On the theory of waves
Andrew J. Robertson · Abstracts of the Papers Communicated to the Royal Society of London · 1854
Abstract The author remarks that in the seventh volume of the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, Mr. Earnshaw has a paper on the Mathematical Theory of the Waves of Translation, and that the objection to the theory therein given has been pointed out by Professor Stokes in a Report to the British Association, namely, that it requires a mathematically sudden generation and destruction of motion. Previously to his having an opportunity of reading Mr. Earnshaw s paper he had considered the subject in a manner entirely different (Phil. Mag. Dec. 1850, March 1851). The analysis he then employed was not however such as to lead to results sufficiently general, and he has in consequence now employed a higher analysis, in the application of which he acknowledges himself indebted to Mr. Earnshaw’s paper for considerable assistance.