Thomas Young's research on fluid transients: 200 years on

Thomas Young published in 1808 his famous paper (1) in which he derived the pressure wave speed in an incompressible liquid contained in an elastic tube. Unfortunately, Young's analysis was obscure and the wave speed was not explicitly formulated, so his achievement passed unnoticed until it was rediscovered nearly half a century later by the German brothers Weber. This paper briefly reviews Young's life and work, and concentrates on his achievements in the area of hydraulics and waterhammer. Young's 1808 paper is "translated" into modern terminology. Young's discoveries, though difficult for modern readers to identify, appear to include most if not all of the key elements which would subsequently be combined into the pressure rise equation of Joukowsky.