Greatest Scotsman Ever...???

Well, this thread has been coming for a long time. The poll has a mixture of rulers, cultural figures and scientific/technological pioneers....

It'll be interesting to see what you foreigners think.

The low-brow Scottish tabloid, the English-controlled Daily Record, did a poll once, and so did the magazine you get on Scotrail services....the likes of Jock Stein, Billy Connelly and Sean COnnery finshed in the top places So, perhaps foreigners may be better judges...!

Incidentally, there was another poll...this time amongst Scottish academicians a few years ago. David Hume got the honor ( That's the fat guy )

(I've added cut-and-paste info from the net, with some pics...it took ages These polls simply take too long; I don't think I'll be doing many more for a while )

John Logie Baird - Pioneer of Television



Born in 1888 in Helensburgh, Scotland, Baird learned a Calvinist work ethic from his father, a Presbyterian minister.

John Logie Baird is remembered as the inventor of mechanical television, radar and fiber optics. Successfully tested in a laboratory in late 1925 and unveiled with much fanfare in London in early 1926, mechanical television technology was quickly usurped by electronic television, the basis of modern video technology. Nonetheless, Baird's achievements, including making the first trans-Atlantic television transmission, were singular and critical scientific accomplishments. Lonely, driven, tireless and often poor, the native Scot defined the pioneering spirit of scientific inquiry.
During his long career, John Baird created a host of television technologies. Among them, phonovision, a forerunner of the video recorder (which largely still relies on mechanical scanning); noctovision, an infra-red spotting system for "seeing" in the dark; open-air television, a theater-projection system; stereoscopic color TV; and the first high definition color TV. According to present-day TV historians, Baird only pursued mechanical scanning to get a television system working as quickly as possible. He changed to electronic scanning in the early 1930s and refined the system to a high degree. Before he died in 1946, Baird was drafting plans for a television with 1,000 lines of resolution and he had earlier patents for television with up to 1,700 lines of resolution using interlacing technology. The world would not catch up with him until 1990 when the Japanese introduced a TV with 1125 lines of resolution per frame.

Alexander Fleming - "Invented" Penicillin



Alexander Fleming was born on a farm in Scotland in 1881. He moved from Scotland to London. He fought in a war that took place in South Africa. Sir Alexander Fleming was the inventor of penicillin. He discovered penicillin in the year, 1928. He was a bacteriologist. He came up with penicillin when he was trying find a way to kill bacteria. Before he discovered penicillin he came up with lysozyme, a sobstance that kills the germs that aren't very serious and do not cause diseases. Alexander Fleming found out about penicillin accidently. When Alexander Fleming first saw penicillin it did not look like the medicine we have these days, it looked like some blue mold. Fleming knew it could be a kind of medicine because he noticed that around the mold the bacteria had disolved. The blue mold that Alexander Fleming saw in his dish destroying bacteria was penicillin. Penicillin was completed in 1940, by some other scientists in Britain. After penicillin was completed, Alexander Fleming collected 25 honorary degrees, 26 metals, 18 prizes, 13 decorations, a membership in 87 scientific academies and societies. He was knighted in 1944, then in 1945 he received the Noble prize for physiology or medicine.
Penicillin was the first antibiotic drug and it was first used to cure soldiers in World War II. Penicillin is almost completely harmless, even in large doses. But the present for of penicillin has changed greatly because bacteria has made antibodies against this medicine. Alexander Fleming died in 1955.

David Hume – Philosophic Sceptic



Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist. Hume is the most influentual thoroughgoing naturalist in modern philosophy, and a pivotal figure of the Enlightenment, who criticized theories of causality and emphasized the empirical and probabilistic nature of knowledge about the physical world. He questioned cause and effect and viewed knowledge as beliefs based on psychological factors, since a single experiment was capable of disproving an entire theory.. Born the second son of a minor Scottish landowner, Hume attended Edinburgh University. In 1734 he removed to Anjou to write and study. In 1739 he returned to Britain. Hume settled down to a life of literary work, mainly residing in Edinburgh. During this time his reputation slowly grew until he became acknowledged as one of Britain's principal men of letters. In 1763 he was appointed Secretary to the Embassy and later charge d'affaires in Paris, and during this period enjoyed unprecedented fame and adulation as one of the principal architects of the Enlightment. In 1766 Hume accompanied Rousseau to England, but the trip ended with paranoid complaints of persecution by Rousseau, against which Hume defended himself with dignity. Adam Smith wrote of Hume that "upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his life-time and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will admit". Hume’s scepticism produced a challenge to the human concept of causation which has never been answered, and can never be answered until someone proves that causal relations are necessary ones.


James Hutton - The father of Geology"



"The father of modern geology," as the Edinburgh-born Hutton is often known, studied medicine both on the continent and in Edinburgh . In Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations (1795), Hutton became the first to show that, in general, the Earth changes slowly and uniformly by the same processes which are occurring today. Hutton did not have as much impact as he might have had, as a result of his cumbersome and difficult literary style. Hutton's idea became known as the Uniformitarian Principle, and served as an alternative to Catastrophism. Hutton believed that volcanic processes were the chief agent in rock formation (amounting to a rudimentary concept of a rock cycle), thus representing the Vulcanist (or Plutonist) view, in contrast to men such as Werner who supported the Neptunist view.

James IV - Ruler od Scotland 1488-1513



James IV, born on 17 March 1473, was 15 when his father's enemies forced him to ride with them to the Battle of Sauchieburn, and for the rest of his life he wore an iron belt as a penance. For the first time in a century, Scotland had a king who was able to start ruling for himself at once for, as Erasmus once commented, 'He had wonderful powers of mind, an astonishing knowledge of everything, an unconquerable magnanimity and the most abundant generosity.' He spoke Latin , French, German, Flemish, Italian, Spanish, English and Gaelic, and took an active interest in literature, science and the law, even trying his hand at dentistry and minor surgery.

With his patronage the printing press came to Scotland, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, St Leonard's College, St Andrews and King's College, Aberdeen were founded. He commissioned building work at the royal residences of Linlithgow Palace, Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle, and developed a strong navy led by his flagship, the Great Michael, said to be the largest vessel of the time.

Under James' vigorous rule, he extended royal administration to the west and north - by 1493, he had overcome the last independent lord of the Isles.

When Henry VIII joined the Holy Alliance against France, and England invaded France in 1513, James felt that he must assist Scotland's old ally under the 'Auld Alliance'.
He led his army - one of the largest ever to cross the border - south. The English forces, led by Lord Surrey, narrowly defeated it. James and many of his nobles died at the head of his men in the disastrous Battle of Flodden, three miles south-east of Coldstream, Northumberland on 9 September 1513. 'The Flowers of the Forest that fought aye the foremost, The prime of our land lie cauld in the clay' (Jean Elliot: The Flowers of the Forest).


King James VI (1567–1625) -.King of Scotland and England



king of England (1603–25) and, as James VI, of Scotland (1567–1625). Born in Edinburgh Castle, the son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, but brought up as a Calvinist. James became King of Scotland on the forced abdication of his mother in 1567, when he was just one year old. A series of Regents ruled in his name (the Earls of Moray, Lennox, Mar and Morton respectively) until James reached majority. He took time to assert his authority over the nobility, who had become used to wielding power.
James married Anne of Denmark in 1589, but it was not a happy marriage and they lived apart from the early years of the 17th century.
In 1603, on the death of Queen Elizabeth I, he acceded to the English throne as James I. This came about because his great-grandmother was Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England. Although this "Union of the Crowns" resulted in James being King of both countries, the countries remained constitutionally separate for another 104 years. James moved to Whitehall Palace in London with his court, who settled around the palace in an area which became known as 'Scotland Yard'.
James' inconsistent attitude towards Catholicism gave rise to much criticism, and the famous Gunpowder Plot. He is also remembered for the translation of the Bible which became known as the authorised or King James version. James's reign witnessed the beginnings of English colonization in North America (Jamestown was founded in 1607) and the plantation of Scottish settlers in Ulster.

Lord Kelvin – Physicist, Mathematician, etc



Scottish mathematician and physicist who contributed to many branches of physics. He was known for his self-confidence, and as an undergraduate at Cambridge he thought himself the sure "Senior Wrangler" (the name given to the student who scored highest on the Cambridge mathematical Tripos exam). After taking the exam he asked his servant, "Oh, just run down to the Senate House, will you, and see who is Second Wrangler." The servant returned and informed him, "You, sir!" (Campbell and Higgens, p. 98, 1984). Another example of his hubris is provided by his 1895 statement "heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible" (Australian Institute of Physics), followed by his 1896 statement, "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning...I would not care to be a member of the Aeronautical Society." Kelvin is also known for an address to an assemblage of physicists at the British Association for the advancement of Science in 1900 in which he stated, "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." A similar statement is attributed to the American physicist Albert Michelson.
Kelvin argued that the key issue in the interpretation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics was the explanation of irreversible processes. He noted that if entropy always increased, the universe would eventually reach a state of uniform temperature and maximum entropy from which it would not be possible to extract any work. He called this the Heat Death of the Universe. With Rankine he proposed a thermodynamical theory based on the primacy of the energy concept, on which he believed all physics should be based. He said the two laws of thermodynamics expressed the indestructibility and dissipation of energy. He also tried to demonstrate that the equipartition theorem was invalid.
Thomson also calculated the age of the earth from its cooling rate and concluded that it was too short to fit with Lyell's theory of gradual geological change or Charles Darwin's theory of the evolution of animals though natural selection. He used the field concept to explain electromagnetic interactions. He speculated that electromagnetic forces were propagated as linear and rotational strains in an elastic solid, producing "vortex atoms" which generated the field. He proposed that these atoms consisted of tiny knotted strings, and the type of knot determined the type of atom. This led Tait to study the properties of knots. Kelvin's theory said ether behaved like an elastic sold when light waves propagated through it. He equated ether with the cellular structure of minute gyrostats. With Tait, Kelvin published Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867), which was important for establishing energy within the structure of the theory of mechanics. (It was later republished under the title Principles of Mechanics and Dynamics by Dover Publications).


John Knox - Presbyterian Founder



John Knox (1505-1572) was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. When Knox's close friend George Wiseheart was burned at the stake by Cardinal Beaton he swore himself an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church. Two years later, Beaton was assassinated by "parties unknown."

After arriving in Edinburgh Knox soon had a growing group of followers. He traveled to Geneva three times to study under Calvin who had a high regard for the young Scotsman. Knox bore a terrible hatred toward Mary Queen of Scots' mother, Mary of Guise, and yet they met and in the meeting Mary tried converting Knox back to Roman Catholicism with bribes of political power.

In response to Knox's prayers, Mary Queen of Scots is reputed to have said: "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe." In response to the rising resistance of the Scottish Reformers, Mary fled Scotland and was later put to death by a court of English who had accused her of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I. Knox was survived by the Scottish Covenanters, who drew up a compact in 1638 asserting their right, under God, to national sovereignty.

More important, however, was Knox's shaping of the democratic form of government that the church adopted, for it was a form later mirrored in the government of the state itself. Knox, thoroughly anglicized in speech and outlook, did much to extend English political and cultural influence in a land where the Gaelic religion and way of life were increasingly being pushed aside. As far as the Reformation is concerned, Knox's greatest work came as a pamphleteer. As G. Donaldson points out (in Daiches), almost one third of his History of the Reformation in Scotland consists of documents and his pre-eminence may be due more to his autobiography, History of His Own Times, than to his actual work in the field

Alexander Leslie - Warrior



The celebrated soldier of fortune and military leader of the covenanters, during the civil wars of Charles I. Educated for the military profession, Leslie very early in life obtained a captain’s commission in the regiment of Horatio lord de Vere, then employed in Holland as auxiliaries to the Dutch in fighting for their liberties against the overwhelming power of Spain. In this service he acquitted himself with singular bravery, and obtained the reputation of a skilful officer. He afterwards, along with many thousands of his countrymen, passed into the service of Sweden, under Gustavus Adolphus, by whom, after many heroic achievements, he was promoted to the rank of field-marshal with the approbation of the whole army.

In the year 1628, he defended Stralsund, which was besieged by the whole force of the Imperialists, at that time masters of all Germany, that fortress excepted. Here he acquitted himself with the utmost bravery and skill. The plague had already broken out in the city, and the outworks were in a most deplorable condition; yet he compelled count Wallenstein, with a formidable army and flushed with victory, to raise the siege, after having sustained a severe loss. The citizens of Stralsund were so sensible of the services of the field-marshal, on this occasion, that they made him a handsome present, and had medals struck to perpetuate their gratitude and the honour of their deliverer. In the year 1635, he had charters granted to him, his wife, and son, of the barony of Balgonie, and other lands in the counties of Fife, Berwick, and Roxburgh. He was at this time serving in Lower Saxony. In the year 1639, when the covenanters were preparing to resist their sovereign in the field, Leslie returned from Sweden, where he had continued after the death of Gustavus in the service of Christina. "This Leslie," says Spalding, "having conquest from nought wealth and honour, resolved to come home to his native country of Scotland and settle himself beside his chief, the earl of Rothes, as he did indeed, and bought fair lands in Fife; but the earl foreseeing the troubles, whereof himself was one of the principal beginners, took hold of this Leslie, who was both wise and stout, acquainted him with the plot, and had his advice for the furtherance thereof to his power."

Returning to Scotland in 1638, he led the army of the Covenanters in the Bishops' Wars. Charles I made him earl in 1641, hoping to gain his support. Nevertheless, following the conclusion of the Solemn League and Covenant between the Scots and the English Parliament, Leslie led (1644) an army into England and took part in the defeat of the king at Marston Moor. When Charles surrendered to the Scottish army in 1646, Leslie had charge of him until the royal prisoner was handed over to the English in 1647. Although Leslie resigned actual command of the army to his nephew David Leslie before the Scottish Covenanters (by then royalists) were defeated (1650) at Dunbar, he was twice imprisoned briefly in the Tower of London.


Malcolm II



[NB: highly anachronistic later engraving]

It was an Irish chronicler who styled Malcolm II Rex Victoriosissimmus. His reign from 1005 (the year of Macbeth’s birth) to 1034 saw the imposition of Scottish hegemony upon the northern half of Ireland and northern England, the first attempt at establishing primogeniture as the means for the getting of kings, the adoption of the name Scotia to denote his realm, the establishing of the Tweed as the southern extent of his realm, the building of countless alliances to both the north and the south of the realm to provide buffers against the expansionism of the Danes and perhaps most remarkably, his annis mirabilis upon which the chronicler’s designation of him as “the most victorious king” depends – the year 1010 when in a remarkable succession of five battles he inflicted decisive defeats upon the Danes and ensured Scotland would not suffer the same fate as England.

At the same time English fortunes suffered collapse as Ethelred the Unready fled into exile and England fell to Cnut after Edmund II Ironside’s defeat at Edgbaston (which was swiftly followed by his death). It is clear that the figure of Malcolm II is not allowed to loom as large in Saxon histories as it deserves because his successes cast a more revealing light upon English failures at the time than is desired by the partisan practitioners of history active today, the Anglo-Saxon revisionists who cannot bear to countenance the reality of Scotland without declaring Her irrelevance, to the extent that their utterances suggest some pathological syndrome in their irrational vehemence.

Our survey of the career of Malcolm II is neatly bookended by his interactions with the Danes. While a teenager he commanded the Scottish right wing that defeated the Danes at Luncarty and secured Scotland from their molestations for over a generation. The site of the battle lies near to the administrative centre of the realm at that time, Forteviot, a former Pictish power centre, and the Royal Standard around which the Scots rallied was the ancient Pictish emblem of an indefatigable wild boar. The battle has been remembered more often because of the participation of the Hays who mounted a decisive counter-attack than for the hardly inauspicious entrance of a young Malcolm onto the national stage, like Alexander at Charonea. Latter day historians have rationalised the orgy of beheading that ensued as a result of the Scots’ victory as the gathering of tokens entitling the bearers to a bounty. This was of course the more ancient Celtic custom of taking your enemies’ heads as trophies since the head was the seat of the soul. Thus ended in Scotland what is commonly termed the First Viking Age – the century and a half of war that had commenced with the sack of Iona.

In 1009 Malcolm and the integrity of the realm faced the threat to which the English would succumb. A large army of Danes landed in Moray and systematically started to progress to the seat of power, just as they had generations earlier before being halted at Luncarty. A bitter struggle, incurring Pyrrhic losses through attrition on both sides, ceased with the onset of snow, and the Danes withdrew to their beachhead to winter. When the snows receded and the campaigning season resumed the Danes were confident their freshly reinforced numbers would take the field while the Scots’ resolve wilted. However, at Mortlach, the threat posed by the Danes from Moray was eradicated.

Malcolm still faced an unprecedented crisis of a similar character and magnitude to that which engulfed England at this time. His personal captaincy was required on many fronts in response to many invading Danish armies. His ascendancy at five major battles that year is recorded; had he failed on a single occasion he would have forfeited the crown. He campaigned throughout the length of the land. The defining conflict of this period was with a Danish army amassed from contingents drawn from Scandanavia, the Orkneys and England, which assembled in the Firth of Forth before being driven north to land at the Barry Sands south of Carnoustie. They were not permitted to penetrate as deeply into the Scottish heartland as previous expeditions had, however. A few miles inland the Danish army was engaged and destroyed. Their leader, Camus, was beheaded and his body interred at a spot that is to this day marked by a cross slab. Amateur antiquarians disturbed his remains in the 17th century and found the headless skeleton of a man of great stature.

Cnut’s bloodless visit to Scotland is usually portrayed as the occasion upon which Malcolm II submitted to him, thus allowing those historians made uncomfortable by Malcolm’s success to relax at last secure in their deluded prejudices. Of course, the purpose of Cnut’s visit was significantly more complex and the details are alas lost to us. Nevertheless the most reasonable surmise, given the absence of armed conflict, is that the subject addressed was that portion of England that had hitherto been acknowledged by the English crown to be a Scottish protectorate. Certainly since the time of Edgar, and traditionally since the time of Alfred, the north of what is now England had been given into the custody of the Scots as a result of English inability to defend it. From what can be discerned the area was not ceded formally but it was reasonable that the Scots raise revenues where the English couldn’t. Given that the English throne, whose claim to the area the Scots had allowed to retain its priority, had itself fallen to the forces the Scots had successfully defended that claim against, the status of the north of England suddenly became moot. This was the purpose of Cnut’s visit – to claim the area as a result of his transition from the aggressor it was defended against to the wearer of the crown to which its allegiance was due. Indeed the English crown subsequently would attempt periodic legalistic contortions whereby it arrogated feudal superiority by misrepresenting this situation, and tried to extend its claim from the lands in England held by the Scottish crown, to Scotland Herself. This situation was not fully resolved until Bannockburn (it is interesting to note that Bruce’s first administrative act after that victory was not to consolidate his position, but to travel to the north of England to raise revenue and administer justice as was his right).

In the west, Malcolm made an alliance with King Owen the Bald of Strathclyde and together they defeated King Canute at the Battle of Carham in 1018. At the same time, the marriage of his daughter to Sigurd the Stout, Norse Earl of Orkney, extended Malcolm's influence to the far north. He battled to expand his kingdom, gaining land down to the River Tweed and in Strathclyde. When King Owen died without an heir, Malcolm claimed Strathclyde for his grandson, Duncan. This caused dissent throughout the kingdom of Strathclyde which resulted in Malcolm's murder at Glamis in 1034. He was buried on the Isle of Iona shortly after.

As the last of the House of Alpin, he did not have any sons to succeed him. He, therefore, arranged good marriages for his daughters. One daughter married Earl Sigurd of Orkney and their son Thorfinn brought the lands of Caithness and Sutherland under the control of the King of Alba. His elder daughter, Bethoc, married the Abbot of Dunkeld and their son became Duncan I(c.1010-1040), who succeeded Malcolm upon his death in 1034.

After Malcolm II's reign, Scottish succession changed to be based on the principle of direct descent. (Previously, succession was determined by tanistry - during a king's lifetime an heir was chosen and known as tanaiste rig - 'second to the king'.)

James MacPherson – “Translator” of the Ossianic Epic



Scottish " translator " of the Ossianic poems, was born at Ruthven in the parish of Kingussie, Inverness, on the 27th of October 1736. He was sent in 1753 to King's College, Aberdeen, removing two years later to Marischal College. He also studied at Edinburgh, but took no degree. He is said to have written over 4000 lines of . verse while a student, but though some of this was published, notably The Highlander (1758), he afterwards tried to suppress it. On leaving college he taught in the school of his native place. At Moffat he met John Home, the author of Douglas, for whom he recited some Gaelic verses from memory. He also showed him MSS. of Gaelic poetry, supposed to have been picked up in the Highlands, and, encouraged by Home and others, he produced a number of pieces translated from the Gaelic, which he was induced to publish at Edinburgh in 1760 as Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland. Dr Hugh Blair, who was a firm believer in the authenticity of the poems, got up a subscription to allow Macpherson to pursue his Gaelic researches. In the autumn he set out to visit western Inverness, the islands of Skye, North and South Uist and Benbecula. He obtained MSS. which he translated with the assistance of Captain Morrison and the Rev. A. Gallie. Later in the year he made an expedition to Mull, when he obtained other MSS. In 1761 he announced the discovery of an epic on the subject of Fingal, and in December he published Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, together with Several Other Poems composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language, written in the musical measured prose of which he had made use in his earlier volume. Temora followed in 1763, and a collected edition; The Works of Ossian, in 1765.
The genuineness of these so-called translations from the works of a 3rd-century bard was immediately challenged in England, and Dr Johnson, after some local investigation, asserted (Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775) that Macpherson had only found fragments of ancient poems and stories, which he had woven into a romance of his own composition. Macpherson is said to have sent Johnson a challenge, to \vhich Johnson replied that he was not to be deterred from detecting what he thought a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian. Macpherson never produced his originals, which he refused to publish on the ground of the expense. In 1764 he was made secretary to General Johnstone at Pensacola, West Florida, and when he returned, two years later, to England, after a quarrel with Johnstone, he was allowed to retain his salary as a pension. He occupied himself with writing several historical works, the most important of which was Original Papers, containing the Secret History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover', to which are prefixed Extracts from the Life of James II., as written by himself (1775). He enjoyed a salary for defending the policy of Lord North's government, and held the lucrative post of London agent to Mahommed Ali, nabob of Arcot. He entered parliament in 1780, and continued to sit until his death. In his later years he bought an estate, to which he gave the name oi Belville, in his native county of Inverness, where he died on the 17th of February 1796.
After Macpherson's death, Malcolm Laing, in an appendix to his History of Scotland (1800), propounded the extreme view that the so-called Ossianic poems were altogether modern in origin, and that Macpherson’s authorities were practically non-existent.. Much of Macpherson’s matter is clearly his own, and he confounds the stories belonging to different cycles. But apart from the doubtful morality of his transactions he must still be regarded as one of the great Scottish writers. The varied sources of his work and its worthlessness as a transcript of actual Celtic poems do not alter the fact that he produced a work of art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the romantic movement in European, and especially in German, literature. It was speedily translated into many European languages, and Herder and Goethe (in his earlier period) were among its profound admirers. Cesarotti’s Italian translation was one of Napoleon’s favourite books.

James Clerk Maxwell – Discoverer of Electro-Magnetic Waves



Often ranked next to the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton as one of the most outstanding scientists of all time is physicist James Clerk Maxwell, from Edinburgh whose supreme achievement is the formulation of electromagnetic theory. When he first became interested in electricity, he wrote Kelvin asking how best to proceed. Kelvin recommended that Maxwell read the published works in the order Faraday, Kelvin, Ampère, and then the German physicists. Maxwell wanted to present electricity in its most simple form. He started out by writing a paper entitled "On Faraday's Lines of Force" (1856), in which he translated Faraday's theories into mathematical form, presenting the lines of force as imaginary tubes containing an incompressible fluid. He then published "On Physical Lines of Force" (1861) in which he treated the lines of force as real entities, based on the movement of iron filings in a magnetic field and using the analogy of an idle wheel. He also presented a derivation that light consists of transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. Finally, he published a purely mathematical theory in "On a Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" (1865).
Maxwell's formulation of electricity and magnetism was published in A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), which included the formulas today known as the Maxwell Equations. Maxwell also showed that these equation implicitly required the existence of electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light. He also proposed a physical theory of ether. He abandoned attempts to formulate a specific mechanical model, instead using the formalism of Lagrangian mechanics.
With Clausius, he developed the kinetic theory of gases. In "Illustrations of the Dynamical Theory of Gases" (1860), he showed the velocity distribution of molecules was "Maxwellian." His studies of kinetic theory led him to propose the Maxwell's demon paradox in a 1867 letter to Tait. Maxwell's demon (termed a "finite being" by Maxwell) is a tiny hypothetical creature that can see individual molecules. He can make heat flow from a cold body to a hot one by opening a door whenever a molecule with above average kinetic energy approaches from the cold body, or below average kinetic energy approaches from the hot body, then quickly closing it. This process appears to violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but was used by Maxwell to show that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is a statistical law describing the properties of a large number of particles. Maxwell also observed in private correspondence that the time reversal of all events was consistent with the laws of dynamics, but inconsistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Maxwell published his views on the limitations of the Second Law in Theory of Heat (1871).
Maxwell made numerous other contributions to the advancement of science. He argued that the rings of Saturn were small individual particles, performed experiments which showed the viscosity varied directly with temperature, derived the equipartition theorem, and tried to describe spectral lines using a vibrational model.

John Napier - "Inventor" of Logarithms



Mathematician and Astronomer. Born at Merchiston Castle (Edinburgh). He was educated at St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews. He devised "Napier's Rods" or "Napier's Bones" which permitted easy multiplication by addition. This led to him defining the concept of logarithms, which he described in Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (1614). He also invented the decimal point.

His son to his first wife, Elizabeth, became the first Lord Napier. In 1572, he married Agnes Chisholm and they settled on his family estate at Gartness, near Killearn (Stirling). Napier was buried at St. Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh.

Robert I de Brus (1306-29) - Ruler and Warrior



Usually known as Robert the Bruce (July 11, 1274- June 7, 1329), was, according to his best modern biographer (Geoffrey Barrow), a great hero who lived in a minor country. In every aspect of his career (until he became King of Scotland on March 25, 1306) he was a traditional member of the ruling feudal noble class; the grandson of a younger son descended from David I of Scotland, and more English than Scottish in his upbringing.

Robert Bruce was born at Turnberry Castle, Ayrshire, in 1274. He was the son of Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, and Margaret, daughter of Neil, Earl of Carrick. From his mother he inherited the Earldom of Carrick, and from his father a royal lineage that give him a claim on the Scottish throne.

By murdering John Comyn at Dumfries in 1306 -- an act Pope Clement V excommunicated him for -- Bruce was able to secure the Scottish crown and was crowned at Scone in April of that year.

Eight years of exhausting but deliberate refusal to meet the English on even ground, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, proved Bruce to be considered by many to be one of the great guerrilla leaders of any age, which represented a transformation for one raised as a feudal knight. Bruce secured Scottish independence from England at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Free from English control, Scotland's armies were able to invade northern England. Indeed, buoyed by his military successes, Bruce was able to invade Ireland, where his brother Edward was crowned King by the ebullient Irish. Bruce drove back a subsequent English expedition north of the border, forcing the English king to seek peace.

Robert Bruce's career is also marked by some equally successful diplomatic achievements, including the lifting of his excommunication by the new Pope, Pope John XXII, at Rome. In May 1328, the Treaty of Northampton was signed by the English king, which finally recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom and Bruce as king.

Sir Walter Scott - Originator of Historical Novel



Edinburgh-born Walter Scott can be said to have invented the historical novel. He has remained one of the most popular novelists of all time, though his lengthy narratives have a bit of a problem keeping the interest of today's fast-moving generation fed on a diet of television "sound-bites." Trained as a lawyer and sheriff of Selkirk in 1799, Scott was a principal clerk of session in 1896, but had already embarked upon his literary career by translating from the German.

In 1802, Scott published his collection of ballads, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, followed by his own compositions in the enormously popular The Lay of the Last Minstrel in 1805. Next came Marmion (1808), The Lady of the Lake (1810) and other poems including The Lord of the Isles (1815). It was time to turn to the novel. A prolific output of some of the world's best novels then ensured from Scott, at first known only by a pseudonym and referred to as "The Great Unknown."

Waverley was completed in 1814. It was followed by Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary and Old Mortality (1816), Rob Roy and The Heart of Midlothian (1818), The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose (1819), Ivanhoe, The Monastery and The Abbot (1820), Kenilworth (1821), The Pirate and The Fortunes of Nigel (1822), Peveril of the Peak and Quentin Durward (1823), Redgauntlet (1824), The Talisman (1825), Woodstock (1826), The Fair Maid of Perth (1828), Anne of Geierstein (1829), Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous (1831).

The novels were being turned out at great speed to pay off his enormous debts, especially those with the running of his mansion at Abbotsford. As if all this were not enough, Scott also contributed many serious prose works valuable as scholarship. He edited the Works of Dryden (1810) and The Works of Swift (in 19 vols. 1814) as well as the Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler (1809) and the Somers Tracts (1809-15 in 13 volumes). In 1823, he founded the Bannatyne Club to promote interest in historical scholarship, prime examples of which were his Life of Napoleon (1827); Tales of a Grandfather (1828-30), essentially a child's history of Scotland; and a History of Scotland (for Lardner's Cyclopedia). While he was doing all this, he continued to write articles for the Quarterly Review and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

We remember Scott as novelist, biographer, ballad collector, editor, poet, critic and historian. In all his novels, Scott gave us a romantic, nationalistic Scotland.

Johannes Duns Scotus – Medieval Theologian/Philosopher



1266–1308, scholastic philosopher and theologian, called the Subtle Doctor. A native of Scotland, he became a Franciscan and taught at Oxford, Paris, and Cologne. The exact canon of Duns Scotus’ work is unknown; the best known of his undoubtedly authentic works are On the First Principle and two commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. He put Aristotelian thought to the service of Christian theology and was the founder of a school of scholasticism called Scotism, which was often opposed to the Thomism of the followers of St. Thomas Aquinas. Scotism has had considerable influence on Roman Catholic thought and has been to some degree sponsored by the Franciscans.

In metaphysics, Duns taught the “univocity of being”; by this he meant that being must be regarded as the ultimate abstraction that can be applied to everything that exists. He is also known for the use of the “formal distinction,” a subtle manner of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing. The Scotists deny that matter is the principle of individuality and insist that individuation of things is caused by a determination called “haecceitas” or “thisness.” According to Scotus, the essence of things as well as their existence depends not on the Divine Intellect but on the Divine Will; his philosophy accordingly is voluntaristic in its entire spirit. It is possible to prove the existence of God, but the ontological proof of St. Anselm is modified: the idea of God’s possible existence involves his necessary existence, but knowledge of that possible existence must be demonstrated from sensible things, i.e., from experience. Scotus taught that the state arose from common consent of the people in a kind of social contract. He also denied that property was ordained by natural law.

Adam Smith - Classical Economist



Two hundred years after his death, Adam Smith's ideas of market-based economics, limited government and incentive-based systems have become the dominant force in economics world-wide.

Born in 1723 in the Scottish fishing village of Kirkcaldy, Adam Smith studied at Glasgow University, later becoming Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow . He made brief sojourns to London and the European continent, and in 1776 published his masterwork, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. It was the first book of modern economics and has influenced all economists since. He died in 1790.


William Wallace - Warrior



The crisis in deciding Scotland's succession had led to England's King Edward effectively choosing the Scottish king, John Balliol. In March 1296, Balliol renounced his homage to Edward, and by the end of the month Edward had stormed Berwick-upon-Tweed, sacking the border town with much bloodshed. In April, he defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar (1296) in Lothian, and by July, Balliol had been forced to abdicate at Kincardine Castle. Edward went to Berwick in August to receive formal homage from some 2,000 Scottish leaders, having previously removed the Stone of Destiny from Scone Palace, seat of Scottish kings. Scotland was now effectively under English rule.

The following year, 1297, was to see the start of Wallace's rise to prominence. William Haselrig, the English sheriff of Lanark, had murdered Marion Braidfute, Wallace's wife or mistress, and Wallace took his revenge by killing the Sheriff, and burning his castle. By May he was fighting with Sir William Douglas in Scone, routing the English justiciar, William Ormsby. Supporters of the growing popular revolt suffered a major blow when Scottish nobles agreed terms with the English at Irvine in July, and in August, Wallace left his base in Selkirk forest to join Andrew Murray's army at Stirling. Murray had started another rising, and their forces combined at Stirling, where they prepared to meet the English in battle.


September 11, 1297, saw a decisive victory for Wallace and the Scots at Stirling Bridge. The Scottish forces ambushed the English at the bridge over the Forth, led by Wallace and Andrew Murray, another low-ranking nobleman. The Earl of Surrey's professional army of 300 cavalry and 10,000 infantry met disaster as they crossed over to the north side of the river; they were either killed on the end of the Scots' long spears, or drowned in the Forth, dragged down by the weight of their own armour. Historians believe the marshy ground around the bridge also helped secure the downfall of the English. Hugh Cressingham, Edward's treasurer in Scotland, was killed in the fighting.

Following his victory, Wallace was made a knight and Guardian of Scotland in March 1298

year later, however, the tables were to be turned. On June 25, 1298, the English had invaded Scotland at Roxburgh. They plundered Lothian and regained some castles, but had failed to bring Wallace to combat. The Scots had adopted a 'scorched-earth' policy, and English suppliers' mistakes had left morale and food low, but Edward's search for Wallace would end at Falkirk.

Wallace had arranged his spearmen in four 'schiltrons' – circular, hedgehog formations surrounded by a defensive wall of wooden stakes. The English were to gain the upper hand, however, attacking first with cavalry, and wreaking havoc through the Scottish archers. The Scottish knights fled, and Edward's men began to attack the schiltrons. It is not clear whether the infantry throwing bolts, arrows and stones at the spearmen was the deciding factor, or a cavalry attack from the rear.

Either way, gaps in the schiltrons soon appeared, and the English exploited these to crush the remaining resistance. The Scots lost many men, but Wallace escaped, though his pride and military reputation were badly damaged.

By September, 1298, Wallace had decided to resign his guardianship to Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and John Comyn of Badenoch, ex-King John Balliol's brother-in-law. Bruce became reconciled with Edward in 1302, while Wallace spurned such moves towards peace.

Sir William managed to evaded capture by the English until May 1305, when he was captured near Glasgow, by Sir John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward. After a show trial, he was horribly executed by the English on August 23, 1305, at Smithfield, London in the traditional manner for a traitor. He was hanged, then cut down to be disembowelled when still alive, and his head placed on a spike in London Bridge. His limbs were displayed in a grisly fashion in Newcastle, Berwick, Edinburgh, and Perth.

The plaque in the photograph above is on a wall of St Bartholomew's Hospital near the site of Wallace's execution at Smithfield. It is often visited by Scottish patriots and other interested people and flowers are frequently left there.

The 1995 motion picture, Braveheart, is a very loose account of William Wallace's life


James Watt – Pioneer of Steam Engine



He.was not the inventor of the steam engine, nor did he claim to be, but the steam engine he perfected made the Industrial Revolution possible. When he was given a model of a Newcomen engine to repair in 1764, he quickly saw its inefficiencies and set out to provide remedies. Newcomen' engines had been around since their invention in 1705; they were inefficient, cooling down and losing their pressure far too rapidly. In addition, they were primarily used for pumping as attempts to convert them to rotary motion had failed.

Greenock-born Watt, a friend of the pioneering engineer John Smeaton, realised the necessity of removing the condensing of steam from the cylinder that had to be continually heated to hold steam for the power stroke and then cooled to condense the steam. In 1765, Watt proposed that the steam should be condensed in a condenser outside the cylinder; it was one of the greatest advances in the development of industry; it revolutionized the steam engine and it transformed the world.

Watt patented his idea in 1769 and after a period working with John Roebuck of the Caron Ironworks, went into partnership with Matthew Boulton to found the Boulton Watt Foundry at the Soho Works in Birmingham. In 1774, at Bersham in North Wales, John Wilkinson invented a way of boring cylinders (originally for the making of canons) and thus found a way to produce the Watt engine in copious numbers. Beginning with a steam engine to power a flour mill, the factory produced over 350 highly efficient steam engines that made their present felt in all branches of British industry and transformed the nation. It was also a Boulton and Watt engine that powered Robert Fulton's S.S. Clermont on its historic journey up the Hudson in 1807.

Watt made many improvements such as the air pump, steam-jacketed cylinders, double acting engines (in which the piston both pushed and pulled), the sun and planet rotary mechanism (thus adapting the steam engine for rotary motion), parallel motion and the governor for regulating an engine's speed. Truly a remarkable list of accomplishments. Many areas of Britain that had relied purely on water power could now use the Boulton and Watt engine; mills and foundries were now set up on or near the coalfields. It wasn't long before Richard Trevithick adapted the rotary engine to the idea of transporting men, goods, and machinery by rail. As a sideline, Watt was also responsible for introducing to Britain the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent, a French invention of tremendous benefit to the rapidly growing cotton industry.

Billy connelly man, hands down.

William wallace was cool

CurtSibling for releasing Kaiser right...now!

Or now...

Or now...

The Greatest Scotsman ever? Well.......


Sean Connery ofcause!!

Sean Connery getsa my vote as well- you just dont beat Mr. Bond

Andrew Carnegie, for building a palace in The Hague.

There have been lots of Scottish inventors and they all deserve admiration. I voted James Watt but only because it's easy to see/appreciate the changes he made, and I like to think he did it because he wanted to correct technical problems and not only for profit

Uniting England & Scotland was wise and could have forever have prevented war among the world's most influencial peoples, but the key king failed in uniting the hearts and minds of those people (and peers) which is a bitter blow. Good plan, poor execution. No vote.

I wish we could class Robert the Bruce with Richard the Lion Heart on the same team: I really don't like to see the Britons squabble, we should be setting the example for the world to follow. Same goes to those south of the border: there is nothing glorious in English history, quit being jerks play in the team.

/end rant

The fellow Scotsman and Brazilian international who taught the Brazilians to play football ( very poorly it has to be said ). I forget the guys original name but I do remember his nick name from the article that the Daily Record published about him. The Daily Record gushed about viadinho which means "little deer" saying that the Brazilians called him this because he was such a fast elusive winger. In actual fact, if the Daily Record had looked into matters more thoroughly would have found that viadinho is also colloquial brazilian portuguese for " little homo". I know this from playing football with Brazilian football fans once where I tried to "frighten" them by lifting my kilt whereupon I was being refered to as "big deer". I guess one could be flattered

William Murdoch

Reasons:

1) He was one of my ancesters
2) He was the real mind behind the steam engine (he worked for Watt who stole his idea) - he built the first steam locomotive, though it was very small, and didn't run on tracks.
3) He invented the gas lamp, and from that street lighting
4) He was one of my ancesters
5) Errrr....

It always amuses me the way that the biggest supporters of Scotish independance and the most well known scots often live nowhere near their homeland now (ie connery)

Other than Watt or Smith I don't particularly like the others that much, so I guess Smith

Maxwell to me.

WOW


Other has more votes than anyone else...I guess I just overlooked the greatness of Sean and Billy.

Originally posted by samildanach
The fellow Scotsman and Brazilian international who taught the Brazilians to play football ( very poorly it has to be said ). I forget the guys original name but I do remember his nick name from the article that the Daily Record published about him. The Daily Record gushed about viadinho which means "little deer" saying that the Brazilians called him this because he was such a fast elusive winger. In actual fact, if the Daily Record had looked into matters more thoroughly would have found that viadinho is also colloquial brazilian portuguese for " little homo". I know this from playing football with Brazilian football fans once where I tried to "frighten" them by lifting my kilt whereupon I was being refered to as "big deer". I guess one could be flattered

Click to expand...

1-We rule football and you know it
2-In Brazil, "viadinho" means only one thing, and that's exactly "little homo" in a depressive manner. I laughed a lot when I read that they thought that it had something to do with beign a fast elusive winger.

sorry, dp

"The 1995 motion picture, Braveheart, is a very loose account of William Wallace's life"

Did the Scots under Wallace every sack York, or was that merely part of the movie?