Making waves: the context and afterlife of John Scott Russell’s canal experiments of 1834-5

We reconstruct the events surrounding John Scott Russell’s first observation of a solitary wave, which would become a foundational myth of both nonlinear wave theory and Scottish engineering science. We place the experiments in the context of the Scottish canals during the rise of steam locomotion and of Russell’s attempts to establish a scientific reputation from a position that was both socially and intellectually marginal and financially insecure. We further examine the changing uses of Russell’s account of his observation, in his own publications and afterward, including his bid for the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh in 1838.