[Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Oliver Heaviside],
Title
[Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Oliver Heaviside],
Creator
Date
Identifier
GFF 14/10a
Subject
Description
Handwritten letter from Oliver Heaviside, Paignton, Devon, to George F. Fitzgerald, dated 16th February 1894. Heaviside discusses money and an absentee landlord. 2pp.
Transcription:
"My dear Fitzgerald,
I dimly recognise that some part of your letter is note [?]. A treatise is needed to expound all sides of the question! I shall not write it. But I don't think you take money from T. Coll. "because you are poor", but because it is your proper payment for your work and to which you have an equal right whether you are poor or rich. Again, to emphasise this point, if the sci. world says my work is worth that of hundreds of [h?] or millions (I quote your words) and the sci world choose to pay me distinctly for that work according to their own (quoted) estimation, why then I should be proud to take it! It would be a pot of money. However, even if I may have overfully emphasised in my previous a particular side of the question, still the fact remains that that side is a very real one. To give an extreme case, people sometimes starve rather than go to the workhouse. Why? The anociations, I suppose, and their pride. It's for the power of many. I know more of that than most people! I had an example last evening. I went to a little musical party, my brother's family with a proportional to assist or lead rather. It was all very nice until a certain person came in, when a strange change occurred. All mutual intercourse ceased. Mr Parker became the sun and all revolved round him. I became a perfect nonentity - not even introduced, except later perfunctorily as an afterthought. So it continued all this while he remained and when he left he (perhaps naturally) did not think it worth while including me in his farewells. Having gone, things righted themselves and I received semi apologies. He was a gentleman, obliged to be very civil to him, important to be right with him. On inquiring I learned he moved in the best society and was an absentee Irish landlord! Of course you did understand that I entirely [p?] the fact that I have [?] significance in this other respects when I (very rarely) go out but it is not pleasant to be entirely snuffed out by the arrival of a gentleman!
Yours sincerely,
Oliver Heaviside"
Transcription:
"My dear Fitzgerald,
I dimly recognise that some part of your letter is note [?]. A treatise is needed to expound all sides of the question! I shall not write it. But I don't think you take money from T. Coll. "because you are poor", but because it is your proper payment for your work and to which you have an equal right whether you are poor or rich. Again, to emphasise this point, if the sci. world says my work is worth that of hundreds of [h?] or millions (I quote your words) and the sci world choose to pay me distinctly for that work according to their own (quoted) estimation, why then I should be proud to take it! It would be a pot of money. However, even if I may have overfully emphasised in my previous a particular side of the question, still the fact remains that that side is a very real one. To give an extreme case, people sometimes starve rather than go to the workhouse. Why? The anociations, I suppose, and their pride. It's for the power of many. I know more of that than most people! I had an example last evening. I went to a little musical party, my brother's family with a proportional to assist or lead rather. It was all very nice until a certain person came in, when a strange change occurred. All mutual intercourse ceased. Mr Parker became the sun and all revolved round him. I became a perfect nonentity - not even introduced, except later perfunctorily as an afterthought. So it continued all this while he remained and when he left he (perhaps naturally) did not think it worth while including me in his farewells. Having gone, things righted themselves and I received semi apologies. He was a gentleman, obliged to be very civil to him, important to be right with him. On inquiring I learned he moved in the best society and was an absentee Irish landlord! Of course you did understand that I entirely [p?] the fact that I have [?] significance in this other respects when I (very rarely) go out but it is not pleasant to be entirely snuffed out by the arrival of a gentleman!
Yours sincerely,
Oliver Heaviside"
Contributor
Rights
Copyright RDS Library & Archives. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the RDS Library & Archives.
Relation
RDS Science Archive
Format
Manuscript
Language
English
Type
Coverage
1870-1901
Collection
Citation
Heaviside, Oliver, 1850-1925, “[Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from Oliver Heaviside],,” RDS Digital Archive, accessed July 11, 2025, https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/items/show/850.