1824 - 1841

1824
Birth of William Thomson Kelvin, mathematician and inventor, who will formulate the second law of thermodynamics, and also help formulate the theory of electric oscillations and the discovery of radio waves.

Publication of John Ramsay McCulloch's "Discourse on the Rise, Progress, Peculiar Objects and Importance of Political Economy" is the first formal history of economic thought. McCulloch will also help make known the theories of David Ricardo.

Scott Russell receives his science degree at 16 which will lead him into experiments with steam engines and boilers and to contribute immensely to the techniques of modern shipbuilding.

The first licensed Scotch whisky distillery is begun at Glenlivet.

1827
The screw propeller for ships is co-invented by Robert Wilson of Scotland (and Joseph Ressel of Austria).

1828
James Beaumont Nielson, at the Glasgow Gasworks, invents a method of using a hot blast in furnaces that will shift the industrial revolution into high gear. Brought to the United States by Welshman David Thomas in 1840, the method will revolutionize the American iron industry by making it possible to smelt iron ore with anthracite.

The Maitland Club is founded to publicize the work of Robert Maitland, Lord Lethington, who served in various positions under James V and Mary, Queen of Scots and whose collection of Scottish poetry includes works by Dunbar, Douglas, Henryson and others.

1829
Thomas Graham publishes his first important paper, dealing with the diffusion of gases. As a chemist, Graham will become known as "the father of colloid chemistry."

Publication of "The Diary of Mr. James Melville" (1556-1601) provides important details about the growth of the Presbyterian movement in Britain and especially the mid-16th century religious revolution that has so greatly affected Scotland.

Scottish social reformer "Fanny" Wright, who had championed women's rights and free public schools in America, settles in New York City, where she will cause consternation with her advocacy of contraception, a more equal distribution of wealth, an end to religion, and emancipation and resettlement of African-American slaves.

William Burke is hanged at Edinburgh for his nefarious activities including murder and the sale of bodies to the medical profession.

1831
The position of the magnetic North Pole is determined by James Clark Ross.

1832
Death of Sir James Hall, a pioneer in experimental geology who has determined the nature of igneous rocks.

The Scottish Reform Bill creates eight new boroughs and increases the numbers of Scottish Members in the House of Commons to 53. At a stroke of the pen, Edinburgh's voting electors rise from 39 to over 9,000.

Physician Thomas Latta injects saline solution to save the life of a cholera patient and thus pioneers a new treatment to combat the epidemic that has arrived from New York.

1834
Explorer Alexander Burnes published his "Map of Central Asia and Travels into Bukhara" that will bring these formerly unknown areas to the attention of the Western world.

1837
The publication of Thomas Carlyle's "The French Revolution", a masterpiece of historical writing.

1838
The Sirius, a ship of the company owned by steamship pioneer Macgregor Laird, becomes the very first to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam. The age of sail is doomed.

John Gibson Lockhart publishes his great biography "Life of Sir Walter Scott".

1839
Kirkpatrick Mcmillan, a Dundee blacksmith, completes four years of experiment, adding a pedal system and brakes to the earlier frame and wheels to produce the world's first self-propelled bicycle. For the first time in history, a person could travel under his own power faster than he can run.

James Nasmyth, of Edinburgh, invents the steam hammer. He will invent and manufacture standard automatic machine tools, thus reducing the dependence of industrialists on skilled labor and, with his assembly line, usher in the age of mass production.

1840
John Goodsir is appointed conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. His valuable contributions to anatomy and cellular physiology and pathology will include the discovery that the multi-compartment cell is the center of nutrition.

In December, explorer-missionary David Livingstone leaves for Africa on the steamer George. His major expedition into the interior of the continent will take place thirteen years later.

1841
Publication of the revolutionary "The Old Red Sandstone" by Hugh Miller, an account of his discoveries of fossils in formations of the Devonian strata.