My Dear Guests
The first ever engineer was surprisingly not Scottish, that honour fell to Imhokep, who was responsible for building the first pyramid in Egypt almost 5,000 years ago.
Fast forward over 4000 years and this is the first-time history mentions individual engineers, in the form of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo, who started the theoretical predictions in the design of artefacts. It is not until the 18th century that the engineer comes to the fore with John Smeaton – the builder of the Coldstream bridge who is known as the father of civil engineering.
Mechanical engineering didn’t really exist until Greenock’s James Watt built the steam engine in 1765 – this made him the daddy of them all. This piece of genius gave birth to the industrial revolution. Thomas Telford from Dumfries was soon on the scene and was the first Engineer to be both Civil and Mechanical with the building of the Caledonian canal in the Great Glen. He was very instrumental in master minding box bridging with Edinburgh’s Dean Bridge.
A few decades later, Edinburgh’s own Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 whilst staying in the USA. He was soon back home in 1873 and got Queen Victoria’s personal blessing for this monumental machine.
Turn the clock on another 50 years, when Helensburgh’s John Logie Baird invented the television in 1926, which changed the world completely.
If it was not for the Scottish Engineer, the earth would not be anywhere near the sophisticated place it is today. These people are certainly iconic and are known throughout the globe and we are very proud as they were Scottish.
Other great Scottish Engineers also deserve a mention:
James Dewar inventor of the vacuum flask
George Forbes perfecting Armstrongs Hydro-electric power
Anna McLeod the mother of modern-day brewing
Lord Kelvin renowned Physicist & Engineer
John Russell moderniser of today’s royal navy
Robert Watson Watt inventor of the radar
Alan McMasters inventor of the toaster
So please join us in our tribute to
THE SCOTTISH ENGINEER
