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JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL (1808–1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 865 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL (1808–1882)  ,
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British engineer, was born in 18o8 near
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Glasgow, a " son of the manse," and was at first destined for the
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ministry . But this intention on his
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father's
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part was changed in consequence of the boy's early leanings towards
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practical science . He attended in succession the
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universities of St Andrews,
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Edinburgh and Glasgow,—taking his degree in the last-named at the age of sixteen . After spending a couple of years in workshops, he settled in Edinburgh as a lecturer on science, and soon attracted large classes . In 1832–33 he was engaged to give the natural philosophy course at the university, the chair having become vacant by the
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death of
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Sir John Leslie . In the following
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year he began his remarkable series of observations on waves . Having been consulted as to the possibility of utilizing steam-navigation on the Edinburgh & Glasgow canal, he replied that the question could not be answered without experiments, which he was willing to undertake if a portion of the canal were placed at his disposal . The results of this inquiry are to be found in the Trans . Roy .
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Soc . Ed . (vol. xiv.), and in the British Association Reports (seventh meeting) .

The existence of the

long
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wave, or wave of
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translation, with many of its most important features, was here first recognized, and it was clearly pointed out why there is a
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special
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rate, depending on the
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depth of the
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water, at which a canal-boat can be towed at the least
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expenditure of effort by the horse . The elementary mathematical theory of the long wave was soon supplied by commentators on Scott Russell's
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work, and a more
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complete investigation was subsequently given by Sir G . G . Stokes . Russell indulged in many extraordinary and groundless speculations, some of which were published in a
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posthumous
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volume, The Wave of Translation (1885) . His observations led him to propose and experiment on a new
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system of shaping vessels, known as the wave system, which culminated in :the
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building of the "
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Great Eastern." His activity and ingenuity were also displayed in many other fields,—steam-coaches for roads, improvements in boilers and in marine engines, the immense iron dome of the Vienna
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Exhibition, cellular double bottoms for iron
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ships, &c . With Mr Stafford Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh), he was joint-secretary of the Great Exhibition of 1851; and he was one of the chief founders of the Institution of
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Naval Architects . He died at
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Ventnor on the 8th of
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June 1882 .

End of Article: JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL (1808–1882)
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