The development of fluid mechanics theory up through the end of the
eighteenth century had little impact on engineering since fluid properties
and parameters were poorly quantified, and most theories were abstractions
that could not be quantified for design purposes. That was to change with
the development of the French school of engineering led by Riche de Prony
By the mid nineteenth century fundamental advances were coming on
several fronts. The physician Jean Poiseuille (1799–1869) had accurately
measured flow in capillary tubes for multiple fluids, while in Germany
Gotthilf Hagen (1797–1884) had differentiated between laminar and turbulent
flow in pipes. In England, Lord Osborn Reynolds (1842–1912) continued
that work and developed the dimensionless number that bears his name.
Similarly, in parallel to the early work of Navier, George Stokes (1819–
1903) completed the general equations of fluid motion with friction that
take their names. William Froude (1810–1879) almost single-handedly
developed the procedures and proved the value of physical model testing.
American expertise had become equal to the Europeans as demonstrated by
James Francis’s (1815–1892) and Lester Pelton’s (1829–1908) pioneering
work in turbines and Clemens Herschel’s (1842–1930) invention of the Venturi
meter.