Edward L. Norton
Created and Claimed by yyang414 (Yuchen Kenneth Yang). PHYS 2212.
Edward Lawry Norton (b. Rockland, Maine, USA, 28th July 1898, d. Chatham, New Jersey, USA, 28th January 1983) was an American electrical engineer for whom the Norton equivalent circuit is named.
Norton served as a radio operator in the U.S Navy between 1917 and 1919. He attended the University of Maine for one year before and for one year after his wartime service, then transferred to MIT in 1920, receiving his BS degree in electrical engineering in 1922. He started work in 1922 at the Western Electric Corporation in New York City, which eventually became Bell Laboratories in 1925. While working for Western Electric, he earned an MA degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1925.
Among his publications are constant resistance networks with applications to filter groups in the Bell System Technical Journal, magnetic fluxmeter in the Bell Laboratories Record and dynamic measurements on electromagnetic devices in the Transactions of the AIEE. Norton wrote 92 technical memoranda (TMs in Bell Laboratories parlance). Because of Norton's lack of publications, it appears that Norton preferred working behind the scenes. As described in the history of Bell Labs, "this reticence belied his capabilities."
Norton was something of a legendary figure in network theory work who turned out a prodigious number of designs armed only with a slide rule and his intuition. Many anecdotes survive. On one occasion T.C. Fry called in his network theory group, which included at that time Bode, Darlington and R.L. Dietzold among others, and told them: "You fellows had better not sign up for any graduate courses or other outside work this coming year because you are going to take over the network design that Ed Norton has been doing single-handed." [A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Transmission Technology (1925-1975), p. 210]
He applied his deep knowledge of circuit analysis to many fields, and after World War II he worked on Nike missile guidance systems. On November 11, 1926, he wrote the technical memorandum Design of Finite Networks for Uniform Frequency Characteristic, that contains the following paragraph on page 9:
"The illustrative example considered above gives the solution for the ratio of the input to output current, since this seems to be of more practical interest. An electric network usually requires the solution for the case of a constant voltage in series with an output impedance connected to the input of the network. This condition would require the equations of the voltage divided by the current in the load to be treated as above. It is ordinarily easier, however, to make use of a simple theorem which can be easily proved, that the effect of a constant voltage E in series with an impedance Z and the network is the same as a current I=E/Z into a parallel combination of the network and the impedance Z. If, as is usually the case, Z is a pure resistance, the solution of this case reduces to the case treated above for the ratio of the two currents, with the additional complication of a resistance shunted across the input terminals of the network. If Z is not a resistance the method still applies, but here the variation of the input current E/Z must be taken into account."
This paragraph clearly defines what is now known as the Norton equivalent circuit in the United States. Norton never published this result or mentioned it in any of his 18 patents and 3 publications. In Europe, it is known as the Mayer-Norton equivalent. The German telecommunications engineer Hans Ferdinand Mayer published the same result in the same month as Norton's technical memorandum. Norton retired in 1961 and died on January 28, 1983 at the King James Nursing Home in Chatham, New Jersey.
Wilhelm Eduard Weber was a German physicist who discovered theories about magnetic flux, electrodynamics and magnetic maps.
Early Years and Career
Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891) was a German physicist born in Wittenberg who was the second of three brothers. Weber received his PhD from the University of Halle in natural philosophy and then was hired by the University of Gottingen to be a professor of physics at the age of 27. Weber always believed that physics could never be taught by simply speaking about it, applications to daily life were necessary. Therefore, he always encouraged his students to experiment themselves in the college laboratory. Weber collaborated with many scientists throughout his career. In 1859, he received the Copley Medal for his work with magnetic maps. He holds the honor of the SI unit of magnetic flux being named after him, which led to further electromagnetic discoveries.
Establishment
During his time at the University of Halle, he collaborated with his brother Ernst Weber and published works on organ pipes and coupled oscillators. Afterwards, they wrote a book on Wave Theory and Fluidity. This contained a detailed account of the experimental investigations on surface waves in liquids, and on sound and light waves.
Telegraph
Once hired by the University of Gottingen, Wilhelm Weber began his collaboration with Carl Friedrich Gauss. Together, they initiated a network of magnetic observatories and correlate the resulting measurements. In 1833, they developed the first electromagnetic telegraph, which functioned as a battery-operated telegraph line that was 9,000 meters long stretching from the physics laboratory to the astronomical observatory. Later, it was modified to use induced currents rather than battery power.
Magnetic Maps and Electrodynamics
Perhaps one of Weber’s more notable accomplishments, collaborated with Carl Freidrich Gauss and Carl Wolfgang Benjamin Goldschmidt, was the Atlas of Geomagnetism: According to the Elements and Theory of Design that eventually gave rise to the institutionalization of magnetic observatories.
In 1856, Weber had become the director of the astronomical observatory and began research with Rudolph Kohlrausch to determine the ratio between the electrodynamic and electrostatic units of charge. This led to Weber’s research on electric oscillations, which played a huge role in Weber’s development of his theory of electrodynamics. This theory helped James Clerk Maxwell’s theory that light is an electromagnetic wave. Even though this theory is not mentioned/taught anymore, it states that Coloumb’s law is velocity dependent.
This theory can be derived from potential energy and can be used to drive Ampere’s Law and Faraday’s law. In this law, all particles regardless of size and mass will follow Newton’s third law. While Maxwell’s equations incorporates conservation of particle momentum and particle angular momentum.
The collaboration between Weber and Kohlrausch led to the first use of the letter ‘c’ to denote the speed of light. In 1864, Weber published a book: Electrodynamic Proportional Measures containing a system of absolute measurements for electric currents, which eventually led to the SI unit for electric flux to be named after Weber (Wb).
Further sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFKONUBBHQw
The World’s First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable
References
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilhelm-Eduard-Weber
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/wilhelm-weber-551.php