ClanTime

Inventors in the Workshop of the World              

Sir James Dewar, a Scot, invented the vacuum flask, a boon to humanity.  Iron milk vessels were invented by a Baird of the Shotts Iron Works.  It was a Scotsman, Charles MacIntosh, who invented waterproof cloth.

James B. Neilson, a Scot, invented the hot blast furnace, an invention which revolutionised the iron industry.  The man who made the first manned balloon ascent in Britain on 27^th August, 1784, was a Scotsman, James Tytler, whose life story reads like fiction.  Wm. Murdoch, born at Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, invented coal-gas lighting, a great invention in its day.  The first reaping machine was invented about 1831 by the Rev. Patrick Bell of Carmylie, Forfashire.  This was soon followed by M’Cormick’s reaper in the United States, but there is no doubt that it was derived from Bell’s reaper.

Andrew Meikle, born at Houston Mill, near Dunbar, in 1788 invented the threshing machine for removing husks from grain.  The winnowing machine was invented by Andrew Roper of Hawick in 1737.

The first machine for making fishing nets was invented by James Paterson of Musselburgh, and the first factory in the world making nets mechanically was opened at Musselburgh.

Sir Robert Brewster, a Scotsman, invented the kaleidoscope.

The industrial revolution was ushered in by a Scotsman, James Watt, the 28 year old Greenock-born Glasgow University instrument maker who invented the steam engine.

George Stephenson, an Englishman, invented the steam locomotive: he was a Scotsman’s grandson.

In its heyday three out of every four men engaged in making locomotives in Britain worked in Springburn, Glasgow, and the North British Locomotive Company was the largest in the world outside of the United States.

In March 1802 the world’s first steam-tug, the “Charlotte Dundas”, towed two laden barges along the Forth-and-Clyde Canal.  Europe’s first two steam-boats were designed by Scotsmen, the “Charlotte Dundas” by William Symington and “The Comet” by Henry Bell.  Henry Bell was born at Torphichen near Bathgate.  “The Comet” was Europe’s first sea-going steam vessel.  It sailed between Glasgow and Oban.

John Elder’s shipyard at Govan was in its time the largest private shipyard in the world, and Elder, a Glasgow-born marine engineer, was the first to experiment with and adopt compound steam-engines.

The first steam-boat to cross the English Channel, the “Marjorie”, was built by William Denny on the Clyde.

Tod & McGregor, Glasgow shipbuilders, built the worlds first iron sea-going ship on the Clyde in 1837, “an innovation which was regarded by scepticism in many quarters.”  The “Sirius”, built at Leith, was the first paddle-steamer to make the Atlantic crossing.

In marine history no river can match the history of the Clyde.

The Cunard Line came into being on the banks of the Clyde.  Glasgow raised the capital for the Line.  Cunard was a Canadian, and the Cunard ships were Clyde-built.  One of the shipping lines which helped to build the British Empire, the British India Steam Navigation Company, was founded by a native of Campbeltown, Sir William Mackinnon. 

The famous American Pacific Line, the Dollar Line, was founded by a Scotsman, by name Dollar, from Falkirk.  Arthur Anderson, a Shetlander, was a co-founder of the P & O Line, the world’s largest passenger line.  Arthur Anderson, who rose from humble beginnings to become Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Line, endowed the Educational Institute at Lerwick in 1862.

“Margery”, built by William Denny & Bros. of Dumbarton, and launched in 1814, was the first steamer on the Thames.  The same firm built the “Robert the Bruce” in 1933, the first all welded ship built in Britain.

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