2025/08/30 by David Pritchard · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Archaeology and Natural History #American Environmental and Regional History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/00033790.2025.2551062
We reconstruct the events surrounding John Scott Russell's first observation of a solitary wave, which would become a foundational myth of both nonlinear wave theory and Scottish engineering science. We place the experiments in the context of the Scottish canals during the rise of steam locomotion and of Russell's attempts to establish a scientific reputation from a position that was both socially and intellectually marginal and financially insecure. We further examine the changing uses of Russell's account of his observation, in his own publications and afterward, including his bid for the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh in 1838.