1767 - 1790

1767
James Craig designs his masterpiece of town planning, Edinburgh New Town, as an assertion of the city's place (and that of Scotland) in the British Union.

The publication of Dugald Buchanan's Gaelic hymn book is of enormous benefit for the survival of the language.

1768
John Hunter is admitted to the Royal Corporation of Surgeons where he will carry out many experiments in pathology, anatomy, morphology, biology and physiology. His most important contribution will come in the treatment of aneurysms.

William Hunter's medical studies, especially in the field of obstetrics, have him elected to professorship of the newly formed Royal Academy. He will pioneer the use of arterial and cavity embalming as the way to preserve bodies for burial.

Death of James Short, who produced the first truly parabolic and elliptic mirrors for reflecting telescopes, thus correcting the distortions produced by earlier mirrors.

1769
James Watt patents his steam engine, in which the use of a condenser outside the main cylinder will prove to be one of the greatest advances in the history of industry, revolutionizing the steam engine and transforming the world.

1768-71
Publication of the first edition of the "Encyclopedia Britannica" in Edinburgh by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell (edited by William Smellie and friends), marks a beginning to what will become one of the most informative and influential series of books ever published.

1771
Publication of Alexander Dalrymple's "Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean" encourages Captain Cook to undertake further voyages into the South Pacific. Cook's earlier discovery of New Zealand and the southeast coast of Australia had come about as a result of Dalrymple's notions that a huge continent existed in the South Pacific.

1774
Flora MacDonald, who had helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after Culloden, her husband and seven children, emigrate to North Carolina where the clan later will inexplicably join a large group of fellow Scots to fight for George III against the rebel Americans.

1776
Publication of "An Inquiry into the Nature of Causes of the Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith marks the transition of Europe from a late medieval to a modern economy and will continue its appeal and great influence for centuries.

1778
Publication of Robert Lindsay's "Historie and Chronicles of Scotland".

1782
John Broadwood takes over the London business of a Swiss harpsichord maker to found the world's oldest existing firm of piano makers.

1783
Birth of James Baillie, whose travels into Persia (Iran) and the Himalayas will help make these areas known to the Western world.

The founding of Glasgow's Chamber of Commerce makes it the first such trade organization in Britain.

1784
Birth of George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, British foreign secretary who will help settle the long-standing disputes between Canada and the United States over their eastern and western boundaries.

Thanks to Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville, the Act of 1746 that had forbidden Highland dress and the pipes is repealed.

1785
Publication of Thomas Reid's "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", will have a great effect on the direction of subsequent British philosophy, though overshadowed by the work of fellow Scot David Hume.

1786
First publication of Robert Burns' "Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" in which "Ode to a Mouse" appears. Its success will change the poet's mind about emigrating and will encourage his later works.

The New Lanark Mills become the largest cotton mills in the world, and cotton, Scotland's largest industry.

1787
Kinnaird Head Lighthouse becomes the first to use the new lighting system designed by Robert Stevenson, whose design and building of lighthouses (which projected a beam from a lamp by means of reflectors) will make the shores of Britain safer for ships and crew.

William Symington invents the first practical steamboat, using a direct-action steam engine in a paddleboat.

1788
Andrew Meikle takes out a patent on his threshing machine that will help change the face of agriculture.

Often hopelessly drunk as "King over the Water," Charles Edward Stuart dies in Rome. His successor is his young brother Henry, Cardinal York, whose death in 1808 will finally end Stuart claims to the throne.

1790
Publication of explorer James Bruce's "Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile" will inspire the later more-famous adventures of David Livingstone.