THE 



AMERICAN 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 



Art. T. — Seventh Meeting of the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. 



[Concluded from Vol. xxxiii. p. 296.] 



Waves. — Mr. Russell had made in September, 1836, a series of 

 observations on the River Dee, below Chester, where that river 

 has a form and dimensions admirably suited to the purpose. It 

 appears, that for more than five miles in length, the banks of the 

 Dee are perfectly straight, quite parallel to one another, while the 

 depth of the channel at low water is nearly uniform throughout 

 the whole of that length. Now, in this river there is a tidal wave 

 of from six to fifteen feet, forming, in fact, a tidal canal of large 

 dimensions. On this part of the river the first series of observa- 

 ■ tions was made ; a second was made upon the River Clyde ; and 

 a third on the waves at the surface of the sea : and the series 

 has been terminated by a course of experiments made in artificial 

 chamiels of different forms, for the purpose of detennining the 

 nature of the mechanism of the generation and propagation of 

 waves, so as to determine the identity of their nature with the 

 tidal wave. 



It appears that there exists a species of wave different from all 

 the others, and which Mr. Russell calls " The Great Primary Wave 

 of Translation," which is generated whenever an addition is made 

 to the volume of a quiescent fluid, in such a mamier as to affect 

 simultaneously the whole depth of the fluid, and this species of 

 wave is exactly of the same nature as the tide wave. In a rec- 

 tangular channel this primary wave moves with the velocity which 



Vol. XXXIV.— No. 1. 1 



