Pangur Bán
Deconstructed
No one seems to agree on the telephone yet. The Scots definitely have a claim.
As for the telegraph, the reason another site gives for the claim is that
"The Scots Magazine first published the concept for the telegraph in 1753. An anonymous contributor suggested that words could be spelled out along a 26 wire system activated by static electricity. The receiver had twenty six pith balls, each with a different letter of the alphabet. The pith balls would be attracted to their corresponding charged wires when the wires were activated with static electricity. The state of technology was not up to the task until Volta invented the electric battery in 1800, however. "
You decide what to make of it.
But actually, most of the items on the list above are solid claims. A few are controversial: like the telegraph, capitalism and the telephone. But, you must understand, there is a reason for every one of the claims. They are not made up.
I tend to remember these things, and I've never heard that the Scots invented the Bus, color photographs, the photocopier or the video. I'm doubting these. The television was not merely the work of Logie Baird either, so the claim that the Scots invented the Television, while merited, has to be seen in perspective.
However, that is the case with all these (big) lists.
And that list didn't claim all that it might have: like the adhesive postage stamp, Breech-loading rifle, the stereotype, the steam-hammer, Quinine (cures Malaria apparently
), modern Hollow-pipe drainage, Tubular steel, the distillation of Sulphuric Acid, and ones like sociology, the Social Sciences (Herman claims this), Buiks, Whisky, like navies of USA, Russia and Chile (not inventions of course) 
Of course, the problem with all these lists, is that there is usually no easy way to distinguish one technological model from close, but relatively inadequate preceding physical or theoretical models.
As for the telegraph, the reason another site gives for the claim is that
"The Scots Magazine first published the concept for the telegraph in 1753. An anonymous contributor suggested that words could be spelled out along a 26 wire system activated by static electricity. The receiver had twenty six pith balls, each with a different letter of the alphabet. The pith balls would be attracted to their corresponding charged wires when the wires were activated with static electricity. The state of technology was not up to the task until Volta invented the electric battery in 1800, however. "
You decide what to make of it.
But actually, most of the items on the list above are solid claims. A few are controversial: like the telegraph, capitalism and the telephone. But, you must understand, there is a reason for every one of the claims. They are not made up.
I tend to remember these things, and I've never heard that the Scots invented the Bus, color photographs, the photocopier or the video. I'm doubting these. The television was not merely the work of Logie Baird either, so the claim that the Scots invented the Television, while merited, has to be seen in perspective.
However, that is the case with all these (big) lists.
And that list didn't claim all that it might have: like the adhesive postage stamp, Breech-loading rifle, the stereotype, the steam-hammer, Quinine (cures Malaria apparently
), modern Hollow-pipe drainage, Tubular steel, the distillation of Sulphuric Acid, and ones like sociology, the Social Sciences (Herman claims this), Buiks, Whisky, like navies of USA, Russia and Chile (not inventions of course) Of course, the problem with all these lists, is that there is usually no easy way to distinguish one technological model from close, but relatively inadequate preceding physical or theoretical models.
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