The legend of A. F. Shields

The well-known doctoral work of Shields is a tale that is frequently recoun ted by many authors and has spawned a large, continuing body of research ov er the last 60 years. Despite the success of Shields' work, the details of his experimental methods and results as reported by others are quite variab le. Inconsistencies and misconceptions regarding Shields' work are identifi ed and examined here. Incomplete descriptions by Shields, loss of his origi nal data, and Shields' postgraduate absence from the hydraulic engineering community leave some of the identified inconsistencies open to debate.