Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented, innovated, 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.
Some Scottish contributions have indirectly and directly led to controversial political ideas and policies, such as the measures taken to enforce British hegemony in the time of the British Empire.
Some of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity include James Watt's steam engine, improving on that of Thomas Newcomen, joint role in creating the bicycle, macadamisation (not to be confused with tarmac or tarmacadam), Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the first practical telephone, John Logie Baird's invention of television,The World's First High Definition Colour Television System. and McLean, p. 196. Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and insulin.
The following is a list of inventions, innovations, or discoveries that are known or generally recognised as being Scottish.
Road transport innovations Macadamised roads (the basis for, but not specifically, tarmac): John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) The pedal bicycle: Attributed to both Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1813–1878) and Thomas McCall (1834–1904) The pneumatic tyre: Robert William Thomson and John Boyd Dunlop (1822–1873) The overhead valve engine: David Dunbar Buick (1854–1929)
Civil engineering innovations
The Falkirk wheel: Initial designs by Nicoll Russell Studios, Architects, RMJM and engineers Binnie, Black, and Veatch (Opened 2002) The patent slip for docking vessels: Thomas Morton (1781–1832)The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Volume 2 Printed for Archibald Constable, 1820 The Drummond Light: Thomas Drummond (1797–1840) "Trac Rail Transposer", a machine to lay rail track patented in 2005, used by Network Rail in the United Kingdom and the New York City Subway in the United States.
Power innovations Condensing steam engine improvements: James Watt (1736–1819) Thermodynamic cycle: William John Macquorn Rankine (1820–1872) Coal-gas lighting: William Murdoch (1754–1839) The Stirling heat engine: Rev. Robert Stirling (1790–1878) Carbon brushes for dynamos: George Forbes (1849–1936) The Clerk cycle gas engine: Sir Dugald Clerk (1854–1932) The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter ("red sea snake" wave energy device): Richard Yemm, 1998
Shipbuilding innovations Europe's first passenger steamboat: Henry Bell (1767–1830)
Military innovations Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson two areas: Field intelligence. Argued for the establishment of the Intelligence Corps. Wrote Field Intelligence: Its Principles and Practice (1904) and The Art of Reconnaissance (1907) on the tactical intelligence of modern warfare.
Heavy industry innovations Coal mining extraction in the sea on an artificial island by Sir George Bruce of Carnock (1575).The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature: From Columba to the Union (Until 10707). By Ian Brown Making cast steel from wrought iron: David Mushet (1772–1847) Wrought iron sash bars for glass houses: 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 hammer: James Nasmyth (1808–1890)Materials processing defects By Swadhin Kumar Ghosh, M. Predeleanu Improved wire rope: Robert Stirling Newall (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 Fairlie, a narrow gauge, double-bogie railway engine: Robert Francis Fairlie (1831–1885)American narrow gauge railroads By George Woodman Hilton
Agricultural innovations Threshing machine improvements: James Meikle (c.1690-c.1780) & Andrew Meikle (1719–1811)Annual report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, Volume 2 By Indiana. State Board of Agriculture, Indiana. Geological Survey Hollow pipe drainage: Sir Hew Dalrymple, Lord Drummore (1700–1753)Great Scots By Betty Kirkpatrick The Scotch plough: James Anderson of Hermiston (1739–1808)The English cyclopædia: a new dictionary of universal knowledge, Volume 1 edited by Charles Knight Deanstonisation soil-drainage system: James Smith (1789–1850)The new American cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge The mechanical reaping machine: Rev. Patrick Bell (1799–1869)Journal of the Society of Arts, Volume 6 By Society of Arts (Great Britain) The Fresno scraper: James Porteous (1848–1922) The Tuley tree shelter: Graham Tuley in 1979The complete guide to trees of Britain and Northern Europe Alan F. Mitchell, David More
Communication innovations Joint development of the telephone: Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Print stereotyping: William Ged (1690–1749) Roller printing: Thomas Bell (patented 1783) The Waverley pen nib innovations thereof: Duncan Cameron (1825–1901) The popular "Waverley" was unique in design with a narrow waist and an upturned tip designed to make the ink flow more smoothly on the paper. Light signalling between ships: Admiral Philip H. Colomb (1831–1899)Military communications: from ancient times to the 21st century By Christopher H. Sterling The teleprinter: Frederick G. Creed (1871–1957)The worldwide history of telecommunications by Anton A. Huurdeman RADAR: A significant contribution made by Robert Watson-Watt (1892–1973) alongside Englishman Henry Tizard (1885-1959) and others The automated teller machine and Personal Identification Number system: James Goodfellow (born 1937)
Publishing firsts The first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1768–81)Encyclopaedic visions: scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture By Natasha J. Yeo The first English textbook on surgery (1597)The Early history of surgery William John Bishop - 1995 The first modern pharmacopaedia, William Cullen (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 (a word that Cullen coined). The educational foundation of Ophthalmology: Stewart Duke-Elder in his ground breaking work including ‘Textbook of Ophthalmology and fifteen volumes of System of Ophthalmology’
Culture and the arts Scottish National Portrait Gallery, designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson (1889): the world's first purpose-built portrait gallery.
Scientific innovations Logarithms: John Napier (1550–1617)Ernest William Hobson. John Napier and the invention of logarithms, 1614. The University Press, 1914. Modern Economics founded by Adam Smith (1776) 'The father of modern economics' with the publication of The Wealth of Nations.M Skousen (2007). The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, And John Maynard Keynes p3,5,6.E. K. Hunt (2002). History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective, p.3. Modern Sociology: Adam Ferguson (1767) ‘The Father of Modern Sociology’ with his work An Essay on the History of Civil SocietyWillcox, William Bradford; Arnstein, Walter L. (1966). The Age of Aristocracy, 1688 to 1830. Volume III of A History of England, edited by Lacey Baldwin Smith (Sixth Edition, 1992 ed.). Lexington, Massachusetts. p. 133. . Hypnotism: James Braid (1795–1860) the Father of HypnotherapyThe Discovery of Hypnosis- The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotherapy James Braid, Donald Robertson (ed.) 2009 Tropical medicine: Sir Patrick Manson known as the father of Tropical MedicineManson-Bahr, Patrick (1962). Patrick Manson. The Father of Tropical Medicine. Thomas Nelson Modern geology: James Hutton ‘The Founder of Modern Geology’James Hutton ‘The Founder of Modern Geology’ D. B. McIntyre, Alan McKirdy 2001, National Museums of Scotland Pub. Ltd. p45Kenneth L. Taylor (September 2006). "Ages in Chaos: James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time". The Historian (abstract) (Book review of Stephen Baxter, ). The theory of Uniformitarianism: James Hutton (1788): a fundamental principle of Geology the features of the geologic time takes millions of years.Historical Geology, 7th ed.: Evolution of Earth and Life Through Time. By Reed Wicander, James Stewart Monroe 2012 Cengage Learning, p67 The theory of electromagnetism: James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) The discovery of the Composition of Saturn's Rings James Clerk Maxwell (1859): determined the rings of Saturn were composed of numerous small particles, all independently orbiting the planet. At the time it was generally thought the rings were solid. The Maxwell Ringlet and Maxwell Gap were named in his honor. The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution by James Clerk Maxwell (1860): the basis of the kinetic theory of gases, that speeds of molecules in a gas will change at different temperatures. The original theory first hypothesised by Maxwell and confirmed later in conjunction with Ludwig Boltzmann.Maxwell, J.C. (1860) Illustrations of the dynamical theory of gases. Philosophical Magazine 19, 19-32 and Philosophical Magazine 20, 21-37. Popularising the decimal point: John Napier (1550–1617)Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston: his lineage, life, and times by Mark Napier The Gregorian telescope: James Gregory (1638–1675)Popular Astronomy By Simon Newcomb The discovery of Proxima Centauri, the closest known star to the Sun, by Robert Innes (1861–1933) One of the earliest measurements of distance to the Alpha Centauri star system, the closest such system outside of the Solar System, by Thomas Henderson (1798–1844) The discovery of Centaurus A, a well-known starburst galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus, by James Dunlop (1793–1848) The discovery of the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion, by Williamina Fleming (1857–1911) The world's first commercial oil refinery and a process of extracting paraffin from coal laying the foundations for the modern oil industry: James Young (1811–1883) The identification of the minerals yttrialite, thorogummite, aguilarite and nivenite: by William Niven (1889)Wicks, Robert S. and Harrison, Roland H. (1999). Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods: William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest, Texas Tech University Press. The pyroscope, atmometer and aethrioscope scientific instruments: Sir John Leslie (1766–1832)Chambers's encyclopaedia: a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people Appleton 1864 Identifying the nucleus in living cells: Robert Brown (1773–1858)Biology: Concepts and Applications Without Physiology By Cecie Starr, Christine A. Evers, Lisa Starr An early form of the Incandescent light bulb: James Bowman Lindsay (1799-1862)Challoner, Jack et al. "1001 Inventions That Changed The World" Barrons Educational Series, Hauppauge NY, 2009. Colloid chemistry: Thomas Graham (1805–1869)Colloid chemistry Robert James Hartman, Herman Thompson Briscoe Houghton Mifflin Co., 1947 Devising the diagramatic system of representing chemical bonds: Alexander Crum Brown (1838–1922)Scottish pride: 101 reasons to be proud of your Scottish heritage Heather Duncan Criminal fingerprinting: Henry Faulds (1843–1930)Criminalistics: Forensic Science and Crime By James Girard Joint role in noble gases: Scotsman Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916) alongside Englishman John William Strutt (1842–1919).Noble Gases By Jens Thomas The cloud chamber recording of atoms: Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959)The world of the atom Henry Abraham Boorse, Lloyd Motz Basic Books, inc., 1966