

THE 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 



ON THE WAVE-LINE THEORY. 



THE following is an abstract of a paper read before the British Institution 

 of Naval Architects by J. Scott Russell, March, I860, the object of which was 

 to consider the nature of the motion imparted to water when disturbed by a 

 vessel pushed through it by motive power of any kind : 



The first inquiries to be made were, What became of all the water which 

 a ship removed out of her way? and, How did it get out of the way? In 

 prosecuting these inquiries, the author had first employed a small trough, 

 or canal, a foot wide, a foot deep, and of considerable length, and began 

 with a very simple experiment. He supported a small heap of water above 

 the level of that in the trough by means of a partition at one end, and then 

 withdrew the partition to see what the water would do, and found that it 

 assumed a beautiful wave-form of its own, ran along the whole length of the 

 channel to the end, and left the surface of the water over which it had passed 

 as still as it was before. Had the end of the trough been just level with the 

 surface of the still water, the wave would have jumped over, and left the 

 whole of the water in the canal perfectly undisturbed. This phenomenon 

 is now known as the " solitary wave of translation." This wave would 

 travel to an almost incredible distance. The author had followed such a 

 wave, on horseback and by other means, for miles. It leaves a little of 

 itself, however, along the whole surface over which it passes. 



The next fact ascertained was, that wherever the bow of a ship is moved 

 through the water, a wave of this kind is produced, and this is the " travel- 

 ling" or "carrier" wave, which gets rid of all the water out of the canal 

 which the vessel has to excavate. The ship feels no more of it, for it 

 spreads itself in a thin film all along the surface of the water, ahead of the 



