Ernst Julius Berg (9 Feb. 1871 - 1941) was a Swedish-born, American electrical engineer.

Biography

Ernst Julius Berg was born in

Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön, ...

, Jämtland County in Sweden. After graduating from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1892, he immigrated to the United States. He began working as an assistant to

Charles Proteus Steinmetz Charles Proteus Steinmetz (born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz, April 9, 1865 – October 26, 1923) was a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College. He fostered the development of alternati ...

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

. He then joined the faculty of electrical engineering at

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

. In 1909, he became head of electrical engineering department at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. Berg remained as department head until June 1913, when he resigned and returned to his former positions with General Electric Company and with Union College. He was associated with Union College until his death in 1941. A pioneer of radio, he produced the first two-way radio voice program in the United States. In the field of theoretical analysis of electrical circuits, he popularized

Oliver Heaviside Oliver Heaviside FRS (; 18 May 1850 – 3 February 1925) was an English self-taught mathematician and physicist who invented a new technique for solving differential equations (equivalent to the Laplace transform), independently developed ...

's technique of

operational calculus Operational calculus, also known as operational analysis, is a technique by which problems in analysis, in particular differential equations, are transformed into algebraic problems, usually the problem of solving a polynomial equation. History Th ...

. In 1906 he married Gwendoline O'Brien. He is buried in

Vale Cemetery Vale Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery and the largest cemetery in Schenectady, New York. It opened on 21 October 1857 when the Rev. Julius Seely dedicated what was then termed "the Vale". It has tripled its size since opening and today it ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

Works

* 1900: (with

) ''Theory and calculations of Alternating Current Phenomena'', Electrical World and Engineer * 1908: ''Electrical energy, its generation, transmission, and utilization'', McGraw Hill * 1916: ''Electrical Engineering, first course'', McGraw Hill * 1916: ''Electrical Engineering, advanced course'', McGraw Hill * 1929
Heaviside's Operational Calculus as Applied to Engineering and Physics
McGraw Hill via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

References

* S. Hensel (1994) ''Ernst Julius Berg Educator and Proselytizer of Heaviside's Calculus'', IEEE Potentials, 13, 57. * R.R. Kline (1988) '' The General Electric professorship at Union College, 1903-41'', IEEE Transactions on Education 31, 141. * Benson, Adolph B. & Naboth Hedin (1969) ''Swedes In America'', New York: Haskel House Publishers

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Ernst Julius 1871 births 1941 deaths People from Östersund Swedish emigrants to the United States American electrical engineers KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Union College (New York) faculty