Heaviside’s magnificent, regal statement
WE REVERSE THIS
In Heaviside’s Electrical Papers, vol. 1, 1892, page 434 and 438, he wrote:
- “By the way, is there such a thing as an electric current? Not that it is intended to cast any doubt
upon the existence of a phenomenon so called; but is it a current – that is, something moving
through a wire ..”
- “Now, in Maxwells’s theory there is the potential energy of the displacement produced in the
dielectric parts by the electric force, and there is the kinetic or magnetic energy of the magnetic
force in all parts of the field, including the conducting parts. They are supposed to be set up by
the current in the wire. We reverse this: the current in the wire is set up by the energy transmitted
trough the medium around it …“