Heaviside: central claims
Source gap. The folder holds only three saved Google Books viewer pages (HTML digests show viewer chrome only) with nine page images in total, in extensionless _files/content(1)-(3) files that Step 0 did not OCR (contents pages for Electrical Papers Vol. 1 and Electromagnetic Theory Vol. 1, and pp. 139, 142, 143 of Electromagnetic Waves). All nine were read directly and spot-checked by QE; no deep/ reads exist because none were needed. No full text of any work was read, and the images have no text layer. To review properly, obtain: Electromagnetic Theory Vols. 1-3 (1893, 1899, 1912), Electrical Papers Vols. 1-2 (1892), and the 1888-89 Phil. Mag. papers (all public domain; Internet Archive / Wikisource). Any conclusion about Heaviside's results beyond those pages rests on [web] (Wikipedia) or [memory].
Heaviside is a mainstream-vindicated figure, so these claims are mostly established physics; the interest is historical and in the one or two unusual positions.
- Maxwell's electromagnetic theory can be cast as a compact set of four vector equations (curl and divergence of E and H), replacing Maxwell's twenty component equations. [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside; Vol. 1 contents on circuital laws [read: page image]
- Electromagnetic energy is localised in the field and flows at the Poynting flux E x H (derived independently of Poynting). [read: contents sec. 70; web as above]
- Inductance added to a telegraph line (balanced against resistance and leakage) reduces both attenuation and distortion (the "Heaviside condition"), contrary to the contemporary view of the engineer William Preece that inductance hurts signalling. [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside; Preece dispute [memory, high]
- Signals and disturbances in conductors and dielectrics follow wave-plus-diffusion equations; magnetic diffusion into a conductor is repeated internal reflexion, and a perfect conductor is a perfect reflector. [read: page image p.139, 142, 143]. Related: a perfect-reflector plate doubles H and annuls E; dissipating H while keeping E needs a magnetic, not electric, conductor (electric-magnetic duality) [read: page image p.143]; QE confirmed eq. 63 gives z = 8.488e-9 cm.
- Heaviside's operational calculus (treating d/dt as an algebraic operator) solves differential equations, though without rigorous justification in his time. [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside. The folder shows only one use of the operator: 'let p = ni, where n/2pi = frequency' (p = d/dt becomes i*omega for sinusoids) [read: page image p.142]; the expansion theorem itself is not in the folder.
- A reflecting ionised layer in the upper atmosphere (Kennelly-Heaviside layer) explains long-distance radio. [web] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside (proposed 1902, confirmed 1923)
- Minor or unusual positions: Maxwell's force on intrinsically magnetised matter is probably wrong [read: contents sec. 83 heading], while the total force on a solid body is independent of the internal stress, which is statically indeterminate [read: contents sec. 79 heading]; an analogy giving gravitoelectromagnetism (1893) [web]; opposition to Einstein's relativity [web, as above]. These were not tested or read in the saved pages.