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John Scott Russell FRSE FRS (9 May 1808, Parkhead, Glasgow – 8 June 1882, Ventnor, Isle of Wight) was a Scottish civil engineer, naval architect and shipbuilder who built Great Eastern in collaboration with Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He made the discovery of the wave of translation that gave birth to the modern study of solitons, and developed the wave-line system of ship construction.
In 1834, John Scott Russell was observing a boat being drawn along 'rapidly' by a pair of horses. When the boat suddenly stopped Scott Russell noticed that the bow wave continued forward "at great velocity, assuming the form of a large solitary elevation, a well-defined heap of water which continued its course along the channel apparently without change of form or diminution of speed". Intrigued, the young scientist followed the wave on horseback as it rolled on at about eight or nine miles an hour, but after a chase of one or two miles he lost it.
This observation was made on the Union Canal near bridge 11 at Hermiston.
Today's most advanced fibre-optic communications use stable pulses of light identical to Russell's waves.
For more information see the Heriot Watt page:
John Scott Russell's Soliton Wave Re-created 12 July 1995
John Scott Russell's Soliton Wave Re-created 12 July 1995
On Wednesday 12 July 1995, an international gathering of scientists witnessed a re-creation of the famous 1834 'first' sighting of a soliton or solitary wave on the Union Canal near Edinburgh. They were attending a conference on nonlinear waves in physics and biology at Heriot-Watt University, near the canal.
The occasion was part of a ceremony to name a new aqueduct after John Scott Russell, the Scottish scientist who made the original observation. The aqueduct carries the Union Canal over the Edinburgh City Bypass.
It is thought that these photographs are from this event.
Ronnie Williamson & Stanley Ross-Smith
Stanley Ross-Smith's boat Thomas Telford
Ronnie Williamson at bow of Crusader I
Looks like Melville Gray of the Linlithgow Union Canal Society with jacket & tie.
Plaque on Bridge 11
Plaque on Bridge 11
1987 Ratho East Route Opens
The dredging of the canal between Ratho and Wester Hailes was completed and the Disabled Passenger will now have the option of routes either Eastwards or Westwards.
Dredging at Ratho Bridge
and in Ratho basin.
Ratho Branch Content - Click to visit an item
Ratho Branch Content - Click to visit an item
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