Tore Olaus Engset (May 8, 1865 in Stranda – October, 1943 in Oslo) was a Norwegian mathematician and engineer who did pioneering work in the field of telephone traffic queuing theory.[1]
Engset got a M.Sc. in physics and mathematics (1894) at University of Oslo, after which he worked at Televerket as office worker, traffic analyst and later director general (1921-22, 1930-35).
He developed the Engset formula (1915) before the breakthroughs of A. K. Erlang (1917). His 1915 manuscript "Om beregningen av vælgere i et automatisk telefonsystem" (1915) was not, however, published until 1918. That work was translated to German as "Die Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung zur Bestimmung der Wählerzahl in automatischen Fernsprechämtern", in Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, Heft 31, 1918. An English translation appeared in Arne Myskja, "On the Calculation of Switches in an Automatic Telephone System" in Telektronikk, 94(2):99-142, 1998.
He also published a work on nuclear physics (1927): "Die Bahnen und die Lichtstrahlung der Wasserstoffelektronen. Ergänzende Betrachtungen über Bahnformen und Strahlungsfrequenzen" (3 parts) in Annalen der Physik, 82 (1927) 1017; 83 (1927) 903; 84 (1927) 880.