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 |