Darrigol, Olivier-Worlds of Flow. A History of Hydrodynamics from the Bernoullis to Prandtl

Abstract

The second half of the 20th century marks a radical change in the historiography of fluidmechanics. From the beginning of theoretical fluid mechanics there was an interest in establishing the priorities of discoveries. For example in the controversy between Johann I Bernoulli and his son, Daniel. Subsequent historical accounts are represented by the works of Saint-Venant (1887) and Love (1901). More recent treatises on the history of mechanics, like that of Dugas (1950), Dijksterhuis (1956), Szabo (1979), dedicate many chapters to history of fluidmechanics. An innovative approach has been taken byTrusdell (1954), Whiteside (1974), Mikhailov (2002), in their essays on Euler, Newton, Daniel Bernoulli, respectively. These authors have exposed the details of the original papers, checked the correctness of the proofs, and, above all, expressed critical comparative judgments. The “critical” history of mechanics is now a flourishing discipline. This superb book by Darrigol is a compromise between descriptive and technical histories, since it provides a large account of the development of theoretical and engineering fluidmechanics accompanied byprecise explanations of howequations have been derived and which solution procedures have