@icedquinn The early history of electrical engineering is an oddity in the sense that it was almost completely dominated by experimenters, technicians, and industrialists. Many important techniques were invented first in the industry to solve practical problems, such as precision metrology because they moved back to physics labs.
There's still an upper limit without math. When Lord Kelvin derived the RC transmission line theory and said the transatlanic cable was doomed, Wildman Whitehouse, a competent experimenter by trade, didn't believe him because he didn't understand partial differential equations. When Heaviside derived the RLCG transmission line and invented inductive loading, his work was suppressed by Preece who was the government engineer and also an experienced experimenter by trade, because he too didn't understand differential equations. Lee de Forest invented the triode amplifier by sheer luck and self-titled him "the father of radio", but this guy is basically today's equivalent of an internet startup fraud. When Edwin Armstrong correctly pointed out how his radio worked he too tried to use his authority to suppress it. The Forest-Armstrong affair was likely a factor that led to his eventual suicide.