Enlightenment

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