Hello my beautiful lads and lasses,
Scotland has had a rich history, starting from the birth of Scotland 10,000 years ago, where the earliest known occupation of Scotland is recorded!
All these years later, the Scottish have come a long way. And they helped the rest of the world during their journey! So many inventions have been discovered or built by a Scot, and I had no idea!
Are you ready to learn some of the best Scottish inventions? Let’s see them!
The Television. Image Source.The Television
Who doesn’t love watching TV? Maybe now, almost a hundred years from the very first television (1926), it has been reduced mostly to background sound (at least to my house), but even so, it is one of the best inventions of man!
And we have a Scot to thank for that! John Logie Baird invented the first working television system in 1926, and two years later, he achieved the first transatlantic transmission. All these things, just a mere eon ago!
He was also the one to invent the first color television. He was a TV fan all through his life!
The Evolution of the telephone. Image source.
The Telephone
You are probably reading this on your phone right now. But to be honest, the very first phone was so long ago, technology has made some great steps since then. I think we all know Alexander Graham Bell. Did you know he was Scottish, however? Bell’s interest in this area stemmed from the fact that both his mother and his wife were profoundly deaf. His research on hearing and speech led him to experiment with hearing devices before later being granted the first patent for the telephone in 1876.
Did you also know the first recorded use of the word “hello” came from him, as a way to answer the telephone? Around the 1930s. How cool!
MRI Scan. Image source.
The MRI Scanner
Moving on to the medical world, a more modern invention by a Scotsman is the MRI Scanner. It has had a major impact on how we view the human body, and it was invented by a team of scientists working at the University of Aberdeen. In 1980 the team obtained the first clinically useful image of a patient’s internal tissues. The device works by building up a picture of the human body using high frequency radio signals.
It is even safer than using X-Rays! Let’s thank those scientists for this huge leap in the medical world!
Daily Disposable Contact Lenses. Image source.
Daily Disposable Contact Lenses
I couldn’t go without my contact lenses even a day during my life! And I have to thank the Scottish-born Ron Hamilton, the son of a west coast curling stone manufacturer, who invented the lense in 1995.
And he did so in the makeshift laboratory in his back garden. So, don’t even think that you can’t do it because of your surroundings! 😉
Dolly the sheep and one of her kids. Image source.
Extra: Dolly the Sheep
An extra, cute, and absolutely adorable addition to this post is Dolly the Sheep. Of course, everybody knows the most famous sheep in the whole world. Named after Dolly Parton, the first-ever mammal to be cloned from an adult cell is a special sheep. Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 at the Roslin Institute, which is part of The University of Edinburgh.
She lived to the age of seven, and birthed six healthy lambs! Look at her, isn’t she the cutest?!
Did you like these Scottish inventions, my dear? Which one do you use most?
Let me know in the comments!
Until next time…
Written by Maddie Mackenna