Scottish Inventions
There is a saying in Scotland ,"
Wha's Like Us?", which means Who Compares? Below is a Brief summary of Genius from our small Nation, Although Factual it should be read with tongue in Cheek Especially if you are English. The average Englishman in the home he call his castle slips into his national costume, a shabby raincoat, patented by Chemist Charles Macintosh (Mac)from Glasgow, Scotland.En-route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John
Macadam (Tar Macadam)of Ayr, Scotland.He drives an English car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop,(DUNLOP Tyres) Veterinary Surgeon of
Dreghorn, Scotland.At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers, Bookseller and Printer of Dundee, Scotland.During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick
Macmillan, Blacksmith of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.He watches the news on television, an invention of John Logie Baird of
Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the U.S. Navy founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots.He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible, only to find that the first man mentioned in
the good book is a Scot, King James VI, who authorized its translation.He could take to drink but the Scots make the best in the world Whisky.He could take a rifle and end it all, but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.If he escaped death, he could find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, discovered by Sir
Alexander Fleming of
Darvel, Scotland, and given chloroform, an anesthetic discovered by Sir
James Young Simpson, Obstetrician and Gynecologist of
Bathgate, Scotland.Out of the anesthetic he would find no comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of
Dumfries, Scotland.Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask:"Wha's Like Us"