13 Facts About Osborne Reynolds

Osborne Reynolds was an Irish-born British innovator in the understanding of fluid dynamics.

Osborne Reynolds spent his entire career at what is the University of Manchester.

Osborne Reynolds was born in Belfast and moved with his parents soon afterward to Dedham, Essex.

Osborne Reynolds's father, Reverend Osborne Reynolds, was a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge who worked as a school headmaster and clergyman, but was a very able mathematician with a keen interest in mechanics.

Osborne Reynolds attended Queens' College, Cambridge and graduated in 1867 as the seventh wrangler in mathematics.

Osborne Reynolds was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877 and awarded the Royal Medal in 1888.

Osborne Reynolds retired in 1905 and died of influenza 21 February 1912 at Watchet in Somerset.

Osborne Reynolds was buried at the Church of St Decuman, Watchet.

In 1883 Osborne Reynolds demonstrated the transition to turbulent flow in a classic experiment in which he examined the behaviour of water flow under different flow rates using a small jet of dyed water introduced into the centre of flow in a larger pipe.

Osborne Reynolds proposed what is known as Osborne Reynolds-averaging of turbulent flows, where quantities such as velocity are expressed as the sum of mean and fluctuating components.

Osborne Reynolds himself had a number of papers concerning ship design published in Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects.

One of the subjects that Osborne Reynolds studied in the 1880s was the properties of granular materials, including dilatant materials.

Osborne Reynolds's aim seems to have been to construct a theory of aether, which he considered to be in a liquid state.