ees didn't know what to make of him either

Abstract

Mention the innovators associated with telephony — Alexander Graham Bell or Lord Kelvin, among others - and one important name will probably not be included: Oliver Heaviside, Yet it was his formula for loading telephone lines to avoid signal distortion that made transatlantic communications possible. Heaviside used mathematics for his proofs; he left to others the task of building the hardware models, as well as the credit for his discoveries. Described by some as “an example of that genius which is akin to madness” and “a first-rate oddity,” this English intellect of the nineteenth century died, mostly unnoticed, in poverty.