|
Scottish Inventors
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. The Scots take enormous pride in the history of Scottish invention and discovery. There are many books devoted solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science. Even before the Industrial Revolution, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres. Some of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity include James Watt's steam engine, improving on that of Thomas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the original material) may form; it may also, after rolling, be covered with a cement or bituminous binder to keep dust and stones together. The method simplified what had been considered state-of-the-art at that point. Predecessors Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet is sometimes considered the first person to bring post-Roman science to road building. A Frenchman from an engineering family, he worked paving roads in Paris from 1757 to 1764. As chief engineer of road construction of Limoges, he had opportunity to develop a better and cheaper method of road construction. In 1775, Tresaguet became engineer-general and presented his answer for road improvement in France, which soon became standard practice there ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicoll Russell Studios, Architects
Nicoll Russell Studios is an architecture practice based in Dundee, Scotland. The firm was established in 1982 by Andrew Nicoll and Ric Russell as a result of the completion of Dundee Repertory Theatre. The Dundee Repertory Theatre received the practice's first Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award. The practice has since won a number of awards including RIBA, National Civic Trust, Dynamic Place and Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) Awards. Projects Among Nicoll Russell's principal projects have been Arbroath Market Place (1987), The Grianan Building, Dundee (1987), TSB Bank, St Andrews (1989), Scrimgeour's Corner, Crieff (1993), the White Top Centre, Dundee (1995), Dundee Sheriff Court (1998), the Falkirk Wheel (1999), the Byre Theatre, St Andrews (2002), Scottish Dance Theatre, Dundee (2003), An Lanntair, Stornoway (2005), Howden Park Arts Centre, Livingston (2009), and the Briggait Artists' Studios Complex, in a listed former fish marke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falkirk Wheel
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project. The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight. The wheel raises boats by , but the Union Canal is still higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Fairbairn
Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Early career Born in Kelso to a local farmer, Fairbairn showed an early mechanical aptitude and served as an apprentice millwright in Newcastle upon Tyne where he befriended the young George Stephenson. He moved to Manchester in 1813 to work for Adam Parkinson and Thomas Hewes. In 1817, he launched his mill-machinery business with James Lillie as Fairbairn and Lillie Engine Makers. Structural studies Fairbairn was a lifelong learner and joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1830. In the 1820s and 30s, he and Eaton Hodgkinson conducted a search for an optimal cross section for iron beams. They designed, for example, the bridge over Water Street for the Liverpool and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tubular Steel
Cold-formed steel (CFS) is the common term for steel products shaped by cold-working processes carried out near room temperature, such as rolling, pressing, stamping, bending, etc. Stock bars and sheets of cold-rolled steel (CRS) are commonly used in all areas of manufacturing. The terms are opposed to hot-formed steel and hot-rolled steel. Cold-formed steel, especially in the form of thin gauge sheets, is commonly used in the construction industry for structural or non-structural items such as columns, beams, joists, studs, floor decking, built-up sections and other components. Such uses have become more and more popular in the US since their standardization in 1946. Cold-formed steel members have been used also in bridges, storage racks, grain bins, car bodies, railway coaches, highway products, transmission towers, transmission poles, drainage facilities, firearms, various types of equipment and others. These types of sections are cold-formed from steel sheet, stri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Dunbar Buick
David Dunbar Buick (September 17, 1854 – March 5, 1929) was a Scottish-born American Detroit-based inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company. He headed this company and its predecessor from 1899–1906, thereby helping to create one of the most successful nameplates in United States motor vehicle history. Biography Buick was born in Arbroath, Scotland and moved to Detroit at the age of two with his family. He left school in 1869 and worked for a company which made plumbing goods. When the company ran into trouble in 1882, he and a partner took it over. At this time Buick began to show his promise as an inventor, producing many innovations including a lawn sprinkler, and a method for permanently coating cast iron with vitreous enamel which allowed the production of "white" baths at lower cost. Although cast iron baths are uncommon nowadays, the method is still in use for enameling them. With the combination of Buick's innovation and his partner's sound busi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overhead Valve
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located below the combustion chamber in the engine block. Although an overhead camshaft (OHC) engine also has overhead valves, the common usage of the term "overhead valve engine" is limited to engines where the camshaft is located in the engine block. In these traditional OHV engines, the motion of the camshaft is transferred using pushrods (hence the term "pushrod engine") and rocker arms to operate the valves at the top of the engine. Some early intake-over-exhaust engines used a hybrid design combining elements of both side-valves and overhead valves. History Predecessors The first internal combustion engines were based on steam engines and therefore used slide valves. This was the case for the first Otto engine, which was first s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Boyd Dunlop
John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish-born inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the first practical pneumatic tyres for his child's tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish Cyclists' Association, Harvey Du Cros, for a small cash sum and a small shareholding in their pneumatic tyre business. Dunlop withdrew in 1896. The company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, was not incorporated until later using the name well known to the public, but it was Du Cros's creation. Veterinary practice He was born on a farm in Dreghorn, North Ayrshire, and studied to be a veterinary surgeon at the Dick Vet, University of Edinburgh, moving to Downpatrick, Ireland in 1867. Quite early in his life he was told he had been a premature birth, two months ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert William Thomson
Robert William Thomson PRSSA FRSE (29 June 1822–8 March 1873), from Stonehaven, Scotland, was the inventor of the fountain pen and original inventor of the pneumatic tyre. Life He was born on 29 June 1822 in Stonehaven in the northeast of Scotland, He was baptised into the Church of Scotland on 26 July 1822. Robert was the eleventh of twelve children of a local woolen mill owner. His family wished him to study for the ministry, but Robert refused, one reason being his inability to master Latin. Robert left school at the age of 14 and went to live with an uncle in Charleston, United States, where he was apprenticed to a merchant. Two years later he returned home and taught himself chemistry, electricity and astronomy with the help of a local weaver who had knowledge of mathematics. Robert's father gave him a workshop, and by the time he was 17 years old he had rebuilt his mother's washing mangle so that the wet linen could be passed through the rollers in either direc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pneumatic Tyre
Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and electrically-powered compressor powers cylinders, air motors, pneumatic actuators, and other pneumatic devices. A pneumatic system controlled through manual or automatic solenoid valves is selected when it provides a lower cost, more flexible, or safer alternative to electric motors, and hydraulic actuators. Pneumatics also has applications in dentistry, construction, mining, and other areas. Gases used in pneumatic systems Pneumatic systems in fixed installations, such as factories, use compressed air because a sustainable supply can be made by compressing atmospheric air. The air usually has moisture removed, and a small quantity of oil is added at the compressor to prevent corrosion and lubricate mechanical components. Factory-pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas McCall (inventor)
Thomas McCall (1834–1904) was a Scotland, Scottish Wainwright (occupation), cartwright. Biography McCall was born in Penpont, he came to Kilmarnock at age 20, where he lived until his death (obituary 1904). He built, in 1869, two versions of a two-wheeled velocipede with levers and rods tossing a crank on the rear wheel (''English Mechanic'' 5/14/1869 and 6/11/1869). This was a reaction to the French velocipedes, of the mid-1860s, with their front-wheel pedal cranks. In fact, this rear-wheel idea occupied seven more inventors in that year (Lessing 1991). When in the 1880s a rich corn-trader named James Johnston started a campaign to attribute the "first true" bicycle to his uncle Kirkpatrick MacMillan and his native country of Dumfries in general, he attributed the McCall designs to MacMillan and dated them as of 1839. Skeptics allege that the reason McCall built a replica of his machines to be exhibited as MacMillan's at the 1896 Stanley Cycle Show, Stanley Show, at the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
