1791 - 1806

1791
" Life of Johnson" is published. One of the world's great biographies, by James Boswell, whose travels with the good doctor in Scotland, documented in "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" of 1785 will help create an appetite for touring the more remote areas of Britain that has never been lost.

1792
A successful defense of James Hadfield by Scot Thomas Erskine on a plea of insanity leads to the passage of the Libel Act of 1792, a landmark in British legal history that will constitute an important contribution to the law of criminal responsibility. Erskine had earlier defended Thomas Paine against a charge of treason for publishing "Rights of Man".

1793
Thomas Telford begins work as an engineer with the Ellesmere Canal Company. His stupendous feats at carrying canals over steep valleys of the River Dee, in addition to his suspension bridges over the Conwy and Menai in Wales, and later, the building of roads and bridges in Scotland and Europe, win him lasting fame.

Fur trader Alexander MacKenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean after completing the first crossing of the North American continent by a European.

1794
The publication of James Hutton's "Investigations of Principles of Knowledge", followed by "Theory of the Earth", one year later, completely revolutionizes the study of geology. He upset the popular theory that the earth is 6,000 years old, by showing that it is countless millions of years old.

1796
The first European to reach the interior of West Africa, explorer-physician Mungo Park reaches the Niger. His "Travels in the Interior of Africa" is published three years later.

1797
The world's first commercial orange marmalade is manufactured by James Keiller at Dundee.

1801
A Gaelic version of the Bible is made available.

Botanist Robert Brown's voyage to Australia on the "Investigator" results in his great work on plant fertilization that will contribute greatly to our understanding of the world of nature.

1802
Built by William Symington, the "Charlotte Dundas", the first steam-powered tug boat in the world, pulls two 70-ton barges on the Forth and Clyde Canal. It shows that even the largest ships in the world can be safely towed in and out of harbor.

Archibald Constable becomes publisher of the influential "Edinburgh Review", making the works of Walter Scott available to the reading public, and creating one of the leading literary magazines of Great Britain for the next one hundred and twenty-seven years.

Construction begins on Telford's Caledonian Canal which will cross Scotland to link the North Sea with the Atlantic Ocean.

1803
Walter Scott publishes his collection of ballads "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" that will jump-start his distinguished literary career and give him the impetus to become the writer par excellence of a romantic, nationalistic Scotland.

Henry Raeburn completes his painting "The McNab", immortalizing the romantic image of a Highland chief.

1804
John Leslie's "An Experimental Inquiry into the Nature and Propagation of Heat" shows that artificial ice could be created in the laboratory. Six years later, Leslie will freeze water successfully.

1806
At Paisley, a cotton thread as strong and smooth as silk is developed by Patrick Clark. Cotton will rapidly replace linen for use as thread.