African Forum Scotland proudly present extracts from
THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT
A brief history reflecting the Scots love of learning which has delivered global achievement and historic innovation across the entire spectrum of entrepreneurship and knowledge management
In the year
1295
The ‘Auld Alliance’ recording mutual interests and mutual security between the Kingdoms of Scotland and France was signed. Joint citizenship was still recognised by France until 1903.
1496
Scottish Education Act made schooling compulsory for boys aged 8-9 upwards to enable justice to be administered and properly understood by all freeholders. Competence in reading, writing, Latin and Greek was then followed by 3 years of Art and the Law
1509
Scots traders sailed regularly to Norway in 4 days. Travel to London took 7-10 days
1540
Scotland traded regularly with Norway, Poland, Holland, Germany and especially France
1616
School Establishment Act mandated and established publically funded, Church supervised schools for all Scots children. Knowledge and Learning was taught alongside civility, and godliness.
1691
The Scot William Paterson founded the Bank of England
1695
Scottish Parliament founded the Bank of Scotland
1696
Bank of Scotland issued the world’s first paper currency
1711
The world renowned philosopher David Hume epitomised the Scots Enlightenment which let able and original men develop themselves in a freethinking and stateless society. Born in Scotland at the age of 26 he wrote his world famous ‘Treatise of Human Nature’ – a masterpiece. His radical thinking helped changed the history of philosophy.
1716
The Scot George Cleghorn who discovered quinine to combat Malaria was born
The Scot surgeon James Lind who discovered the cure for ‘scurvy’ was born
1723
The Scot Adam Ferguson the Father of Sociology was born
1726
James Hutton of Edinburgh who was the ‘Father of Modern Geology’ was born
James Black who discovered carbon dioxide and was the ‘Father of Chemistry’ was born
1727
Royal Bank of Scotland incorporated
1754
The Scot William Murdoch who invented gas lighting was born
1757
The Scot Thomas Telford bridge-builder, road and Caledonian Canal builder was born
1759
Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet born. – author of Tam O’Shanter & Auld Lang Syne
1760
Scottish School of Design incorporated
1766
Charles McIntosh invented waterproof fabrics
1768
Encyclopaedia Britannica published in Edinburgh by William Smellie
1769
James Watt invented the Steam Engine
1770
Haggis served on board HMS Endeavour by Captain Cook just off New Zealand
The Scots scientific explorer James Bruce discovered the source of the Blue Nile in Africa
1771
The industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen was born in New Lanark, Scotland
Novelist Sir Walter Scott who wrote Ivanhoe, The Waverley Novels and of course Marmion in which he penned the proverbial words ‘Oh! What a tangle web we weave, when first we practice to deceive’ was born
Birth of the Explorer and Doctor Mungo Park who charted the course of the River Niger
1772
Robert Stevenson who built 18 Scots Lighthouses was born. He was the grandfather of Scots author Robert Louis Stevenson of Kidnapped and Treasure Island fame.
1773
Persecuted Scots during the Clearances landed in Canada
1774
Reverend Henry Duncan who founded the world’s very first savings bank was born
1776
Adam Smith published a ‘Wealth of Nations’
Scots Economist and Philosopher David Hume died
1780
James Watt and Co manufactured the world’s first duplication machines
1780
African Explorer Alexander Laing was born
1782
James Chalmers of Arbroath devised the first adhesive postage stamp
1783
Royal Society of Edinburgh incorporated by Royal Charter
1786
The Kilmarnock Edition of Robert Burns poetry in the Scots dialect published in Edinburgh
1788
World’s first Steamboat tested in Scotland by Patrick Miller & William Symington
1789
World first ‘whisky’ produced from maize produced by Scots Clergyman Elijah Craig
1790
Adam Smith the Scots born economist and advocate of ‘free trade (laissez-faire)’ and liberalism, died. His book The Wealth of Nations remains popular and relevant and is published and read to this day.
1791
Robert Napier the father of ‘Clyde Shipbuilding’ was born
1792
Robert Burns published ‘The Rights of Women’
1793
Robert Burns published ‘Scots Wha Hae’
1794
The Scot John Witherspoon who signed the America Declaration of Independence, died
Robert Liston carried out the first ever operation using anaesthetic
1795
Robert Burns wrote ‘A mans a Man for a That’ and ‘The Tree of Liberty’
1796
Robert Burns died in Dumfries – Mungo Park reached the source of the Nile
1819
The Scots evangelical missionary David Livingston was born
1848
The Scots evangelist and African missionary Mary Slessor was born
1788
William Cullen invented the refrigerator
1775
Alexander Cumming invented the first flush toilet
1792
William Murdoch invented Coal Gas lighting
1806
Charles McIntosh invented the waterproof mackintosh
1827
Sir William Fairbain invented tubular steel
1837
Reverend Patrick bell designed the mechanical reaping machine
1840
Alexander Bain invented the electronic clock
1841
The first practical screw propellor was invented by Robert Wilson
1846
The Steam Hammer was invented by James Nasmith
1848
Kirkpatrick Macmillan invented the pedal bicycle
1849
James Young founded the worlds first Oil Refinery using paraffin coal
1849
Sir James Young Simpson discovered chloroform
1850
Wire Rope was invented by Robert Newall
1852
Robert Thomson and John Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre
1855
Alexander Wood invented the hypodermic syringe
1868
Dr Thomas Latta invented the saline drip
1869
James Clerk Maxwell discovered the underlying principles of Radio
1869
James Clerk Maxwell took the first permanent colour photograph
1870
James Clerk Maxwell introduced the theory of electromagnetism
1881
Henry Faulds introduced criminal fingerprinting
1884
Sir Jazmes dewar invented the vacuum flask
1885
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
1890
David Buick invented the overhead valve engine
1905
Sir William leishman invented the vaccine for typhoid fever
1909
Frederick Creed invented the Teleprinter
1916
John McLeod discovered insulin
1923
John Logie baird invented the television
1930
Robert Watson Watt pioneered Radar
1931
James Young Simpson pioneered general anesthetics
1931
Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin
1936
John Macintyre pioneered X-ray cinematography
1958
Kenneth Lowe created the artificial kidney
1960
Ian Donald introduced the first applications of the ultrasound scanner
1964
Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University delivered the Higgs boson Theory on splitting subatomic particles
1964
Sir James Black invented beta-blockers
1996
Dr Ian Wilmut designed and created the world’s first cloned mammal
1998
The Pelamis Wave Energy Convertor was invented by Richard Yemm
2002
Nicoll Russel and binne Black designed the weighted Falkirk Wheel to raise or lower canal traffic to new levels
2005
Network Rail Scotland invented the Rail Transposer to lay or renew new rail track
2013
St Andrews University team created an innovative and functioning tractor beam
