Oliver Heaviside was born May 13, 1850, in London, England. He was a physicist and mathematician whose theoretical work played a large part in the understanding of radio transmission and long-distance telephony. Educated at Camden House School in London, Heaviside came fifth in the College of Preceptors examination out of five hundred pupils. He left school in 1866 and continued to study. He learned Morse code and studied electricity and languages. In 1868 he went to Denmark and became a telegraph operator, and in 1870 he was appointed Chief Telegraph Operator.

In 1871 Heaviside returned to England to take up a post with the Great Northern Telegraph Company dealing with overseas traffic. In 1875 he had to leave the job due to increasing deafness. Heaviside was encouraged to continue his electrical research by his uncle, Charles Wheatstone, who with W. F. Cooke patented the electric telegraph in 1837, and who later devised...