He spent just one year at St Andrews University, before transferring to Glasgow University. It was there that he added his mother's name, Scott, to his own, becoming John Scott Russell. He graduated in 1825, aged 17. In 1825, he moved to Edinburgh, where he taught mathematics. In the 1830s Russell developed a prototype passenger-carrying steam carriage, but it met with opposition from the road trustees, and the venture failed. He had more success with the Union Canal Company, investigating the feasability of steam-powered canal transport and studying the connection between resistance to motion and wave-generation. After working for a shipbuilder in Greenock, Russell moved to London in 1844, with his wife and two young children. He first worked on a railway magazine, and he became secretary of the Society of Arts, a post which led to major involvement in planning the Great Exhibition of 1851. Thereafter, he became increasingly involved in the design of yachts, boats, barges and ships, and he became a director of a ship-building company. He collaborated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the construction of the pioneering iron vessels Great Britain and Great Eastern; and was alone responsible for the successful iron warship Warrior.
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Read about the Soliton Wave.
