Friday, May 25

I'm being rude about the Scots.

I just feel the need to be rude about the standard Scots list of achievements

the nation that gave the world TV, the telephone, penicillin, the pneumatic tyre and golf among many others,


Hmm. So that's the wrong sort of TV that no-one uses anymore (anyone have an electromechanical TV at home? No), an invention that may quite possibly have been *ahem* inspired by the Italian Antonio Meucci, a famous discovery by accident (which a Germano-Briton and an Australian turned into something useful), the tyre, and a very boring game.

The tyre is true, although it was invented twice, both were by Scots.

The truth is, of course, that many inventions the Scots don't bother claiming required significant contributions by Scottish people, while many inventions the Scots do claim required significant contributions by non-Scots.

For example, the basic uselessness of the mechanical television was recognised in 1908 in a letter to Nature. The author recommended how an electrical television would work. The author was Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, a Scot.

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