Scottish inventions and discoveries
Encyclopedia
Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland
. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered
for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science.
Even before the Industrial Revolution
, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres: James Watt
the steam engine
, improving Thomas Newcomen
's steam engine, the bicycle
, macadamisation (not to be confused with Tarmac or Tarmacadam) Alexander Graham Bell
the telephone
, John Logie Baird
the television
, Alexander Fleming
discovered penicillin
, electromagnetics, radar
, and insulin
, are only a few of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are some way Scottish.
his ideas survive in the terms nervous energy and neuroses
(a word that Cullen coined).
Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland
. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered
for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science.
Even before the Industrial Revolution
, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres: James Watt
the steam engine
, improving Thomas Newcomen
's steam engine, the bicycle
, macadamisation (not to be confused with Tarmac or Tarmacadam) Alexander Graham Bell
the telephone
, John Logie Baird
the television
, Alexander Fleming
discovered penicillin
, electromagnetics, radar
, and insulin
, are only a few of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are some way Scottish.
his ideas survive in the terms nervous energy and neuroses
(a word that Cullen coined).Twenty Medical Classics of the Jefferson Era http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/rare_books/classics/#Cullen
Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland
. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered
for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science.
Even before the Industrial Revolution
, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres: James Watt
the steam engine
, improving Thomas Newcomen
's steam engine, the bicycle
, macadamisation (not to be confused with Tarmac or Tarmacadam) Alexander Graham Bell
the telephone
, John Logie Baird
the television
, Alexander Fleming
discovered penicillin
, electromagnetics, radar
, and insulin
, are only a few of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are some way Scottish.
his ideas survive in the terms nervous energy and neuroses
(a word that Cullen coined).Twenty Medical Classics of the Jefferson Era http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/rare_books/classics/#Cullen
Henry Abraham Boorse, Lloyd Motz Basic Books, inc., 1966
Chemical Society (Great Britain), Bureau of Chemical Abstracts (Great Britain) The Society, 1920
Robert P. Gunn Caithness Field Club, 1976
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science.
Even before the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres: James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
the steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
, improving Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England, near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. Flooding was a major problem, limiting the depth at which the mineral could be mined...
's steam engine, the bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
, macadamisation (not to be confused with Tarmac or Tarmacadam) Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
the telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
discovered penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
, electromagnetics, radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, and insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
, are only a few of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are some way Scottish.
Road transport innovations
- Macadamised roads (the basis for, but not specifically, TarmacTarmacTarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
): John Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdam was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks....
(1756–1836) - The pedal bicycle: Attributed to both Kirkpatrick MacmillanKirkpatrick MacmillanKirkpatrick Macmillan was a Scottish blacksmith generally credited with inventing the rear-wheel driven bicycle.-Invention of pedal driven bicycle?:...
(1813–1878) and Thomas McCallThomas McCallThomas McCall was a Scottish cartwright. Born in Penpont he came to Kilmarnock at age 20, where he lived until his death ....
(1834–1904) - The pneumatic tyre: Robert William ThomsonRobert William ThomsonRobert William Thomson , from Stonehaven, Scotland, was the original inventor of the pneumatic tyre.-Biography:...
and John Boyd DunlopJohn Boyd DunlopJohn Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor. He was one of the founders of the rubber company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company....
(1822–1873) - The overhead valveOverhead valveAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
engine: David Dunbar BuickDavid Dunbar BuickDavid Dunbar Buick was a Scottish-born Detroit inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company...
(1854–1929)
Civil engineering innovations
- Tubular steel: Sir William FairbairnWilliam FairbairnSir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
(1789–1874) - Falkirk WheelFalkirk WheelThe Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift located in Scotland, UK,connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, opened in 2002. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk which is in central Scotland...
: Initial designs by Nicoll Russell Studios, ArchitectsNicoll Russell Studios, ArchitectsNicoll Russell Studios, Architects is an architecture practice based in Dundee, Scotland. The firm was established in 1982 by Andrew Nicoll and Ric Russell as a result of the completion of Dundee Repertory Theatre. Andrew Nicoll has since retired, and the practice is now led by Professor Ric...
and engineers Binnie Black and Veatch (Opened 2002) - The patent slipPatent slipThe patent slip or Marine Railway was invented by Scot Thomas Morton in 1818 as a cheaper alternative to a dry dock for ship repair. It consisted of an inclined plane, which extended well into the water, and a wooden cradle onto which a ship was floated...
for docking vessels: Thomas MortonThomas Morton (shipwright)Thomas Morton was a Scottish shipwright and inventor. His most widely known invention is the patent slip.-Biography:Morton was born in Leith in October 1781 and grew up to become a shipwright like his father, Hugh...
(1781–1832) - The Drummond Light: Thomas DrummondThomas DrummondCaptain Thomas Drummond , from Edinburgh, Scotland, was an army officer, civil engineer and senior public official. Drummond used the Drummond light which was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. He is sometimes mistakenly given credit for the invention of limelight,...
(1797–1840) - CanalCanalCanals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
design: Thomas TelfordThomas TelfordThomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
(1757–1834) - DockDock (maritime)A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
design improvements: John Rennie (1761–1821) - CraneCrane (machine)A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
design improvements: James BremnerJames BremnerJames Bremner a notable Scottish naval architect, harbour builder and ship-raiser.-Life and work:James, the youngest of the nine children of Janet and James Bremner, was born in Stain, near Keiss, in the parish of Wick, Caithness, in Scotland.At the age of 16, he was apprenticed for six years to...
(1784–1856)
Aviation innovations
- Aircraft design: Frank Barnwell (1910) Establishing the fundamentals of aircraft design at the University of Glasgow.
Power innovations
- Condensing steam engineSteam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
improvements: James WattJames WattJames Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
(1736–1819) - Coal-gas lighting: William MurdochWilliam MurdochWilliam Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
(1754–1839) - The Stirling heat engine: Rev. Robert StirlingRobert StirlingThe Reverend Dr Robert Stirling was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the stirling engine.- Biography :Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children...
(1790–1878) - Carbon brushes for dynamoDynamo- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...
s: George ForbesGeorge Forbes (scientist)George Forbes FRS was an electrical engineer, astronomer, explorer, author and inventor, some of whose inventions are still in use.-Early life:...
(1849–1936) - The Clerk cycle gas engine: Sir Dugald Clerk (1854–1932)
- Cloud chamberCloud chamberThe cloud chamber, also known as the Wilson chamber, is a particle detector used for detecting ionizing radiation. In its most basic form, a cloud chamber is a sealed environment containing a supersaturated vapor of water or alcohol. When a charged particle interacts with the mixture, it ionizes it...
recording of atomAtomThe atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
s: Charles T. R. Wilson (1869–1959) - Wave-powered electricity generator:By South African Engineer Stephen SalterStephen SalterStephen Hugh Salter is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter duck wave energy device...
in 1977
Shipbuilding innovations
- Europe's first passenger steamboat: Henry Bell (1767–1830)
- The first ironIronIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
-hulledHull (watercraft)A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
steamship: Sir William FairbairnWilliam FairbairnSir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
(1789–1874) - The first practical screw propeller: Robert Wilson (1803–1882)
- Marine engine innovations: James Howden (1832–1913)
- John Elder & Charles Randolph (Marine Compound expansion engine)
Military innovations
- Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson two areas:
- Field intelligenceMilitary intelligenceMilitary intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
. Argued for the establishment of the Intelligence CorpsIntelligence CorpsThe Intelligence Corps is one of the corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security...
. Wrote Field Intelligence: Its Principles and Practice (1904) and Reconnaissance (1907) on the tactical intelligence of modern warfare during World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. - Royal Air Force. Considered instrumental in the foundation of the British Royal Air Force.
- Field intelligence
Heavy industry innovations
- Coal mining extraction in the sea on an artificial island by SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
George Bruce of CarnockGeorge Bruce of CarnockSir George Bruce of Carnock was a Scottish merchant and engineer. He was born in Carnock, near Dunfermline.-Coal mining:...
(1575). Regarded as one of the industrial wonders of the late medieval period. - Making cast steel from wrought ironWrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
: David MushetDavid MushetDavid Mushet was a Scottish metallurgist and the youngest son of Margaret Cochran and William Mushet.-Early life:Mushet was born on October 2, 1772, in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh. He was educated at Dalkeith Grammar School....
(1772–1847) - Wrought iron sash bars for glass housesGlass HousesGlass Houses is the seventh album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released in 1980 . It features Joel's first song to peak at #1 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." The album itself topped the Pop Albums chart for six weeks and was ranked number 4 on...
: John C. Loudon (1783–1865) - The hot blast oven: James Beaumont Neilson (1792–1865)
- The steam hammerSteam hammerA steam hammer is a power-driven hammer used to shape forgings. It consists of a hammer-like piston located within a cylinder. The hammer is raised by the pressure of steam injected into the lower part of a cylinder and falls down with a force by removing the steam. Usually, the hammer is made to...
: James NasmythJames NasmythJames Hall Nasmyth was a Scottish engineer and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company manufacturers of machine tools...
(1808–1890) - Wire ropeWire ropethumb|Steel wire rope Wire rope is a type of rope which consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a helix. Initially wrought iron wires were used, but today steel is the main material used for wire ropes....
: Robert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling Newall FRS was a Scottish engineer and astronomer.Born in Dundee, he was befriended by civil engineer L.D.B. Gordon. In 1838, whilst studying at the Freiburg School of Mines, Germany, Gordon visited the mines at Clausthal, and met Wilhelm Albert...
(1812–1889) - Steam engine improvements: William Mcnaught (1831–1881)
- The FairlieFairlieA Fairlie is a type of articulated steam locomotive that has the driving wheels on bogies. The locomotive may be double-ended or single ended...
, a narrow gauge, double-bogieBogieA bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
railway engine: Robert Francis FairlieRobert Francis FairlieRobert Francis Fairlie was a Scottish railway engineer.- Early life :Fairlie was the son of T. Archibald Fairlie and Margaret Fairlie...
(1831–1885) - CorditeCorditeCordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance...
- Sir James Dewar, Sir Frederick Abel (1889)
Agricultural innovations
- ThreshingThreshingThreshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation after harvesting and before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain...
machine improvements: James Meikle (c.1690-c.1780) & Andrew MeikleAndrew MeikleAndrew Meikle was an early mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. This was regarded as one of the key developments of the British Agricultural Revolution in the late 18th century...
(1719–1811) - Hollow pipe drainageDrainageDrainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
: Sir Hew Dalrymple, Lord Drummore (1700–1753) - The Scotch Plough: James Anderson of HermistonJames Anderson of HermistonJames Anderson FRSE FSA was a Scottish agriculturist, journalist and economist. A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Anderson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment...
(1739–1808) - Deanstonisation soil-drainage system: James SmithJames Smith (inventor)James Smith was a Scottish inventor whose inventions include a reaping machine, a subsoil plough and the first endless chain of flats for carding....
(1789–1850) - The mechanical reaping machine: Rev. Patrick BellPatrick BellRev Patrick Bell was a Church of Scotland minister and inventor.-Biography:Born in the rural parish of Auchterhouse in Angus, Scotland, into a farming family, Bell chose to study divinity at the University of St Andrews...
(1799–1869) - The Fresno ScraperFresno ScraperThe Fresno Scraper is a machine used for constructing canals and ditches in sandy soil.It was invented in 1883 by the Scottish immigrant and entrepreneur James Porteous who, having worked with farmers in Fresno, California, had recognised the dependence of the Central San Joaquin Valley on...
: James PorteousJames PorteousJames Porteous was the Scottish-American inventor of the Fresno Scraper.James Porteous was born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. His father, William Porteous, had been a wheelwright and blacksmith who built and repaired carriages, wagons and farm equipment...
(1848–1922) - The Tuley tree shelter: Graham Tuley in 1979
Communication innovations
- Print stereotyping: William GedWilliam GedWilliam Ged was a Scottish goldsmith who invented stereotyping.Ged was born in Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a goldsmith...
(1690–1749) - Roller printingRoller printing on textilesRoller printing, also called cylinder printing or machine printing, on fabrics is a textile printing process patented by Thomas Bell of Scotland in 1783 in an attempt to reduce the cost of the earlier copperplate printing...
: Thomas Bell (patented 1783) - The adhesive postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
and the postmarkPostmarkthumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...
: James Chalmers (1782–1853) - Universal Standard Time: Sir Sandford FlemingSandford FlemingSir Sandford Fleming, was a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor, proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada's first postage stamp, a huge body of surveying and map making, engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding...
(1827–1915) - Light signalling between ships: Admiral Philip H. Colomb (1831–1899)
- The telephoneTelephoneThe telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
: Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
(1847–1922) - The teleprinterTeleprinterA teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
: Frederick G. CreedFrederick G. CreedFrederick George Creed was a Canadian inventor, who worked in the field of telecommunications, and played an early role in the development of SWATH vessels, The CCGS Frederick G...
(1871–1957) - The first working televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, and colour television; John Logie BairdJohn Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
(1888–1946) - RadarHistory of radarThe history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...
: Robert Watson-WattRobert Watson-WattSir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...
(1892–1973) - The underlying principles of RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
- James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) - The Automated Teller MachineAutomated teller machineAn automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
and Personal Identification NumberPersonal identification numberA personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
system - James GoodfellowJames GoodfellowJames Goodfellow OBE is a Scottish inventor. He patented Personal Identification Number technology, and is widely acknowledged as the inventor of Automatic Teller Machine technology, although John Shepherd-Barron also had a large part to play in their development.He was a development engineer...
(born 1937)
Publishing firsts
- The first edition of the Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
(1768–81) - The first English textbook on surgerySurgerySurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
(1597) - The first modern pharmacopaedia, William CullenWilliam CullenWilliam Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
(1776) The book became 'Europe’s principal text on the classification and treatment of disease'
his ideas survive in the terms nervous energy and neuroses
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
(a word that Cullen coined).
- The first postcardPostcardA postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s and picture postcards in the UK
Scientific innovations
- LogarithmLogarithmThe logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written...
s: John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(1550–1617) - The theory of electromagnetismElectromagnetismElectromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
: James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) - Popularising the decimal point: John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(1550–1617) - The world's first oil refineryOil refineryAn oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
and a process of extracting paraffin from coal laying the foundations for the modern oil industry: James Young (1811 – 1883) - The Gregorian telescopeGregorian telescopeThe Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory in the 17th century, and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke...
: James GregoryJames Gregory (astronomer and mathematician)James Gregory FRS was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He described an early practical design for the reflecting telescope – the Gregorian telescope – and made advances in trigonometry, discovering infinite series representations for several trigonometric functions.- Biography :The...
(1638–1675) - The concept of latent heatLatent heatLatent heat is the heat released or absorbed by a chemical substance or a thermodynamic system during a process that occurs without a change in temperature. A typical example is a change of state of matter, meaning a phase transition such as the melting of ice or the boiling of water. The term was...
: Joseph BlackJoseph BlackJoseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
(1728–1799) - The pyroscope, atmometerAtmometerThe atmometer or evaporimeter is a scientific instrument used for measuring the rate of evaporation from a wet surface to the atmosphere. It was invented by either the Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek or the Scottish mathematician and engineer Sir John Leslie .A simple set up may be made...
and aethrioscope scientific instruments: Sir John LeslieJohn Leslie (physicist)Sir John Leslie was a Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat.Leslie gave the first modern account of capillary action in 1802 and froze water using an air-pump in 1810, the first artificial production of ice.In 1804, he experimented with radiant heat using...
(1766–1832) - Identifying the nucleusCell nucleusIn cell biology, the nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells. It contains most of the cell's genetic material, organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a large variety of proteins, such as histones, to form chromosomes. The genes within these...
in living cellsCell (biology)The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
: Robert BrownRobert Brown (botanist)Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
(1773–1858) - Hypnotism: James Braid (1795–1860)
- Transplant rejectionTransplant rejectionTransplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after...
: Professor Thomas Gibson (1940s) the first medical doctor to understand the relationship between donor graft tissue and host tissue rejection and tissue transplantation by his work on aviation burns victims during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science.
Even before the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres: James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
the steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
, improving Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England, near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. Flooding was a major problem, limiting the depth at which the mineral could be mined...
's steam engine, the bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
, macadamisation (not to be confused with Tarmac or Tarmacadam) Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
the telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
discovered penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
, electromagnetics, radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, and insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
, are only a few of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are some way Scottish.
Road transport innovations
- Macadamised roads (the basis for, but not specifically, TarmacTarmacTarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
): John Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdam was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks....
(1756–1836) - The pedal bicycle: Attributed to both Kirkpatrick MacmillanKirkpatrick MacmillanKirkpatrick Macmillan was a Scottish blacksmith generally credited with inventing the rear-wheel driven bicycle.-Invention of pedal driven bicycle?:...
(1813–1878) and Thomas McCallThomas McCallThomas McCall was a Scottish cartwright. Born in Penpont he came to Kilmarnock at age 20, where he lived until his death ....
(1834–1904) - The pneumatic tyre: Robert William ThomsonRobert William ThomsonRobert William Thomson , from Stonehaven, Scotland, was the original inventor of the pneumatic tyre.-Biography:...
and John Boyd DunlopJohn Boyd DunlopJohn Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor. He was one of the founders of the rubber company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company....
(1822–1873) - The overhead valveOverhead valveAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
engine: David Dunbar BuickDavid Dunbar BuickDavid Dunbar Buick was a Scottish-born Detroit inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company...
(1854–1929)
Civil engineering innovations
- Tubular steel: Sir William FairbairnWilliam FairbairnSir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
(1789–1874) - Falkirk WheelFalkirk WheelThe Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift located in Scotland, UK,connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, opened in 2002. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk which is in central Scotland...
: Initial designs by Nicoll Russell Studios, ArchitectsNicoll Russell Studios, ArchitectsNicoll Russell Studios, Architects is an architecture practice based in Dundee, Scotland. The firm was established in 1982 by Andrew Nicoll and Ric Russell as a result of the completion of Dundee Repertory Theatre. Andrew Nicoll has since retired, and the practice is now led by Professor Ric...
and engineers Binnie Black and Veatch (Opened 2002) - The patent slipPatent slipThe patent slip or Marine Railway was invented by Scot Thomas Morton in 1818 as a cheaper alternative to a dry dock for ship repair. It consisted of an inclined plane, which extended well into the water, and a wooden cradle onto which a ship was floated...
for docking vessels: Thomas MortonThomas Morton (shipwright)Thomas Morton was a Scottish shipwright and inventor. His most widely known invention is the patent slip.-Biography:Morton was born in Leith in October 1781 and grew up to become a shipwright like his father, Hugh...
(1781–1832) The Edinburgh philosophical journal, Volume 2 Printed for Archibald Constable, 1820 - The Drummond Light: Thomas DrummondThomas DrummondCaptain Thomas Drummond , from Edinburgh, Scotland, was an army officer, civil engineer and senior public official. Drummond used the Drummond light which was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. He is sometimes mistakenly given credit for the invention of limelight,...
(1797–1840) - CanalCanalCanals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
design: Thomas TelfordThomas TelfordThomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
(1757–1834) The life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer: With an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain J. Murray, 1867 - DockDock (maritime)A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
design improvements: John Rennie (1761–1821) John Rennie 1761 - 1821 Manchester University Press ND - CraneCrane (machine)A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
design improvements: James BremnerJames BremnerJames Bremner a notable Scottish naval architect, harbour builder and ship-raiser.-Life and work:James, the youngest of the nine children of Janet and James Bremner, was born in Stain, near Keiss, in the parish of Wick, Caithness, in Scotland.At the age of 16, he was apprenticed for six years to...
(1784–1856) The industrial archaeology of Scotland, Volume 2 Macmillan of Canada, 1977 - Social Science
Aviation innovations
- Aircraft design: Frank Barnwell (1910) Establishing the fundamentals of aircraft design at the University of Glasgow.http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=4
Power innovations
- Condensing steam engineSteam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
improvements: James WattJames WattJames Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
(1736–1819) - Coal-gas lighting: William MurdochWilliam MurdochWilliam Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
(1754–1839) - The Stirling heat engine: Rev. Robert StirlingRobert StirlingThe Reverend Dr Robert Stirling was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the stirling engine.- Biography :Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children...
(1790–1878) - Carbon brushes for dynamoDynamo- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...
s: George ForbesGeorge Forbes (scientist)George Forbes FRS was an electrical engineer, astronomer, explorer, author and inventor, some of whose inventions are still in use.-Early life:...
(1849–1936) - The Clerk cycle gas engine: Sir Dugald Clerk (1854–1932)
- Cloud chamberCloud chamberThe cloud chamber, also known as the Wilson chamber, is a particle detector used for detecting ionizing radiation. In its most basic form, a cloud chamber is a sealed environment containing a supersaturated vapor of water or alcohol. When a charged particle interacts with the mixture, it ionizes it...
recording of atomAtomThe atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
s: Charles T. R. Wilson (1869–1959) - Wave-powered electricity generator:By South African Engineer Stephen SalterStephen SalterStephen Hugh Salter is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter duck wave energy device...
in 1977
Shipbuilding innovations
- Europe's first passenger steamboat: Henry Bell (1767–1830)
- The first ironIronIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
-hulledHull (watercraft)A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
steamship: Sir William FairbairnWilliam FairbairnSir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
(1789–1874) - The first practical screw propeller: Robert Wilson (1803–1882)
- Marine engine innovations: James Howden (1832–1913)
- John Elder & Charles Randolph (Marine Compound expansion engine)
Military innovations
- Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson two areas:
- Field intelligenceMilitary intelligenceMilitary intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
. Argued for the establishment of the Intelligence CorpsIntelligence CorpsThe Intelligence Corps is one of the corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security...
. Wrote Field Intelligence: Its Principles and Practice (1904) and Reconnaissance (1907) on the tactical intelligence of modern warfare during World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=59 - Royal Air Force. Considered instrumental in the foundation of the British Royal Air Force. http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=59
- Field intelligence
Heavy industry innovations
- Coal mining extraction in the sea on an artificial island by SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
George Bruce of CarnockGeorge Bruce of CarnockSir George Bruce of Carnock was a Scottish merchant and engineer. He was born in Carnock, near Dunfermline.-Coal mining:...
(1575). Regarded as one of the industrial wonders of the late medieval period.The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature: From Columba to the Union (Until 10707). By Ian Brown - Making cast steel from wrought ironWrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
: David MushetDavid MushetDavid Mushet was a Scottish metallurgist and the youngest son of Margaret Cochran and William Mushet.-Early life:Mushet was born on October 2, 1772, in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh. He was educated at Dalkeith Grammar School....
(1772–1847) - Wrought iron sash bars for glass housesGlass HousesGlass Houses is the seventh album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released in 1980 . It features Joel's first song to peak at #1 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." The album itself topped the Pop Albums chart for six weeks and was ranked number 4 on...
: John C. Loudon (1783–1865) Houses of glass: a nineteenth-century building type By Georg Kohlmaier, Barna von Sartory, John C. Harvey - The hot blast oven: James Beaumont Neilson (1792–1865) Dictionary of energy By Cutler J. Cleveland, Chris Morris
- The steam hammerSteam hammerA steam hammer is a power-driven hammer used to shape forgings. It consists of a hammer-like piston located within a cylinder. The hammer is raised by the pressure of steam injected into the lower part of a cylinder and falls down with a force by removing the steam. Usually, the hammer is made to...
: James NasmythJames NasmythJames Hall Nasmyth was a Scottish engineer and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company manufacturers of machine tools...
(1808–1890) Materials processing defects By Swadhin Kumar Ghosh, M. Predeleanu - Wire ropeWire ropethumb|Steel wire rope Wire rope is a type of rope which consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a helix. Initially wrought iron wires were used, but today steel is the main material used for wire ropes....
: Robert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling Newall FRS was a Scottish engineer and astronomer.Born in Dundee, he was befriended by civil engineer L.D.B. Gordon. In 1838, whilst studying at the Freiburg School of Mines, Germany, Gordon visited the mines at Clausthal, and met Wilhelm Albert...
(1812–1889) Iron: An illustrated weekly journal for iron and steel .., Volume 63 By Sholto Percy - Steam engine improvements: William Mcnaught (1831–1881) Repertory of patent inventions and other discoveries and improvements in arts, manufactures and agriculture MacIntosh 1846
- The FairlieFairlieA Fairlie is a type of articulated steam locomotive that has the driving wheels on bogies. The locomotive may be double-ended or single ended...
, a narrow gauge, double-bogieBogieA bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
railway engine: Robert Francis FairlieRobert Francis FairlieRobert Francis Fairlie was a Scottish railway engineer.- Early life :Fairlie was the son of T. Archibald Fairlie and Margaret Fairlie...
(1831–1885)American narrow gauge railroads By George Woodman Hilton - CorditeCorditeCordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance...
- Sir James Dewar, Sir Frederick Abel (1889) Nature: international journal of science 1917 MacMillan
Agricultural innovations
- ThreshingThreshingThreshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation after harvesting and before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain...
machine improvements: James Meikle (c.1690-c.1780) & Andrew MeikleAndrew MeikleAndrew Meikle was an early mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. This was regarded as one of the key developments of the British Agricultural Revolution in the late 18th century...
(1719–1811) Annual report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, Volume 2 By Indiana. State Board of Agriculture, Indiana. Geological Survey - Hollow pipe drainageDrainageDrainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
: Sir Hew Dalrymple, Lord Drummore (1700–1753) Great Scots By Betty Kirkpatrick - The Scotch Plough: James Anderson of HermistonJames Anderson of HermistonJames Anderson FRSE FSA was a Scottish agriculturist, journalist and economist. A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Anderson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment...
(1739–1808) The English cyclopædia: a new dictionary of universal knowledge, Volume 1 edited by Charles Knight - Deanstonisation soil-drainage system: James SmithJames Smith (inventor)James Smith was a Scottish inventor whose inventions include a reaping machine, a subsoil plough and the first endless chain of flats for carding....
(1789–1850) The new American cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge - The mechanical reaping machine: Rev. Patrick BellPatrick BellRev Patrick Bell was a Church of Scotland minister and inventor.-Biography:Born in the rural parish of Auchterhouse in Angus, Scotland, into a farming family, Bell chose to study divinity at the University of St Andrews...
(1799–1869) Journal of the Society of Arts, Volume 6 By Society of Arts (Great Britain) - The Fresno ScraperFresno ScraperThe Fresno Scraper is a machine used for constructing canals and ditches in sandy soil.It was invented in 1883 by the Scottish immigrant and entrepreneur James Porteous who, having worked with farmers in Fresno, California, had recognised the dependence of the Central San Joaquin Valley on...
: James PorteousJames PorteousJames Porteous was the Scottish-American inventor of the Fresno Scraper.James Porteous was born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. His father, William Porteous, had been a wheelwright and blacksmith who built and repaired carriages, wagons and farm equipment...
(1848–1922) - The Tuley tree shelter: Graham Tuley in 1979 The complete guide to trees of Britain and Northern Europe Alan F. Mitchell, David More
Communication innovations
- Print stereotyping: William GedWilliam GedWilliam Ged was a Scottish goldsmith who invented stereotyping.Ged was born in Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a goldsmith...
(1690–1749) - Roller printingRoller printing on textilesRoller printing, also called cylinder printing or machine printing, on fabrics is a textile printing process patented by Thomas Bell of Scotland in 1783 in an attempt to reduce the cost of the earlier copperplate printing...
: Thomas Bell (patented 1783) - The adhesive postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
and the postmarkPostmarkthumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...
: James Chalmers (1782–1853) - Universal Standard Time: Sir Sandford FlemingSandford FlemingSir Sandford Fleming, was a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor, proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada's first postage stamp, a huge body of surveying and map making, engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding...
(1827–1915) Communication and empire: media, markets, and globalization, 1860-1930 By Dwayne Roy Winseck, Robert M. Pike - Light signalling between ships: Admiral Philip H. Colomb (1831–1899) Military communications: from ancient times to the 21st century By Christopher H. Sterling
- The telephoneTelephoneThe telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
: Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
(1847–1922) - The teleprinterTeleprinterA teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
: Frederick G. CreedFrederick G. CreedFrederick George Creed was a Canadian inventor, who worked in the field of telecommunications, and played an early role in the development of SWATH vessels, The CCGS Frederick G...
(1871–1957) The worldwide history of telecommunications By Anton A. Huurdeman - The first working televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, and colour television; John Logie BairdJohn Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
(1888–1946) - RadarHistory of radarThe history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...
: Robert Watson-WattRobert Watson-WattSir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...
(1892–1973) - The underlying principles of RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
- James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) Radiolocation in Ubiquitous Wireless Communication By Danko Antolovic - The Automated Teller MachineAutomated teller machineAn automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
and Personal Identification NumberPersonal identification numberA personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
system - James GoodfellowJames GoodfellowJames Goodfellow OBE is a Scottish inventor. He patented Personal Identification Number technology, and is widely acknowledged as the inventor of Automatic Teller Machine technology, although John Shepherd-Barron also had a large part to play in their development.He was a development engineer...
(born 1937)
Publishing firsts
- The first edition of the Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
(1768–81) Encyclopaedic visions: scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture By Natasha J. Yeo - The first English textbook on surgerySurgerySurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
(1597) The Early history of surgery William John Bishop - 1995 - The first modern pharmacopaedia, William CullenWilliam CullenWilliam Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
(1776) The book became 'Europe’s principal text on the classification and treatment of disease'
his ideas survive in the terms nervous energy and neuroses
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
(a word that Cullen coined).Twenty Medical Classics of the Jefferson Era http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/rare_books/classics/#Cullen
- The first postcardPostcardA postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s and picture postcards in the UK Picture Postcards By C W Hill
Scientific innovations
- LogarithmLogarithmThe logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written...
s: John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(1550–1617)Ernest William Hobson. John Napier and the invention of logarithms, 1614. The University Press, 1914. - The theory of electromagnetismElectromagnetismElectromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
: James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) Encyclopaedia Britannica - James Clerk Maxwell - Popularising the decimal point: John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(1550–1617) Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston: his lineage, life, and times, with a .. By Mark Napier - The world's first oil refineryOil refineryAn oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
and a process of extracting paraffin from coal laying the foundations for the modern oil industry: James Young (1811 – 1883)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15648088 - The Gregorian telescopeGregorian telescopeThe Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory in the 17th century, and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke...
: James GregoryJames Gregory (astronomer and mathematician)James Gregory FRS was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He described an early practical design for the reflecting telescope – the Gregorian telescope – and made advances in trigonometry, discovering infinite series representations for several trigonometric functions.- Biography :The...
(1638–1675) Popular Astronomy By Simon Newcomb - The concept of latent heatLatent heatLatent heat is the heat released or absorbed by a chemical substance or a thermodynamic system during a process that occurs without a change in temperature. A typical example is a change of state of matter, meaning a phase transition such as the melting of ice or the boiling of water. The term was...
: Joseph BlackJoseph BlackJoseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
(1728–1799) Logic, language, information and computation: 15th international workshop, WoLLIC 2008, Edinburgh, UK, July 1–4, 2008 - The pyroscope, atmometerAtmometerThe atmometer or evaporimeter is a scientific instrument used for measuring the rate of evaporation from a wet surface to the atmosphere. It was invented by either the Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek or the Scottish mathematician and engineer Sir John Leslie .A simple set up may be made...
and aethrioscope scientific instruments: Sir John LeslieJohn Leslie (physicist)Sir John Leslie was a Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat.Leslie gave the first modern account of capillary action in 1802 and froze water using an air-pump in 1810, the first artificial production of ice.In 1804, he experimented with radiant heat using...
(1766–1832) Chambers's encyclopaedia: a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people Appleton 1864 - Identifying the nucleusCell nucleusIn cell biology, the nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells. It contains most of the cell's genetic material, organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a large variety of proteins, such as histones, to form chromosomes. The genes within these...
in living cellsCell (biology)The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
: Robert BrownRobert Brown (botanist)Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
(1773–1858) Biology: Concepts and Applications Without Physiology By Cecie Starr, Christine A. Evers, Lisa Starr - Hypnotism: James Braid (1795–1860) The Discovery of Hypnosis- The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotherapy James Braid, Donald Robertson (ed.) 2009
- Transplant rejectionTransplant rejectionTransplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after...
: Professor Thomas Gibson (1940s) the first medical doctor to understand the relationship between donor graft tissue and host tissue rejection and tissue transplantation by his work on aviation burns victims during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science.
Even before the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres: James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
the steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
, improving Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen
Thomas Newcomen was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England, near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. Flooding was a major problem, limiting the depth at which the mineral could be mined...
's steam engine, the bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
, macadamisation (not to be confused with Tarmac or Tarmacadam) Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
the telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
discovered penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
, electromagnetics, radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, and insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
, are only a few of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are some way Scottish.
Road transport innovations
- Macadamised roads (the basis for, but not specifically, TarmacTarmacTarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
): John Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdam was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks....
(1756–1836) - The pedal bicycle: Attributed to both Kirkpatrick MacmillanKirkpatrick MacmillanKirkpatrick Macmillan was a Scottish blacksmith generally credited with inventing the rear-wheel driven bicycle.-Invention of pedal driven bicycle?:...
(1813–1878) and Thomas McCallThomas McCallThomas McCall was a Scottish cartwright. Born in Penpont he came to Kilmarnock at age 20, where he lived until his death ....
(1834–1904) - The pneumatic tyre: Robert William ThomsonRobert William ThomsonRobert William Thomson , from Stonehaven, Scotland, was the original inventor of the pneumatic tyre.-Biography:...
and John Boyd DunlopJohn Boyd DunlopJohn Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor. He was one of the founders of the rubber company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company....
(1822–1873) - The overhead valveOverhead valveAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
engine: David Dunbar BuickDavid Dunbar BuickDavid Dunbar Buick was a Scottish-born Detroit inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company...
(1854–1929)
Civil engineering innovations
- Tubular steel: Sir William FairbairnWilliam FairbairnSir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
(1789–1874) - Falkirk WheelFalkirk WheelThe Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift located in Scotland, UK,connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, opened in 2002. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk which is in central Scotland...
: Initial designs by Nicoll Russell Studios, ArchitectsNicoll Russell Studios, ArchitectsNicoll Russell Studios, Architects is an architecture practice based in Dundee, Scotland. The firm was established in 1982 by Andrew Nicoll and Ric Russell as a result of the completion of Dundee Repertory Theatre. Andrew Nicoll has since retired, and the practice is now led by Professor Ric...
and engineers Binnie Black and Veatch (Opened 2002) - The patent slipPatent slipThe patent slip or Marine Railway was invented by Scot Thomas Morton in 1818 as a cheaper alternative to a dry dock for ship repair. It consisted of an inclined plane, which extended well into the water, and a wooden cradle onto which a ship was floated...
for docking vessels: Thomas MortonThomas Morton (shipwright)Thomas Morton was a Scottish shipwright and inventor. His most widely known invention is the patent slip.-Biography:Morton was born in Leith in October 1781 and grew up to become a shipwright like his father, Hugh...
(1781–1832) The Edinburgh philosophical journal, Volume 2 Printed for Archibald Constable, 1820 - The Drummond Light: Thomas DrummondThomas DrummondCaptain Thomas Drummond , from Edinburgh, Scotland, was an army officer, civil engineer and senior public official. Drummond used the Drummond light which was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. He is sometimes mistakenly given credit for the invention of limelight,...
(1797–1840) - CanalCanalCanals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
design: Thomas TelfordThomas TelfordThomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
(1757–1834) The life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer: With an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain J. Murray, 1867 - DockDock (maritime)A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
design improvements: John Rennie (1761–1821) John Rennie 1761 - 1821 Manchester University Press ND - CraneCrane (machine)A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
design improvements: James BremnerJames BremnerJames Bremner a notable Scottish naval architect, harbour builder and ship-raiser.-Life and work:James, the youngest of the nine children of Janet and James Bremner, was born in Stain, near Keiss, in the parish of Wick, Caithness, in Scotland.At the age of 16, he was apprenticed for six years to...
(1784–1856) The industrial archaeology of Scotland, Volume 2 Macmillan of Canada, 1977 - Social Science
Aviation innovations
- Aircraft design: Frank Barnwell (1910) Establishing the fundamentals of aircraft design at the University of Glasgow.http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=4
Power innovations
- Condensing steam engineSteam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
improvements: James WattJames WattJames Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
(1736–1819) - Coal-gas lighting: William MurdochWilliam MurdochWilliam Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
(1754–1839) - The Stirling heat engine: Rev. Robert StirlingRobert StirlingThe Reverend Dr Robert Stirling was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the stirling engine.- Biography :Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children...
(1790–1878) - Carbon brushes for dynamoDynamo- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...
s: George ForbesGeorge Forbes (scientist)George Forbes FRS was an electrical engineer, astronomer, explorer, author and inventor, some of whose inventions are still in use.-Early life:...
(1849–1936) - The Clerk cycle gas engine: Sir Dugald Clerk (1854–1932)
- Cloud chamberCloud chamberThe cloud chamber, also known as the Wilson chamber, is a particle detector used for detecting ionizing radiation. In its most basic form, a cloud chamber is a sealed environment containing a supersaturated vapor of water or alcohol. When a charged particle interacts with the mixture, it ionizes it...
recording of atomAtomThe atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
s: Charles T. R. Wilson (1869–1959) - Wave-powered electricity generator:By South African Engineer Stephen SalterStephen SalterStephen Hugh Salter is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter duck wave energy device...
in 1977
Shipbuilding innovations
- Europe's first passenger steamboat: Henry Bell (1767–1830)
- The first ironIronIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
-hulledHull (watercraft)A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
steamship: Sir William FairbairnWilliam FairbairnSir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
(1789–1874) - The first practical screw propeller: Robert Wilson (1803–1882)
- Marine engine innovations: James Howden (1832–1913)
- John Elder & Charles Randolph (Marine Compound expansion engine)
Military innovations
- Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson two areas:
- Field intelligenceMilitary intelligenceMilitary intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
. Argued for the establishment of the Intelligence CorpsIntelligence CorpsThe Intelligence Corps is one of the corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security...
. Wrote Field Intelligence: Its Principles and Practice (1904) and Reconnaissance (1907) on the tactical intelligence of modern warfare during World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=59 - Royal Air Force. Considered instrumental in the foundation of the British Royal Air Force. http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=59
- Field intelligence
Heavy industry innovations
- Coal mining extraction in the sea on an artificial island by SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
George Bruce of CarnockGeorge Bruce of CarnockSir George Bruce of Carnock was a Scottish merchant and engineer. He was born in Carnock, near Dunfermline.-Coal mining:...
(1575). Regarded as one of the industrial wonders of the late medieval period.The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature: From Columba to the Union (Until 10707). By Ian Brown - Making cast steel from wrought ironWrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
: David MushetDavid MushetDavid Mushet was a Scottish metallurgist and the youngest son of Margaret Cochran and William Mushet.-Early life:Mushet was born on October 2, 1772, in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh. He was educated at Dalkeith Grammar School....
(1772–1847) - Wrought iron sash bars for glass housesGlass HousesGlass Houses is the seventh album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released in 1980 . It features Joel's first song to peak at #1 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." The album itself topped the Pop Albums chart for six weeks and was ranked number 4 on...
: John C. Loudon (1783–1865) Houses of glass: a nineteenth-century building type By Georg Kohlmaier, Barna von Sartory, John C. Harvey - The hot blast oven: James Beaumont Neilson (1792–1865) Dictionary of energy By Cutler J. Cleveland, Chris Morris
- The steam hammerSteam hammerA steam hammer is a power-driven hammer used to shape forgings. It consists of a hammer-like piston located within a cylinder. The hammer is raised by the pressure of steam injected into the lower part of a cylinder and falls down with a force by removing the steam. Usually, the hammer is made to...
: James NasmythJames NasmythJames Hall Nasmyth was a Scottish engineer and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company manufacturers of machine tools...
(1808–1890) Materials processing defects By Swadhin Kumar Ghosh, M. Predeleanu - Wire ropeWire ropethumb|Steel wire rope Wire rope is a type of rope which consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a helix. Initially wrought iron wires were used, but today steel is the main material used for wire ropes....
: Robert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling Newall FRS was a Scottish engineer and astronomer.Born in Dundee, he was befriended by civil engineer L.D.B. Gordon. In 1838, whilst studying at the Freiburg School of Mines, Germany, Gordon visited the mines at Clausthal, and met Wilhelm Albert...
(1812–1889) Iron: An illustrated weekly journal for iron and steel .., Volume 63 By Sholto Percy - Steam engine improvements: William Mcnaught (1831–1881) Repertory of patent inventions and other discoveries and improvements in arts, manufactures and agriculture MacIntosh 1846
- The FairlieFairlieA Fairlie is a type of articulated steam locomotive that has the driving wheels on bogies. The locomotive may be double-ended or single ended...
, a narrow gauge, double-bogieBogieA bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
railway engine: Robert Francis FairlieRobert Francis FairlieRobert Francis Fairlie was a Scottish railway engineer.- Early life :Fairlie was the son of T. Archibald Fairlie and Margaret Fairlie...
(1831–1885)American narrow gauge railroads By George Woodman Hilton - CorditeCorditeCordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance...
- Sir James Dewar, Sir Frederick Abel (1889) Nature: international journal of science 1917 MacMillan
Agricultural innovations
- ThreshingThreshingThreshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation after harvesting and before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain...
machine improvements: James Meikle (c.1690-c.1780) & Andrew MeikleAndrew MeikleAndrew Meikle was an early mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. This was regarded as one of the key developments of the British Agricultural Revolution in the late 18th century...
(1719–1811) Annual report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, Volume 2 By Indiana. State Board of Agriculture, Indiana. Geological Survey - Hollow pipe drainageDrainageDrainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
: Sir Hew Dalrymple, Lord Drummore (1700–1753) Great Scots By Betty Kirkpatrick - The Scotch Plough: James Anderson of HermistonJames Anderson of HermistonJames Anderson FRSE FSA was a Scottish agriculturist, journalist and economist. A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Anderson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment...
(1739–1808) The English cyclopædia: a new dictionary of universal knowledge, Volume 1 edited by Charles Knight - Deanstonisation soil-drainage system: James SmithJames Smith (inventor)James Smith was a Scottish inventor whose inventions include a reaping machine, a subsoil plough and the first endless chain of flats for carding....
(1789–1850) The new American cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge - The mechanical reaping machine: Rev. Patrick BellPatrick BellRev Patrick Bell was a Church of Scotland minister and inventor.-Biography:Born in the rural parish of Auchterhouse in Angus, Scotland, into a farming family, Bell chose to study divinity at the University of St Andrews...
(1799–1869) Journal of the Society of Arts, Volume 6 By Society of Arts (Great Britain) - The Fresno ScraperFresno ScraperThe Fresno Scraper is a machine used for constructing canals and ditches in sandy soil.It was invented in 1883 by the Scottish immigrant and entrepreneur James Porteous who, having worked with farmers in Fresno, California, had recognised the dependence of the Central San Joaquin Valley on...
: James PorteousJames PorteousJames Porteous was the Scottish-American inventor of the Fresno Scraper.James Porteous was born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. His father, William Porteous, had been a wheelwright and blacksmith who built and repaired carriages, wagons and farm equipment...
(1848–1922) - The Tuley tree shelter: Graham Tuley in 1979 The complete guide to trees of Britain and Northern Europe Alan F. Mitchell, David More
Communication innovations
- Print stereotyping: William GedWilliam GedWilliam Ged was a Scottish goldsmith who invented stereotyping.Ged was born in Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a goldsmith...
(1690–1749) - Roller printingRoller printing on textilesRoller printing, also called cylinder printing or machine printing, on fabrics is a textile printing process patented by Thomas Bell of Scotland in 1783 in an attempt to reduce the cost of the earlier copperplate printing...
: Thomas Bell (patented 1783) - The adhesive postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
and the postmarkPostmarkthumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...
: James Chalmers (1782–1853) - Universal Standard Time: Sir Sandford FlemingSandford FlemingSir Sandford Fleming, was a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor, proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada's first postage stamp, a huge body of surveying and map making, engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding...
(1827–1915) Communication and empire: media, markets, and globalization, 1860-1930 By Dwayne Roy Winseck, Robert M. Pike - Light signalling between ships: Admiral Philip H. Colomb (1831–1899) Military communications: from ancient times to the 21st century By Christopher H. Sterling
- The telephoneTelephoneThe telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
: Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
(1847–1922) - The teleprinterTeleprinterA teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
: Frederick G. CreedFrederick G. CreedFrederick George Creed was a Canadian inventor, who worked in the field of telecommunications, and played an early role in the development of SWATH vessels, The CCGS Frederick G...
(1871–1957) The worldwide history of telecommunications By Anton A. Huurdeman - The first working televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, and colour television; John Logie BairdJohn Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
(1888–1946) - RadarHistory of radarThe history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...
: Robert Watson-WattRobert Watson-WattSir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...
(1892–1973) - The underlying principles of RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
- James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) Radiolocation in Ubiquitous Wireless Communication By Danko Antolovic - The Automated Teller MachineAutomated teller machineAn automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
and Personal Identification NumberPersonal identification numberA personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
system - James GoodfellowJames GoodfellowJames Goodfellow OBE is a Scottish inventor. He patented Personal Identification Number technology, and is widely acknowledged as the inventor of Automatic Teller Machine technology, although John Shepherd-Barron also had a large part to play in their development.He was a development engineer...
(born 1937)
Publishing firsts
- The first edition of the Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
(1768–81) Encyclopaedic visions: scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture By Natasha J. Yeo - The first English textbook on surgerySurgerySurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
(1597) The Early history of surgery William John Bishop - 1995 - The first modern pharmacopaedia, William CullenWilliam CullenWilliam Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
(1776) The book became 'Europe’s principal text on the classification and treatment of disease'
his ideas survive in the terms nervous energy and neuroses
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
(a word that Cullen coined).Twenty Medical Classics of the Jefferson Era http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/rare_books/classics/#Cullen
- The first postcardPostcardA postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s and picture postcards in the UK Picture Postcards By C W Hill
Scientific innovations
- LogarithmLogarithmThe logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written...
s: John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(1550–1617)Ernest William Hobson. John Napier and the invention of logarithms, 1614. The University Press, 1914. - The theory of electromagnetismElectromagnetismElectromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
: James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) Encyclopaedia Britannica - James Clerk Maxwell - Popularising the decimal point: John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(1550–1617) Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston: his lineage, life, and times, with a .. By Mark Napier - The world's first oil refineryOil refineryAn oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
and a process of extracting paraffin from coal laying the foundations for the modern oil industry: James Young (1811 – 1883)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15648088 - The Gregorian telescopeGregorian telescopeThe Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory in the 17th century, and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke...
: James GregoryJames Gregory (astronomer and mathematician)James Gregory FRS was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He described an early practical design for the reflecting telescope – the Gregorian telescope – and made advances in trigonometry, discovering infinite series representations for several trigonometric functions.- Biography :The...
(1638–1675) Popular Astronomy By Simon Newcomb - The concept of latent heatLatent heatLatent heat is the heat released or absorbed by a chemical substance or a thermodynamic system during a process that occurs without a change in temperature. A typical example is a change of state of matter, meaning a phase transition such as the melting of ice or the boiling of water. The term was...
: Joseph BlackJoseph BlackJoseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
(1728–1799) Logic, language, information and computation: 15th international workshop, WoLLIC 2008, Edinburgh, UK, July 1–4, 2008 - The pyroscope, atmometerAtmometerThe atmometer or evaporimeter is a scientific instrument used for measuring the rate of evaporation from a wet surface to the atmosphere. It was invented by either the Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek or the Scottish mathematician and engineer Sir John Leslie .A simple set up may be made...
and aethrioscope scientific instruments: Sir John LeslieJohn Leslie (physicist)Sir John Leslie was a Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat.Leslie gave the first modern account of capillary action in 1802 and froze water using an air-pump in 1810, the first artificial production of ice.In 1804, he experimented with radiant heat using...
(1766–1832) Chambers's encyclopaedia: a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people Appleton 1864 - Identifying the nucleusCell nucleusIn cell biology, the nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells. It contains most of the cell's genetic material, organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a large variety of proteins, such as histones, to form chromosomes. The genes within these...
in living cellsCell (biology)The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
: Robert BrownRobert Brown (botanist)Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
(1773–1858) Biology: Concepts and Applications Without Physiology By Cecie Starr, Christine A. Evers, Lisa Starr - Hypnotism: James Braid (1795–1860) The Discovery of Hypnosis- The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotherapy James Braid, Donald Robertson (ed.) 2009
- Transplant rejectionTransplant rejectionTransplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after...
: Professor Thomas Gibson (1940s) the first medical doctor to understand the relationship between donor graft tissue and host tissue rejection and tissue transplantation by his work on aviation burns victims during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. http://www.worldchanging.glasgow.ac.uk/article/?id=53 - Colloid chemistry: Thomas GrahamThomas Graham (chemist)Thomas Graham FRS was a nineteenth-century Scottish chemist who is best-remembered today for his pioneering work in dialysis and the diffusion of gases.- Life and work :...
(1805–1869) Colloid chemistry Robert James Hartman, Herman Thompson Briscoe Houghton Mifflin Co., 1947 - The kelvinKelvinThe kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units and is assigned the unit symbol K. The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all...
SISiSi, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
unitUnits of measurementA unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...
of temperatureTemperatureTemperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
: William ThomsonWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron KelvinWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging...
, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Chemistry and chemical reactivity, Volume 2 By John C. Kotz, Paul Treichel, John Raymond Townsend - Devising the diagramatic system of representing chemical bonds: Alexander Crum BrownAlexander Crum BrownAlexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS was a Scottish organic chemist.-Biography:Born in Edinburgh, the half-brother of the physician and essayist John Brown, he studied for five years at the Royal High School, succeeded by one year at Mill Hill School in London...
(1838–1922) Scottish pride: 101 reasons to be proud of your Scottish heritage Heather Duncan - Criminal fingerprintFingerprintA fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
ing: Henry FauldsHenry FauldsDr Henry Faulds was a Scottish scientist who is noted for the development of fingerprinting.-Early life:Faulds was born in the Scottish town of Beith, North Ayrshire into a family of modest means...
(1843–1930) Criminalistics: Forensic Science and Crime By James Girard - The noble gasNoble gasThe noble gases are a group of chemical elements with very similar properties: under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases, with very low chemical reactivity...
es: Sir William RamsayWilliam RamsaySir William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" .-Early years:Ramsay was born in Glasgow on 2...
(1852–1916) Noble Gases By Jens Thomas - The Cloud chamberCloud chamberThe cloud chamber, also known as the Wilson chamber, is a particle detector used for detecting ionizing radiation. In its most basic form, a cloud chamber is a sealed environment containing a supersaturated vapor of water or alcohol. When a charged particle interacts with the mixture, it ionizes it...
: Charles Thomson Rees WilsonCharles Thomson Rees WilsonCharles Thomson Rees Wilson, CH, FRS was a Scottish physicist and meteorologist who received the Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the cloud chamber.- Biography:...
(1869–1959) The world of the atom
Henry Abraham Boorse, Lloyd Motz Basic Books, inc., 1966
- Pioneering work on nutritionNutritionNutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
and povertyPovertyPoverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
: John Boyd Orr (1880–1971) Encyclopaedia Britannica: Lord Boyd Orr - The ultrasound scanner: Ian DonaldIan DonaldIan Donald was a Scottish physician who pioneered the use of diagnostic ultrasound in medicine. His article Investigation of Abdominal Masses by Pulsed Ultrasound, published June 7, 1958 in the medical journal The Lancet, was one of the defining publications in the field...
(1910–1987) Ian Donald's Practical Obstetric Problem, 6/e By Renu Misra - FerroceneFerroceneFerrocene is an organometallic compound with the formula Fe2. It is the prototypical metallocene, a type of organometallic chemical compound consisting of two cyclopentadienyl rings bound on opposite sides of a central metal atom. Such organometallic compounds are also known as sandwich compounds...
synthetic substances: Peter Ludwig Pauson in 1955 Journal of the Chemical Society
Chemical Society (Great Britain), Bureau of Chemical Abstracts (Great Britain) The Society, 1920
- The MRI body scanner: John MallardJohn MallardJohn Mallard OBE FRSE was Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Aberdeen from 1965 until his retirement in 1992. He is known for his and his colleague's work in the development of radionuclide imaging, magnetic resonance imaging and, in particular, positron emission tomography...
and James Huchinson from (1974–1980) A history of neurosurgery: in its scientific and professional contexts By Samuel H. Greenblatt, T. Forcht Dagi - The first clonedCloningCloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
mammal (Dolly the SheepDolly the SheepDolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland...
): Was conducted in The Roslin Institute research centre in 1996 From Sea Urchins to Dolly the Sheep: Discovering Cloning Sally Morgan Heinemann/Raintree, 2007 - SeismometerSeismometerSeismometers are instruments that measure motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other seismic sources...
innovations thereof: James David ForbesJames David ForbesJames David Forbes was a Scottish physicist and glaciologist who worked extensively on the conduction of heat and seismology. Forbes was a resident of Edinburgh for most of his life, educated at the University and a professor there from 1833 until he became principal of the United College of St...
Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Royal Scottish Society of Arts Neill & Co., 1883 - Metaflex fabric innovations thereof: University of St. Andrews (2010) application of the first manufacturing fabrics that manipulate light in bending it around a subject. Before this such light manipulating atoms were fixed on flat hard surfaces. The team at St Andrews are the first to develop the concept to fabric.http://news.stv.tv/internet-technology/206620-scientists-reveal-material-for-invisibility-cloak/
- MacaulayiteMacaulayiteMacaulayite is a red, earthy, monoclinic mineral, with the chemical formula 24Si4O432. It was discovered in the 1970s by Dr Jeff Wilson and named after the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland...
: Dr. Jeff Wilson of the Macaulay InstituteMacaulay InstituteThe Macaulay Land Use Research Institute is a research institute based at Aberdeen in Scotland...
, AberdeenAberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
.A Handbook of determinative methods in clay mineralogy Michael Jeffrey Wilson, Michael John Wilson Blackie, 1987
Sports innovations
Scots have been instrumental in the invention and early development of several sports:- several modern athleticsAthletics (track and field)Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
events, i.e. shot putShot putThe shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy metal ball—the shot—as far as possible. It is common to use the term "shot put" to refer to both the shot itself and to the putting action....
and the hammer throwHammer throwThe modern or Olympic hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown...
, derive from Highland GamesHighland gamesHighland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &(-è_çà in Scotland and other countries as a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands. Certain...
and earlier 12th century ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... - CurlingCurlingCurling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...
Curling: the ancient Scottish game James Taylor W. Paterson, 1887 - Sports & Recreation - Gaelic handballGaelic handballGaelic handball is a sport similar to Basque pelota, racquetball, squash and American handball . It is one of the four Gaelic games organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association...
The modern game of handball is first recorded in Scotland in 1427, when King James I an ardent handball player had his men block up a cellar window in his palace courtyard that was interfering with his game.Sports and games of the 18th and 19th centuries Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003 p84 - CyclingCyclingCycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
, invention of the pedal-cycle The Wheelmen Wheelmen (Organization) 2000 - GolfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
(see Golf in ScotlandGolf in ScotlandGolf in Scotland was first recorded in the 15th century, and the modern game of golf was first developed and established in the country. The game plays a key role in the national sporting consciousness....
) - ShintyShintyShinty is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands, and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread, being once competitively played on a widespread basis in England and other areas in the...
The history of Shinty as a non-standardised sport pre-dates Scotland the Nation. The rules were standardised in the 19th century by Archibald Chisholm Sport in the making of Celtic cultures By Grant Jarvie - Rugby sevensRugby sevensRugby sevens, also known as seven-a-side or VIIs, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Rugby sevens is administered by the International Rugby Board , the body responsible for rugby union worldwide...
: Ned Haig and David Sanderson (1883)
Medical innovations
- Pioneering the use of surgical anaesthesia with ChloroformChloroformChloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
: Sir James Young SimpsonJames Young SimpsonSir James Young Simpson was a Scottish doctor and an important figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use....
(1811–1870) Drug discovery: a history By Walter Sneader - The hypodermic syringe: Alexander WoodAlexander Wood (physician)Alexander Wood , was a Scottish physician. He invented the first true hypodermic syringe.The son of Dr James Wood and his wife Mary, Alexander was born on 10 December 1817 in Cupar, Fife, and educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University .In 1853 invented the first hypodermic needle that...
(1817–1884) Karch's pathology of drug abuse By Steven B. Karch - Discovery of hypnotism (November 1841): James Braid (1795-1860) The Discovery of Hypnosis- The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotism By James Braid, Donald Robertson (ed.)
- Identifying the mosquitoMosquitoMosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
as the carrier of malariaMalariaMalaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
: Sir Ronald RossRonald RossSir Ronald Ross KCB FRS was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. He was the first Indian-born person to win a Nobel Prize...
(1857–1932) Assam Branch, Indian Tea Association, 1889-1989: centenary souvenir - Identifying the cause of brucellosisBrucellosisBrucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...
: Sir David BruceDavid Bruce (microbiologist)Major-General Sir David Bruce KCB FRS FRSE was a Scottish pathologist and microbiologist who investigated the Malta-fever and trypanosomes, identifying the cause of sleeping sickness....
(1855–1931) Madkour's Brucellosis M. Monir Madkour - 2001 - Discovering the vaccine for typhoid fever: Sir William B. Leishman (1865–1926) Recruit Medicine edited by Bernard DeKoning
- Discovering insulinInsulinInsulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
: John J R Macleod (1876–1935) with others - PenicillinPenicillinPenicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
: Sir Alexander FlemingAlexander FlemingSir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
(1881–1955) - Ambulight PDT: light-emitting sticking plaster used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) for treating non-melanoma skin cancer. Developed by Ambicare Dundee's Ninewells Hospital and St Andrews University. (2010)
- Discovering an effective tuberculosis treatmentTuberculosis treatmentTuberculosis treatment refers to the medical treatment of the infectious disease tuberculosis .The standard "short" course treatment for TB is isoniazid, rifampicin , pyrazinamide, and ethambutol for two months, then isoniazid and rifampicin alone for a further four months...
: Sir John Crofton in the 1950s Crofton and Douglas's respiratory diseases, Volume 1 By Anthony Seaton, Douglas Seaton, Andrew Gordon Leitch, Sir John Crofton - Primary creator of the artificial kidney (Professor Kenneth Lowe - Later Queen's physician in Scotland) Research in British universities, polytechnics and colleges British Library, British Library. RBUPC Office
- Developing the first beta-blocker drugs: Sir James W. BlackJames W. BlackSir James Whyte Black, OM, FRS, FRSE, FRCP was a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist. He spent his career both as researcher and as an academic at several universities. Black established the physiology department at the University of Glasgow, where he became interested in the effects of adrenaline...
in 1964 Milestones in health and medicine Anne S. Harding Oryx Press, 2000 - Medical - Glasgow Coma ScaleGlasgow Coma ScaleGlasgow Coma Scale or GCS is a neurological scale that aims to give a reliable, objective way of recording the conscious state of a person for initial as well as subsequent assessment...
: Graham Teasdale and Bryan J. Jennett (1974) - EKG [Electrocardiography]: Alexander Muirhead (1911) Clinical Examination In Cardiology By Rao
Household innovations
- The TelevisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
John Logie BairdJohn Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
(1923) - The RefrigeratorRefrigeratorA refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
: William CullenWilliam CullenWilliam Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
(1748) - The Flush toiletFlush toiletA flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets , but many squat toilets also are made for automated flushing...
: Alexander Cummings (1775) Did Thomas Crapper Really Invent the Toilet?: The Inventions That Changed Our Homes and Our Lives Catherine O'Reilly - The Dewar FlaskDewar flaskA Dewar flask is a vessel designed to provide very good thermal insulation. For instance, when filled with a hot liquid, the vessel will not allow the heat to easily escape, and the liquid will stay hot for far longer than in a typical container...
: Sir James DewarJames DewarSir James Dewar FRS was a Scottish chemist and physicist. He is probably best-known today for his invention of the Dewar flask, which he used in conjunction with extensive research into the liquefaction of gases...
(1847–1932) Case Studies in Superconducting Magnets: Design and Operational Issues By Yukikazu Iwasa - The first distiller to triple distill Irish whiskeyIrish whiskeyIrish whiskey is whiskey made in Ireland.Key regulations defining Irish whiskey and its production are established by the Irish Whiskey Act of 1980, and are relatively simple...
http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/Home.aspx:John Jameson (Whisky distiller) - The piano footpedal: John BroadwoodJohn BroadwoodJohn Broadwood was the Scottish founder of the piano manufacturer Broadwood and Sons.-Life:Broadwood was born 6 October 1732 and christened 15 Oct 1732 at St Helens, Cockburnspath in Berwickshire, and grew up in Oldhamstocks, East Lothian...
(1732–1812) The wonders of the piano: the anatomy of the instrument Catherine C. Bielefeldt, Alfred R. Weil - The first automated can-filing machine John WestJohn West (captain)John West was a Scottish inventor and businessman who immigrated to Canada, California and later Oregon where he operated a cannery and exported salmon to Great Britain.-Biography:Captain John West was a self-made man...
(1809–1888) http://www.jstor.org/pss/20612107 - The waterproof macintosh: Charles Macintosh (1766–1843) The Picture History of Great Inventors By Gillian Clements
- The kaleidoscopeKaleidoscopeA kaleidoscope is a circle of mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other end creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off the mirrors...
: Sir David BrewsterDavid BrewsterSir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA FSSA MICE was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.-Early life:...
(1781–1868) The kaleidoscope, its history, theory and construction with its application By Sir David Brewster - Keiller's marmaladeKeiller's marmaladeKeiller's marmalade, named after its creator Janet Keiller, is believed to have been the first commercial brand of marmalade, produced in Dundee, Scotland....
Janet Keiller (1797) - The first recipe of rind suspended marmalade or Dundee marmalade produced in DundeeDundeeDundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
. - The modern lawnmower: Alexander Shanks (1801–1845) Grass tennis courts: how to construct and maintain them By J. Perris
- The Lucifer friction match: Sir Isaac Holden (1807–1897) Wonders of the nineteenth century: a panoramic review of the inventions and discoveries of the past hundred years John Wesley Hanson W. B. Conkey, 1900
- The self filling pen: Robert ThomsonRobert William ThomsonRobert William Thomson , from Stonehaven, Scotland, was the original inventor of the pneumatic tyre.-Biography:...
(1822–1873) Pen Portraits: Alexandria Virginia 1739-1900 By T. Michael Miller - Cotton-reel threadYarnYarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
: J & J Clark of PaisleyPaisleyPaisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...
the commercial directory and shipers guide 1875 - Lime CordialLime cordialLime cordial is a mixture of concentrated lime and sugar, sometimes used as a mixer for cocktail. While lime cordial can be diluted and consumed with vodka or water, any liquid will suffice....
: Peter Burnett in 1867 The lancet London: a journal of British and foreign medicine, surgery, obstetrics, physiology, chemistry, pharmacology, public health and news Elsevier, 1870 - BovrilBovrilBovril is the trademarked name of a thick, salty meat extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston and sold in a distinctive, bulbous jar. It is made in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, owned and distributed by Unilever UK....
beefBeefBeef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
extract: John Lawson JohnstonJohn Lawson JohnstonJohn Lawson Johnston was the creator of Bovril.He was born in 29 Main Street, Roslin, Midlothian. A plaque is on the property and can be seen above the door...
in 1874 Thompson, William Phillips (1920). Handbook of patent law of all countries. London: Stevens. pp. 42 - Electric clockElectric clockAn electric clock is a clock that is powered by electricity instead of powered manually or by other sources of energy, specifically in order to wind the mainspring or to drive the pendulum or oscillator.-Classification:...
: Alexander BainAlexander Bain (inventor)Alexander Bain was a Scottish inventor and engineer who was first to invent and patent the electric clock. Bain installed the railway telegraph lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow.-Early life:...
(1840) An account of some remarkable applications of the electric fluid to the useful arts by Alexander Bain - Chemical Telegraph (Automatic Telegraphy) Alexander BainAlexander Bain (inventor)Alexander Bain was a Scottish inventor and engineer who was first to invent and patent the electric clock. Bain installed the railway telegraph lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow.-Early life:...
(1846) In England Bain's telegraph was used on the wires of the Electric Telegraph Company to a limited extent, and in 1850 it was used in America.Alexander Bain of Watten: genius of the North
Robert P. Gunn Caithness Field Club, 1976
Weapons innovations
- The carronade cannon: Robert MelvilleRobert MelvilleRobert Melvill was a Scottish soldier, botanist and inventor. He served as a general in the British Army and was a prominent antiquary....
(1723–1809) - The Ferguson rifleFerguson rifleThe Ferguson rifle was one of the first breech loading rifles to be widely tested by the British military. Other breech loaders were experimented with in various commands, including earlier versions of the Ordnance rifle by Patrick Ferguson when he was in the "Fever Islands" . It was often...
: Patrick FergusonPatrick FergusonMajor Patrick Ferguson was a Scottish officer in the British Army, early advocate of light infantry and designer of the Ferguson rifle. He is best known for his service in the 1780 military campaign of Charles Cornwallis, in which he aggressively recruited Loyalists and harshly treated Patriot...
in 1770 or 1776 The Ferguson Rifle by Louis L'Amour - The Lee bolt system as used in the Lee-MetfordLee-MetfordThe Lee-Metford rifle was a bolt action British army service rifle, combining James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system and ten-round magazine with a seven groove rifled barrel designed by William Ellis Metford...
and Lee-EnfieldLee-EnfieldThe Lee-Enfield bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle was the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century...
series rifles: James Paris LeeJames Paris LeeJames Paris Lee was a Scottish-Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer, best known for inventing the bolt action that led to the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield series of rifles.-Early Life and Career:...
Rifles of the World By John Walter - The Ghillie suitGhillie suitA ghillie suit, wookie suit, yowie suit, or camo tent is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble heavy foliage. Typically, it is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of cloth or twine, sometimes made to look like leaves and twigs, and optionally augmented with scraps of foliage...
Long Rifle: A Sniper's Story in Iraq and Afghanistan By Joe LeBleu - The Percussion CapPercussion capThe percussion cap, introduced around 1830, was the crucial invention that enabled muzzleloading firearms to fire reliably in any weather.Before this development, firearms used flintlock ignition systems which produced flint-on-steel sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the...
: invented by Scottish Presbyterian clergyman Alexander Forsyth Blood on the Nash Ambassador: investigations in American culture Eric Mottram Hutchinson Radius, 1989
Miscellaneous innovations
- Boys' BrigadeBoys' BrigadeFor the 80s New Wave band from Canada, see Boys Brigade .The Boys' Brigade is an interdenominational Christian youth organisation, conceived by William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun activities with Christian values...
Raynor, Tauria (2008-10-30). "Boys' Brigade want alumni to return for a special anniversary". The Royal Gazette. http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7d8af2f30030024§ionId=60. Retrieved 2008-10-30. - Bank of EnglandBank of EnglandThe Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
devised by William PatersonWilliam Paterson (banker)Sir William Paterson was a Scottish trader and banker.- Early life :... - Bank of France devised by John LawJohn Law (economist)John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade...
- Colour photography: the first known permanent colour photograph was taken by James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879) The Focal encyclopedia of photography By Leslie Stroebel, Richard D. Zakia
See also
- List of domesticated Scottish breeds
- Homecoming Scotland 2009Homecoming Scotland 2009Homecoming Scotland 2009 was a series of events designed to attract people of Scottish ancestry to visit Scotland. The campaign, organised by EventScotland and VisitScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, and part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, claimed that "for every...
- English inventions and discoveriesEnglish inventions and discoveriesEnglish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques invented or discovered partially or entirely by a person born in England. In some cases, their Englishness is determined by the fact that they were born in England, of non-English people working in the country...
- Welsh inventions and discoveriesWelsh inventions and discoveriesThis is a list of people of Welsh origin who are recognised as innovators and inventors who have made notable contributions to technical or theoretical world advancements....
- Irish inventions and discoveriesIrish inventions and discoveriesIrish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques which owe their existence either partially or entirely to an Irish person. Often, things which are discovered for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two...
- Dutch inventions and discoveriesDutch inventions and discoveriesThe Dutch people have a history and tradition in inventing and discovery. Dutch scientists and engineers have made a remarkable contribution to human progress as a whole, from something as simple as the sawmill to microbiology and artificial organs....
- German inventions and discoveriesGerman inventions and discoveriesThe following list is composed of items, techniques and processes that were invented by or discovered by people from Germany or German-speaking Europe.-Anatomy:* Ampulla of Vater * Auerbach's plexus * Brodmann's areas * Canals of Hering...
- Swedish inventionsSwedish inventionsSwedish inventions are novel ideas and machines that have been pioneered in Sweden.In the 18th century Sweden's scientific revolution took off. Previously, technical progress had mainly come from professionals who had immigrated from mainland Europe...
Publications
- Great Scottish Discoveries and Inventions, Bill Fletcher, William W. Fletcher, John Harrold, Drew, 1985, University of California, ISBN 0862670845, 9780862670849
- Great Scottish inventions and discoveries: a concise guide : a selection of Scottish inventions and discoveries made over a period stretching back to the fifteenth century, John Geddes, Northern Books, 1994
- Scottish Inventors, Alistair Fyfe, HarperCollins, 1999, ISBN 0004723260, 9780004723266
- The Scottish invention of America, democracy and human rights: a history of liberty and freedom from the ancient Celts to the New Millennium, Alexander Leslie Klieforth, Robert John Munro, University Press of America, 2004, ISBN 0761827919, 9780761827917
- The Scottish invention of English literature, Robert Crawford, Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0521590388, 9780521590389
- Philosophical chemistry in the Scottish enlightenment: the doctrines and discoveries of William Cullen and Joseph Black, Arthur L. Donovan
External links
- Top Twenty Scottish Inventions, 15th International World Wide Web Conference, Edinburgh, 2006
- Scottish Inventors . . . who keep the world in touch, Global Friends of Scotland (a Scottish ExecutiveScottish ExecutiveThe Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...
website) - Scottish Inventors and their Inventions, Kenmay Academy