h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First of all, I found the article both accurate and easy to read.
I just remember a slightly different story about how Russell came to discover solitons; I don't know which is the right one, but...
Anyway, what I remember is that Russell was an engineer charged of a practical problem concerning a transportation water channel: it had to be refilled more often than how it should reasonably have been. The channel was used as a support for rafts pulled by animals; Russell saw that, every time the animals started pulling with an initial burst of energy, a wave started from the front of the raft.
He followed the wave up to the bottom of the channel (with a horse, of course) and noted that instead of fading it conserved almost all of its energy, and because of this the water was able to overtake the barrier at the end of the channel: this was the reason why the level of the water was diminishing.

I don't know if this was worth saying, anyway thanks for the donuts

Pepi