In 1785 the naturalist James Hutton published his theory that the formation of the Earth, its mountains and other geological formations must have taken millions of years.
Golf
If you go to Edinburgh, be sure to have a dram at the 15th Century Golf Tavern near
an ancient but now vanished golfcourse.
Halloween
The custom connected with Halloween are thought to have started among the ancient Druids, who believed that on that evening Saman, the lord of the dead, called to him hosts of evil spirits. The Druids customarily lit huge fires on Halloween, apparently for the purpose of warding off all these spirits.
Among the ancient Celts, Halloween was the last night of the year and was thought of as a lucky time for looking at the warnings of the future. The Celts also believed that the spirits of the dead came back to their earthly homes on that evening. After the Romans conquered Britain, they added to Halloween features of the Roman harvest festival held on November 1 in honor of Pomona, goddess of the fruits of trees.
The Celtic tradition of lighting fires on Halloween survived until modern times in Scotland and Wales, and the concept of ghosts and witches is still common to all Halloween ceremonies.
The custom of dressing up on Halloween comes from hundreds of years ago, in Scotland and Northern England, there was no street lighting, and nothing to light your way home in the countryside when it got dark at 4 pm on the cold afternoon of October 31st. People were scared of the ghosts, witches, and evil spirits that rose to wander on the eve of All Hallows so people dressed up like a ghost or a witch themselves on Halloween to scare away the evil beings.
Hollow-pipe drainage
Sir Hugh Dalrymple (Lord Drummore) (1700 - 1753) Invented hollow-pipe drainage. This innovation allowed the drying of water-logged land, bringing large areas into agriculturalproduction.
Hypodermic Syringes
Credit for the evolution of this universally useful appliance is usually given to Doctor Alexander Wood (born 1817), who was appointed Secretary of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1850.
Iron Bridges
Engineer Thomas Telford is famous for building more than 1200 bridges,
many of them using cast iron. Other major achievements of his include the
Caledonian Canal, the Menai suspension bridge, and the London to Holyhead
road.
Jekyll and Hyde
The mad doctor and his alter-ego of the famous novel written by
Edinburgh's Robert Louis Stevenson. He claimed that each chapter came to
him in nightly instalments while he dreamed.
The Kelvin scale of temperature
Named after the scientist, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), professor at Glasgow University, who was a pioneer in the field of thermodynamics.
Latent Heat
Joseph Black (1728 - 1799)Chemist. Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry in Glasgow University (1756) and then Professor of Medicine and Chemistry in Edinburgh (1766). Developed the concept of "Latent Heat" and discovered Carbon Dioxide ("Fixed Air"). Regarded as the Father of Quantitative Chemistry.
Logarithms
Natural logarithms were invented by the Edinburgh mathematician, John
Napier, Laird of Merchiston, in the late 1500s. He published many
treatises including "Mirifici logarithmorum" (1614) and Rabdologia (1615)
on systems of arithmetic using calculation aids known as Napiers Bones.
Long John Silver
The pirate villain of the famous novel "Treasure Island" written by
Edinburgh's Robert Louis Stevenson.
Macadamised roads
John Loudon McAdam devised the macadamized road in which the underlying
soil is protected by a light protective layer that is waterproof and cambered to
divert rainwater to the sides.
Mackintosh Raincoats
Since the rainiest spot in Europe is found in the Scottish
highlands, it is not surprising that this technique for waterproofing
clothing was developed there.
Marmalade
The story goes that a Dundee businessman imported a shipload of oranges
from Spain that were found to be too bitter to sell as fruit. He turned
them into an orange preserve which proved to be popular - marmalade
Penicillin
Discovered in 1928 by the bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming. This drug has saved more lives than the number lost in all the wars of history.
Paraffin
James Young was a chemist who made his fortune as the first to market
paraffin as a lighting and heating oil.
Peter Pan
From the play of the same name by J.M. Barrie.
Pneumatic Tyres
John Boyd Dunlop patented his pneumatic tyre in 1888. He was a
vetinary surgeon, but his interest in inventions led him to develop the
tyres for his son's bicycle. He lived long enough to see his invention
become the foundation for a huge industry around the world.
Quinine
George Cleghorn (1716 - 1794) was the army surgeon who discovered that
quinine bark acted as a cure for Malaria.
Radar Defense System
Physicist, Sir Robert Watson-Watt, was the mind behind the radar
network on the coast of England that detected incoming German aircraft in
World War II. He had worked on the radio detection of thunderstorms
(hazardous to aviators) during World War I. In 1935 he proposed a
method for locating aircraft by a radio-pulse technique.
The radar system was invaluable to the defense of Britain during
the Battle of Britain in 1940. It operated day and night over a range of
40 miles, giving the Royal Air Force information about the height and
bearing of German planes.
Refrigerators
James Harrison, who emigrated to Australia from Scotland, invented the first refrigerator as we know it today.
Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a medical student in Edinburgh. The
character of Sherlock Holmes was based on one of the professors of Medicine at the University.
The Steam Engine
Invented by James Watt, instrumental in powering the Industrial Revolution
in the Eighteenth Century. His engine was not mobile, but was fixed in
position. Soon it was being built and used in mining, to pull coal carts
up to the pithead. Mine manager, John Blenkinsop, put one of these steam
boilers on wheels so that it could carry the coal further. This came to
the attention of George Stephenson who was also a mining engineer.
Stephenson took the idea a stage further with his invention of the steam
locomotive.
Sulphuric Acid
John Roebuck of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, invented the lead chamber
process for the distillation of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is of
central importance in the manufacture of many other chemicals and in
metal refining.
The telegraph
The Scots Magazine first published the concept for the telegraph in
1753. An anonymous contributor suggested that words could be spelled out
along a 26 wire system activated by static electricity. The receiver had
twenty six pith balls, each with a different letter of the alphabet. The
pith balls would be attracted to their corresponding charged wires when the
wires were activated with stadic ulectricity. The state of technology was
not up to the task until Volta invented the electric battery in 1800,
however.
The telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh and lived there until his
family emigrated to Canada when he was 18. He patented the telephone in
1876 and now there are more than 500 million of them spanning the globe.
He revolutionized world communications.
Television
A photo-mechanical device invented by John Logie Baird in 1922. He set up the first practical television system in the world in 1929, in Britain.
Thermos flasks
Sir James Dewar (1842 - 1923) invented the dewar flask to keep liquids
cool in the laboratory. The idea became the domestic thermos flask, which
keeps hot liquids hot as well as cold things cold by isolating them from
their surroundings, thus reducing the flow of heat. His scientific career
was noted for his pioneer work on low temperature physics and vacuum
techniques. He was the first to liquify hydrogen.
Planet Neptune
In 1846, the brilliant mathematician, John Adams, calculated where a hitherto undiscovered planet would be based on the anomalous motion of Uranus around the Sun. Unfortunately, his boss would not allow him the use of the university observatory to confirm his prediction, and he was beaten to the post by the French. That planet is Neptune.
Tubular steel
Sir William Fairbairn (1789 - 1874) was born in Kelso, in southern
Scotland. An engineer, he developed the idea of using tubular steel,
which was much stronger than solid steel, as a construction material.
Whisky
Whisky is spelt with out the "e" or it's not Scotch.
US Navy
Founded by John Paul Jones, a Scotsman.
