I. On the flow of water in uniform régime in rivers and other open channels

Abstract

In respect to the mode of flow of water in rivers, a supposition which has been very perplexing in attempts to form a rational theory for its explanation, has during many years past, during at least a great part of the present century, been put forward as a result from experimental observations on the flow of water in various rivers, and in artificially constructed channels. It was, I presume, put forward in the earlier times only as a vague and doubtful supposition; but, in. later times it has, in virtue of more numerous and more elaborately conducted experimental observations, advanced to the rank of a confirmed supposition, or even of an experimentally established fact. This experimentally derived and gradually growing supposition was perplexing, because it was in conflict with a very generally adopted theory of the flow of water in rivers which appeared to be well founded and well reasoned out.