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Scotland has a world wide reputation in innovation and has produced many more individuals who have made their mark on the world stage than might have been expected for its small population. A significant number of inventions that were developed in the West of Scotland. Below is a list of the most important.
- James Watt conducted some of his early experiments with steam power while working at the University of Glasgow
- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (pictured left), returned at the age of 22 to the University of Glasgow where he had studied and took up the chair of Natural Philosophy (Physics), a post he held for 53 years. Arguably the pre-eminent scientist of the nineteenth century, he enjoyed an international reputation for theoretical and practical research across virtually the entire range of the physical sciences, including the Kelvin temperature scale (Absolute Zero at -273C).
- Adam Smith, economist and philosopher, was only 14 when he started as a student at the University of Glasgow. In 1751 he returned as Professor of Logic, transferring to the Chair of Moral Philosophy shortly afterwards. By the time his most famous work, The Wealth of Nations, was published he had left the University but returned as Rector in later life.
- Joseph Black taught both chemistry and medicine at the University of Glasgow in the eighteenth century and introduced a modern understanding of gases.
- James Watt conducted some of his early experiments with steam power while working at the University of Glasgow.
- John Logie Baird, born in Helensburgh in 1888, and a student at the at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde invented television, demonstrating the first transmission of an image in 1924. He improved on his invention and demonstrated colour television in 1928.
- John Boyd Orr (Baron Boyd Orr of Brechin) campaigned for an adequate diet for the people, starting during the First World War and continuing through the Depression and the rationing of the next war. His food plan produced a better nourished population than ever before. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the United Nations.
- Dr Joseph Lister, working in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, was the first to sterilise surgical equipment
- Professor Ian Donald, professor of midwifery at the University of Glasgow pioneered the use of ultrasound scanning. He took technology, being used in the shipbuilding industry, to detect flaws in steel, and used it to develop imaging techniques for gynaecology. Modern day ultrasound is used throughout all aspects of modern medicine.
- The muscle relaxant Atracurium was designed and synthesised at the University of Strathclyde by a team led by Professor John B Stenlake and developed by Glaxo Wellcome as Tracrium, the worlds best selling muscle relaxant. Scientists at Strathclyde were inspired by the way in which South American Indians used curare to paralyse their victims. Muscle relaxants are used in conjunction with anaesthetics during operations.
- Dr David B Jack, inventor of Salmerol a treament for asthma, was a student at the University of Strathclyde
- Alexander Fleming, born in Ayrshire in 1881 discovered the 20th Centurys greatest weapon against bacterial infection by chance. Fleming had a theory that his own nasal mucus might have antibacterial properties. Leaving some of the substance, staphylococcus, on a petri dish for two weeks while away, on his return he noted that surrounding the mould which had formed on the mucus was a clear halo, mould-free. Left for a further period, more mould grew in the dish, but never over this clear area. Fleming recognised the importance of his discovery. He understood a substance which prevented bacterial growth was produced by the mould, and he named this penicillin. He received a Knighthood in 1944 and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945.
- Nobel Proze winner Sir James W. Black was born in Uddingston and worked at Glasgow Veterinary School from 1950 to 1958. There he laid the foundations of his groundbreaking work on beta-blockers and also his subsequent triumphin developing a blocker for gastric acid production which revolutionised the treatment of stomach ulcers. Sir James Black was knighted in 1981. He became Chancellor of Dundee University in 1992. The James Black foundation was set up in 1988 as a small non-profit research organisation without the cumbersome bureaucracy of larger groups. In 2000 Sir James was awarded the Order of Merit, the highest personal distinction a sovereign can bestow on someone for exceptional work in science and other areas.
- Innovative monoclonal antibody research at the University of Strathclyde led to the creation of Rhone Diagnostics.
This list does not include all inventions. If there is someone who should be profiled on this site, please let us know by email
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