John Scott Russell

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John Scott Russell (before 1873)

John Scott Russell (born May 9, 1808 in Glasgow , † June 8, 1882 in London ). He is known for the construction of the Great Eastern ship , the largest movable object at the time, and for his discovery of the solitons .

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Russell was born on May 9, 1808, to a clergyman in the Vale of Clyde. He studied mathematics and mechanics in Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Glasgow and at the age of 26 he became professor of experimental physics at Edinburgh University. In addition to theoretical research, he built numerous smaller steamships and street locomotives . He took over the management of the Caird shipyard in Glasgow, from where he was called to London in 1844, where he built numerous steamers according to new principles, including the Great Eastern , and organized the Royal Commission for the 1851 World's Fair . Although an excellent engineer, he lacked the business acumen. In 1837 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . Russell died in London on June 10, 1882 .

Russell as an engineer

Russell transferred the Crystal Palace , the symbol of the London World's Fair , from Hyde Park to Sydenham in the London borough of Lewisham . Russell also constructed the rotunda , the symbol of the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873 , and thus the largest dome in the world.

Russell as a shipbuilder

Russell built the town of Schaffhausen for Switzerland (1851), together with Isambard Kingdom Brunel the Great Eastern , which for a long time was by far the largest ship in the world (launched in 1858), but also the first train steamboat on Lake Constance (1869) - this is also a ship of enormous dimensions.

Russell as the discoverer of the solitons

He discovered the solitons while researching the best possible design for a canal boat. Russell rode several miles next to a ten meter long and half a meter high water wave that was spreading in a narrow Scottish canal and observed that its waveform changed little.

He further researched the phenomenon using a tank in his workshop. In doing so, he discovered some key properties of these waves:

  • The waves can continue stably over long distances.
  • The speed of the waves depends on the size of the wave and the depth of the water.
  • Unlike normal waves, they don't unite. A small wave is overtaken by a larger one.
  • When a wave is too big for the water depth, it splits into two waves: one big and one small.

It was not until 1895 before the phenomenon could also be theoretically explained by the Korteweg-de-Vries equation , and until the 1960s before the significance of the discovery was discovered.

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 4, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Russell's contribution to the planning and execution of the building was controversial. - See: August Köstlin :  Comments on the iron central building of the world exhibition in Vienna. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1872, (Volume XXXVII), pp. 355–364. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / abz.
  3. ↑ Klaus Kramer: John Scott Russell and the 'coal eater' - or: What connects the Friedrichshafen Trajekt with the GREAT EASTERN. In: Friedrichshafen Yearbook for History and Culture, Volume 1, 2007, Verlag Klaus Kramer, ISBN 978-3-9805874-8-8
personal data
SURNAME Russell, John Scott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British shipbuilder
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1882
Place of death London