1614 → Today
The Timeline
Four hundred years of Scottish ingenuity, scrollable end-to-end.
1663
The Reflecting Telescope
James Gregory
1725
Stereotype Printing
William Ged
1748
Refrigeration
William Cullen
1769
Watt Steam Engine
James Watt
1775
Flush Toilet / S-bend
Alexander Cumming
1776
Ferguson Breech-Loading Rifle
Patrick Ferguson
1778
The Carronade
Carron Ironworks
1780s
Chainsaw
John Aitken & James Jeffray
1783
Roller Printing on Textiles
Thomas Bell
1786
Threshing Machine
Andrew Meikle
1788
Watt's Centrifugal Governor
James Watt
1792
Coal Gas Lighting
William Murdoch
1803
The Charlotte Dundas
William Symington
1807
The Percussion Cap
Rev. Alexander John Forsyth
1810
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Robert Stevenson
1812
Europe's First Passenger Steamboat (Comet)
Henry Bell
1816
Macadamised Roads
John Loudon McAdam
1816
Kaleidoscope
Sir David Brewster
1816
Stirling Engine
Robert Stirling
1818
The Patent Slip
Thomas Morton
1823
Mackintosh Raincoat
Charles Macintosh
1828
The Hot Blast Process
James Beaumont Neilson
1828
Mechanical Reaping Machine
Rev. Patrick Bell
1835
The Electric Light (1835)
James Bowman Lindsay
1837
First Electric Locomotive
Robert Davidson
1838
The Postage Stamp
James Chalmers
1839
Pedal Bicycle
Kirkpatrick Macmillan
1839
The Steam Hammer
James Nasmyth
1840
First Electric Clock
Alexander Bain
1840
Wire Rope
Robert Stirling Newall
1841
The Lawnmower
Alexander Shanks
1843
Bain's Chemical Telegraph
Alexander Bain
1845 / 1888
Pneumatic Tyre
Robert William Thomson & John Boyd Dunlop
1846
The Wrought-Iron Box Girder
Sir William Fairbairn
1851
First Oil Refinery
James Young
1853
Hypodermic Syringe
Alexander Wood
1860
Henry Rifling
Alexander Henry
1861
First Permanent Colour Photograph
James Clerk Maxwell
1864
The Fairlie Locomotive
Robert Francis Fairlie
1876
The Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell
1877
Refrigerated Cargo Transport
Joseph James Coleman
1885
The Carbon Brush
George Forbes
1887
Wind Turbine
James Blyth
1891
Kinetograph & Kinetoscope
W. K. L. Dickson
1892
The Vacuum Flask
Sir James Dewar
1896
First Hospital X-Ray Department
Dr John Macintyre
1902
Teleprinter
Frederick G. Creed
1935
Radar
Sir Robert Watson-Watt
1964
Beta-Blockers
Sir James Black
1966
ATM and PIN
James Goodfellow