Osborne Reynolds: Scientist, Engineer and Pioneer

The paper seeks to place the landmark paper `On the dynamical theory of incompressible viscous fluids and the determination of the criterion', published by the Royal Society in 1895, within the broader context of the complete scientific works of its author, Osborne Reynolds. After a short biographical outline, the paper offers a detailed survey of Reynolds's extensive and wide-ranging publications, highlighting those of particular interest in their own right and those serving as noteworthy antecedents of the 1895 paper. Reynolds's contributions are accordingly examined under broad headings of `Reynolds the scientist' and `Reynolds the engineer' with particular attention paid to evaluating the 1895 paper before concluding with a consideration of Reynolds's status as a scientific pioneer.