he claims improving the impedance by adding capacity to cable sections. However, he got it
somewhat right in and obtained the relevant Patent 652,230 in 1900 over Campbell. He was
a bright scientist and a gifted inventor. His patents can be found on Google's Patent site.
This site is worth a visit as it allows searching on pre-1976 US Patents.
An analysis of the 'loading coil' affair by James Brattain can be found in the book "The
Engineer in America" under "Introduction of the Loading Coil". An analysis what happened
inside AT&T in pursuing the 'loading coil' patent is described in Wasserman's "From
Invention to Innovation". Norbert Wiener was upset by the treatment of Heaviside and
wrote the book "The Tempter". A highly recommended but difficult to find book is "From
Obscurity to Enigma: The work of Oliver Heaviside, 1872-1891" by Ido Yavetz. A very
good book that puts Heaviside in the context of articulating Maxwell's laws is "The
Maxwellians" by Bruce Hunt.
Preece receives a much more deferential treatment in Russell Burns' book
"Communications: An International History of the Formative Years". Preece, at that time
the Engineer-in-Chief of the GPO, who is of course a very influential civil servant, is more
in support of Marconi than of Oliver Lodge. A understatement on page 296 is "Indeed, the
suggestion has been made that Preece was being vindictive...." Oh, really? Reading Burns'
book one realizes that Preece was the contemporary of Hertz, Lodge, Fitzgerald, Heaviside
and Marconi. As a "practical man" he consistently is on the wrong side of scientific
arguments. Still, he achieves a fairly exalted and influential position related to the science
of which he learns very little, it seems.
Oliver Heaviside is the named inventor on at least one British Patent (No. 1,407) in which
he establishes himself as the inventor of coaxial cable to limit inductive coupling between
adjacent cables. A description of this patent can be found in Nahin's book of which a
section can be found here. UK Patent 1407, including the provisional specification can be
downloaded by clicking here. This copy of the Heaviside patent was found on the web-site
of the German Patent Office and can be downloaded here.
The patent addresses the issue of inductive coupling. The coaxial cable is actually one of
several solutions that Heaviside provides to this problem in his specification. His other
solution is a cable with two pairs of circuits, thus forming a 4 conductor-core cable. The
filing date of the patent is April 6, 1880. UK patents at that time did not require claims.
Though the Patent includes the declaration "...but what I claim is, -" it does not have claims.
Lacking enforceable claims and means to pursue infringers in court, it must have been an
almost insurmountable task for Heaviside to pursue infringers on this patent. Heaviside
probably, based on this experience, must have decided that patents were not for him.
The above does not imply that we should pity Heaviside's active period. First of all,
Heaviside was not a man to be pitied. He was quite opinionated and very well able to
defend himself. Secondly, in a time in history wherein certainly in Britain social class was
extremely important, Heaviside, without any formal education, positioned himself as a
leading and very much respected scientist who was recognized, corresponded with and
consulted on important and critical issues and at least the equal of other scientific giants of