NOTE: See List_of_timelines for example timelines.

Timeline of hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, and fluid dynamics.

Hydrostatics history section needs to be expanded.

Outline

Where do you begin a history of fluid dynamics? (Important to distinguish hydraulics (fluid statics) from fluid dynamics).

Hydraulics:

Water screw, levers, pumps, devices, water clocks, irrigation

Fluid dynamics:

Requires covering the actual dynamics, motion of the fluid, could not happen until we already understood acceleration, which puts you well after 1500 AD.

Outline:

Ancient/prehistoric (pre-common era) developments in hydrodynamics and fluid mechanics
Medieval developments
Islamic physicists and engineers

Pre-Common Era Developments in Fluid Mechanics

All hydraulics:

Hydraulic machinery and devices in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt
Irrigation used since 6000 BC
Water clocks used since 2000 BC
Qanat system in ancient Persia
Turpan water system in ancient China
Hydraulic machinery built by Sunshu Ao (600 BC)
Ximen Bao (500 BC)

Archimedes:

Hydrostatic principles
On Floating Bodies
Equilibrium of fluids, particles of a fluid mass in equilibrium are pressed in every direction equally
A solid body floating in a fluid should assume and preserve a position of equilibrium
Invention of water screw
Principles of buoyancy and density

Alexandrian school:

Ptolemies
Constructing hydraulic machinery (120 BC)
Fountain of compression, siphon, forcing-pump (invented by Ctesibius and Hero)
Egyptian wheel, kind of chain pump, earthen pots carried around by a wheel, pots with valves at bottom, reducing load on wheel

Sextus Julius Frontius

Prior inventions/discoveries not focused on fluid dynamics or motion of fluids, focused primarily on hydrodynamics
SJF was inspector of public fountains in Rome, regions of Nerva and Trajan
De aqueductibus urbis Romae commentaries, considers methods employed for ascertaining quantity of water discharged from tubes, modes of water distributing through aqueduct or fountain
Flow of water from orifice depends on size of orifice, as well as height of water
Pipe employed to carry portion of water should have position included to original direction of current
Unacquainted with laws of velocity of running water, dependent on depth of orifice

Common Era, 0-1000 CE

Post CE:

Du Shi (31 AD)
- Employed waterwheel to power bellows of blast furnace producing cast iron
Zhang Heng (78-139 AD)
- First to employ hydraulics to provide motive power in rotating armillary sphere for astronomical observation
Ma Jun (200-265 AD)
Su Song (1020 - 1101 AD)
Shen Kuo (1031-1095 AD)

Islamic Science

Islamic scientists applying scientific method to fluid mechanics:

Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-1048)
Al Khazini (1115-1130)
Fluid statics, determining specific weights, unification of field of hydrostatics and hydrodynamics to give birth to fluid dynamics field
Applied mathematical theories of ratios and infinitesimal techniques
Introduced algebra and fine calculation techniques to field of fluid statics

Biruni:

Biruni discovered correlation between specific gravity and volume of water displaced
Checking tests during experiments, measured weights of various liquids
Recorded differences in weight between fresh water and saline water, hot water and cold water
Invented conical measure to find ratio between weight of substance in air and weight of water displaced

Khazini:

Book of the Balance of Wisdom
Invented hydrostatic balance
Fluid statics - discovered greater density of water nearer Earth's center

Banū Mūsā brothers:

9th century
Book of Ingenious Devices - automatic controls in fluid mechanics
Two-step level controls, early form of discontinuous variable structure controls, developed by Banu Musa brothers
Early feedback controller for fluids
masters in exploitation of small variations in hydrostatic pressures, and in using conical valves as line-in components in flow systems
First known use of conical valves as automatic controllers
Plug valve, float valve, tap
Developed early failsafe system - withdraw small quantities of liquid repeatedly, but if withdraw large quantity, no further xtractions possible
Double concentric siphon and funnel with bent end for pouring different liquids
Other mechanisms - float chamber, early differential pressure

Al-Jazari

1206
Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices
water-raising pumps
First known use of crankshaft in chain pump
Saqiya machines
Minimize intermittent workings
also invented twin-cylinder reciprocating piston suction pump
Included first suction pipes, suction pumping, double-action pumping, and valves and crankshaft connecting rod mechanisms
- first known use of suction pipe (sucks fluid into partial vacuum) in pump
- First application of double-acting principle
- Conversion of rotary to reciprocating motion via crankshaft rod mechanism

Taqi al-Din

1551
Invented 6-cylinder monobloc pump
Created partial vacuum, to suck water into piston chamber

17th and 18th Century

Galileo

At age 22, published a manuscript called La Bilancetta (The Little Balance) that discusses Archimedes' Principle, and describes/postulates a possible device used by Archimedes for weighing objects in air, and measuring the volume they displace in water, to determine their density
The tract is available in English translation in Laura Fermi and Gilberta Bernardini, Galileo and the Scientific Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1961), pp. 133-143. [1] [2]
also found in Opere di Galileo (in original Italian) [3]

Benedetto Castelli

Student of Galileo
1628 - Castelli published work called Della misura dell acque correnti explaining phenomena in motion of fluids in rivers and canals

Evangelista Torricelli

Another student of Galileo
Observed that a jet formed by fluid pushing through an orifice fed by a reservoir reached the nearly the same heght as the reservoir that supplied it
Imagined that ought to move with same velocity, deduced proposition that velocities of liquids are same as square root of head, minus some air/friction resistance
Theorem published in 1643 in treatise De motu gravium projectorum, confirmed by Raffaello Magiotti in 1648

Pascal:

Treatise on equilibrium of liquids (Sur l'equilibre des liqueurs)
Among manuscripts published after his death, in 1663
Laws of equilibrium of liquids simplified, confirmed by experiment

Edme Mariotte

1620-1684
Confirmed Torricelli theorem
1 year after his death, treatise was published, Traite du mouvement des eaux (1686)
First to attempt to ascribe losses in fluid velocity/head to friction
Regarded obstructions/diminution of velocity to effects of friction
Filaments of water graze along sides of pipe, losing a portion of velocity
Filaments next to that one have greater velocity, and rub upon the former, and diminish their velocity
Other filaments affected in similar way
This leads to diminution of overall/mean velocity
Quantity of water discharged in a given time must be less than the ideal

Domenico Guglielmini

1655-1710
Inspector of rivers and canals in Bologna
Ascribed diminution of velocity in rivers to transverse motinos, inequalities in bottom

Isaac Newton

Friction and viscosity:

Prinipia of Newton investigated effects of friction and viscosity in diminishing velocity of running water
Cartesian system of vortices
Shoed that velocity of any stratum of vortex is mean of velocities of strata enclosing it
Velocity of a filament of water moving in a pipe is arithmetical mean of velocities of filaments which surround it

Henri Pitot

Italian-born, French engineer
Showed friction losses are inversely proportional to diameter of pipe

Orifices

Newton also studied discharge of water from orifices at bottom of vessels
Cylindrical vessel full of water, perforated at bottom
Vessel supplied with water to maintain fluid at same height
Two parts to cylindrical column: cataract (hyperboloid generated by revolution of hyperbola of 5th degree around axis of cylinder)
Remainder, rest of water in cylindrical vessel
Horizontal strata of hyperboloid always in motion
Remainder of water always at rest
Cataract in middle of fluid
Newton compared results of theory to experiments, concluded that water velocity was equal to the velocity a falling object would receive by descending half of the height of the water in the reservoir
This contradicted known fact that head of a jet equaled head of reservoir, which Newton was aware of
Second edition of Principia (1713), Newton reconsidered
Discovered a contraction in the vein of fluid (vena contracta) issuing from orificie would, at distance of 1 diameter from arpeture, contract into subduplicate ratio of 2:1
Section of contracted vein was considered true orifice from which discharge of water was deduced
Velocity of effluent water was due to whole height of water in reservoir, and he became more comfortable with empirical results, but still controversial
First to investigate subject of waves

Daniel Bernoulli

1738 - Bernoulli published Hydrodynamica seu de viribus et motibus fluidorum commentarii
Memoir published Theoria nova de motu aquarum per canales quocunque fluentes
Theory of motion of fluids
Presented to St. Petersburg academy in 1726
Founded on two suppositions
- Surface of fluid, contained in vessel emptying by orifice, always remains horizontal
- Fluid mass conceived to be divided into infinite number of horizontal strata, meaning strata remain contiguous, and all points descend vertically, with velocities inversely proportional to breadth (or horiz. sections of reservoir)
- To determine motion of each stratum, employed principle of conservatio virium vivarum
- Obtained elegant solutions
In absence of general demonstration of principle, not generally convinced
Needed better theory based on fundamental laws of mechanics
Colin Maclaurin and John Bernoulli resolved problem using method of fluxions, 1742, and in Hydraulica nunc primum detecta et demonstrata directe ex furulamentis pure mechanicis (4th volume of works)
Lagrange opined that John Bernoulli's presentation was defective in clearness and precision

Jean le Rond d'Alembert

Opposed Daniel Bernoulli's theory
Generalizing theory of pendulums of Jacob Bernoulli
Discovered general principle of dynamics, reduced laws of motions of bodies to that of equilibirum
Applied this principle to motion of fluids
Specimen of application at end of Dynamics in 1743
1744 - Traite des fluides published, simple and elegant solutions of hydrostatics/hydrodynamics problems
Considered motion of stratum as composed of motion it had in preceding instant, and of motion lost
Laws of equilibrium between motions lost give equations representing motions of fluid
Two principles (rectangular canal, taken in a mass of fluid in equilibrium, is itself in equil.; and portion of fluid passing from 1 place to another preserves same volume when incompressible, or dilates according to given law)
1752 - Essai sur la resistance des fluides
Opuscules mathematiques
Adopted by Euler

Leonhard Euler

Resolution of motion of fluid - Euler's partial differential coefficients
Calculus first applied to motion of water by d'Alembert
Enabled him and Euler to represent theory of fluids in formulae that were not restricted by hypotheses

Abbe Charles Bossut

Published 1777 - Nouvelles Experiences sur la resistance des fluides

Pierre Louis Georges Dubuat

1734-1809
Successful hydrodynamics scientist
Followed in steps of Abbe Charles Bossut
Published 1786 revision of Principes d'hydraulique - contained satisfactory theory of fluid motion
Dubat deduced that perfect fluids would always accelerate, but based on observation postulated existence of viscosity of water
Friction of channel it descends must equal accelerating force
Assumed as fundamental proposition that accelerating force moving fluid equal to sum of all resistances that it meets, whether from viscosity or from friction
Principle employed in first edition of work in 1779
Theory contained in that edition based on others experiments
1780-1783, ran own experiments, using pipes

Nineteenth century

Gaspard Riche de Prony

The theory of running water was greatly advanced by the researches of Gaspard Riche de Prony (1755-1839). From a collection of the best experiments by previous workers he selected eighty-two (fifty-one on the velocity of water in conduit pipes, and thirty-one on its velocity in open canals); and, discussing these on physical and mechanical principles, he succeeded in drawing up general formulae, which afforded a simple expression for the velocity of running water.

Johann Albert Eytelwein

JA Eytelwein of Berlin, who published in 1801 a valuable compendium of hydraulics entitled Handbuch der Mechanik und der Hydraulik, investigated the subject of the discharge of water by compound pipes, the motions of jets and their impulses against plane and oblique surfaces; and he showed theoretically that a water wheel will have its maximum effect when its circumference moves with half the velocity of the stream.

Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette and others

JNP Hachette in 1816-1817 published memoirs containing the results of experiments on the spouting of fluids and the discharge of vessels. His object was to measure the contracted part of a fluid vein, to examine the phenomena attendant on additional tubes, and to investigate the form of the fluid vein and the results obtained when different forms of orifices are employed. Extensive experiments on the discharge of water from orifices (Experiences hydrauliques, Paris, 1832) were conducted under the direction of the French government by JV Poncelet (1788-1867) and JA Lesbros (1790-1860).

PP Boileau (1811-1891) discussed their results and added experiments of his own (Traité de la mesure des eaux courantes, Paris, 1854). KR Bornemann re-examined all these results with great care, and gave formulae expressing the variation of the coefficients of discharge in different conditions (Civil Ingenieur, 1880). Julius Weisbach (1806-1871) also made many experimental investigations on the discharge of fluids.

The experiments of JB Francis (Lowell Hydraulic Experiments, Boston, Mass., 1855) led him to propose variations in the accepted formulae for the discharge over weirs, and a generation later a very complete investigation of this subject was carried out by H Bazin. An elaborate inquiry on the flow of water in pipes and channels was conducted by HGP Darcy (1803-1858) and continued by H Bazin, at the expense of the French government (Recherches hydrauliques, Paris, 1866).

Andreas Rudolf Harlacher and others

German engineers have also devoted special attention to the measurement of the flow in rivers; the Beiträge zur Hydrographie des Königreiches Bohmen (Prague, 1872-1875) of AR Harlacher contained valuable measurements of this kind, together with a comparison of the experimental results with the formulae of flow that had been proposed up to the date of its publication, and important data were yielded by the gaugings of the Mississippi made for the United States government by AA Humphreys and HL Abbot, by Robert Gordon's gaugings of the Ayeyarwady River, and by Allen JC Cunningham's experiments on the Ganges canal. The friction of water, investigated for slow speeds by Coulomb, was measured for higher speeds by William Froude (1810-1879), whose work is of great value in the theory of ship resistance (Brit. Assoc. Report., 1869), and stream line motion was studied by Professor Osborne Reynolds and by Professor HS Hele-Shaw.