470 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



resistance, because now the viscosity of the water 

 begins to tell largely on the phenomena. I think 

 you will be interested in hearing Scott Russell's 

 own statement of his discovery. I say his dis- 

 covery, but in reality the discovery was made by a 

 horse, as you will learn. I found almost surprisingly 

 in a mathematical investigation, " On Stationary 

 Waves in Flowing Water," contributed to the 

 Philosophical Magazine (October, November, 

 December, 1886, and January, 1887), a theoretical 

 confirmation, forty-nine and a half years after 

 date, of Scott Russell's brilliant "Experimental 

 Researches into the Laws of Certain Hydrody- 

 namical Phenomena that accompany the Motion 

 of Floating Bodies, and have not previously been 

 reduced into conformity with the known Laws of 

 the Resistance of Fluids." * 



These experimental researches led to the 

 Scottish system of fly-boats carrying passengers 

 on the Glasgow and Ardrossan Canal, and between 



1 By John Scott Russell, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.E. Read before 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 3rd April, 1837, and published in 

 the Transactions in 1840. 



