The Birth of Transmission Line Theory
How the 1858 Transatlantic Telegraph Advanced Electromagnetism
A marvelous video from Visual Electric.
The key to understanding modern transmission line theory is to first understand its history. This is the story of how the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable in 1858 led to the birth of Transmission Line Theory. Professor William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) was the genius who developed the initial breakthrough that led to the first accurate model of a long cable. Although it would be left to Oliver Heaviside some decades later to introduce inductance, Kelvin's idea to distribute the resistance and capacitance evenly along the line led to a powerful mathematical analysis with enough predictive power to explain the failure of the first transatlantic cable. The mathematics of Lord Kelvin's analysis is fascinating - and crucial to understanding how modern transmission theory was developed.
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Motivation
01:53 A primitive starting point
02:58 Description of Kelvin's model
09:41 The first transatlantic cable
11:32 Lord Kelvin rises
It would be interesting to know why Whitehouse opposed Thompson's theory? What was his fundamental error?
It's funny to me that "hit it harder physics" has been with us all along. "MOAR POWER!!!" (zztt!) "Well, back to the drawing board..."