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. Some of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity include James Watt's steam engine, improving on that of Thomas Newcomen, the bicycle, macadamisation (not to be confused with tarmac or tarmacadam), the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, John Logie Baird's invention of television, Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin, and the discoveries of electromagnetics, radar, and insulin.
The following is a list of inventions or discoveries that are in some way Scottish.
Read more about Scottish Inventions And Discoveries: Road Transport Innovations, Civil Engineering Innovations, Aviation Innovations, Power Innovations, Shipbuilding Innovations, Military Innovations, Heavy Industry Innovations, Agricultural Innovations, Communication Innovations, Publishing Firsts, Scientific Innovations, Sports Innovations, Medical Innovations, Household Innovations, Weapons Innovations, Miscellaneous Innovations
Famous quotes containing the words scottish, inventions and/or discoveries:
“I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,—and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.”
—Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, Baron of Saltwood (1903–1983)
“One of the most horrible, yet most important, discoveries of our age has been that, if you really wish to destroy a person and turn him into an automaton, the surest method is not physical torture, in the strict sense, but simply to keep him awake, i.e., in an existential relation to life without intermission.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)