Solitons in Electromagnetism: From the Speculations of John Scott Russell to Optical Soliton Communications [Historical Corner]

Where electromagnetic wave propagation is mainly governed by dispersion and nonlinearity, solitons can be found. With this in mind, we review the progress that led to the present knowledge of electromagnetic solitons, starting from the speculations of John Scott Russell, who discovered the hydrodynamic soliton, to the optical soliton devices for communications and processing.