As the Scottish referendum gets underway in Britain Thursday, there are plenty of ways to celebrate the country’s contribution to the present day world, The Independent reported. Some of these are:
Adam Smith: One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is best known for two classic works: ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’, and ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’.
Chicken Tikka Masala: Chef Ali Ahmed Aslam, based in Scotland’s capital Glasgow, claims to have created Britain’s favourite dish, the chicken tikka masala.
Chloroform: Scottish doctor Sir James Y Simpson pioneered chloroform in 1847. He went on to use it as an anaesthetic to ease the pain of childbirth, leading to its acceptance in modern medicine.
Colour photography: Those Kodak moments were only possible thanks to 19th-century Scottish
scientist James Maxwell, who invented the ‘three-colour method’.
Dolly the sheep: The world’s first cloned mammal was created in 1996 by a team of experts at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh.
Driving on the left: It was Scotland that pioneered driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. Driving on the left entered Scottish law in 1772, more than 60 years before England and Wales adopted it in 1835.
Gin and tonic: The drink of millions worldwide was invented by Edinburgh-born George Cleghorn, an 18th-century doctor who discovered that quinine could cure malaria. The quinine was drunk in tonic water, but it was so bitter that gin was added to make it more palatable.
Golf: Scotland is the birthplace of golf. But in 1457, King James II banned it as an unwelcome distraction from learning archery.
Hypnotism: Scotland-born surgeon James Braid was the first to experiment with hypnotism, using candles to get people into a trance-like state.
James Watt: An idea developed by Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt led to the invention of the steam engine that sparked the industrial revolution in the world.
Penicillin: Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist.
Porridge: Parritch, as it is correctly known, has been described as the ‘backbone of many a sturdy Scotsman’.
Uncle Sam: The term Uncle Sam is reputedly derived from Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from New
York, who supplied rations for the soldiers.
Vacuum flask: The vacuum flask was designed and invented by Scottish physicist and chemist Sir James Dewar as a result of his research in the field of cryogenics and is sometimes called a Dewar flask.
Whisky: Not to be confused with Irish whiskey, the first evidence of the production of the ‘water of life’ in Scotland is recorded in 1494, although distillation dates back centuries before.
Bicycles: A pedal cycle based on a hobby horse was invented by blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan.
Microwave: Ready-meals would have been a distant dream if the magnetron had not been developed by Scotland’s Sir Robert Watson-Watt.
McDonald’s: Descended from a Scots-Irish family, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald changed the way the world ate after they opened the first branch of McDonald’s in California in 1938. Agencies
Adam Smith: One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is best known for two classic works: ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’, and ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’.
Chicken Tikka Masala: Chef Ali Ahmed Aslam, based in Scotland’s capital Glasgow, claims to have created Britain’s favourite dish, the chicken tikka masala.
Chloroform: Scottish doctor Sir James Y Simpson pioneered chloroform in 1847. He went on to use it as an anaesthetic to ease the pain of childbirth, leading to its acceptance in modern medicine.
Colour photography: Those Kodak moments were only possible thanks to 19th-century Scottish
scientist James Maxwell, who invented the ‘three-colour method’.
Dolly the sheep: The world’s first cloned mammal was created in 1996 by a team of experts at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh.
Driving on the left: It was Scotland that pioneered driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. Driving on the left entered Scottish law in 1772, more than 60 years before England and Wales adopted it in 1835.
Gin and tonic: The drink of millions worldwide was invented by Edinburgh-born George Cleghorn, an 18th-century doctor who discovered that quinine could cure malaria. The quinine was drunk in tonic water, but it was so bitter that gin was added to make it more palatable.
Golf: Scotland is the birthplace of golf. But in 1457, King James II banned it as an unwelcome distraction from learning archery.
Hypnotism: Scotland-born surgeon James Braid was the first to experiment with hypnotism, using candles to get people into a trance-like state.
James Watt: An idea developed by Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt led to the invention of the steam engine that sparked the industrial revolution in the world.
Penicillin: Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist.
Porridge: Parritch, as it is correctly known, has been described as the ‘backbone of many a sturdy Scotsman’.
Uncle Sam: The term Uncle Sam is reputedly derived from Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from New
York, who supplied rations for the soldiers.
Vacuum flask: The vacuum flask was designed and invented by Scottish physicist and chemist Sir James Dewar as a result of his research in the field of cryogenics and is sometimes called a Dewar flask.
Whisky: Not to be confused with Irish whiskey, the first evidence of the production of the ‘water of life’ in Scotland is recorded in 1494, although distillation dates back centuries before.
Bicycles: A pedal cycle based on a hobby horse was invented by blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan.
Microwave: Ready-meals would have been a distant dream if the magnetron had not been developed by Scotland’s Sir Robert Watson-Watt.
McDonald’s: Descended from a Scots-Irish family, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald changed the way the world ate after they opened the first branch of McDonald’s in California in 1938. Agencies