The Inventive Scots – poster

Oor ain culture

Culture is one of the main things that define a country. It makes one place on a map more than simply in a different location to another place on a map. Scotland is no exception to this. From our tartans and traditions, to our writing, music, languages and so much more, the culture that has come to define Scotland has become known around the world.

Cringe no more

In the centuries since the birth of the union in 1707, Scots have been gradually all been taught to dislike, dismiss, or even flat out deny our culture. Known as the Scottish Cringe, this in-built censor manifests in all sorts of ways, often near words like 'twee' and 'parochial'. Bringing a focus and sense of worth to Scottish culture is one of the main aims of Indy Prints.

About this piece

For a tiny wee nation on the edge of Europe, Scotland has had an unexpectedly large influence on the world since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Is it because of the long dark nights, a relentless Calvanist spirit, or something else? Who can say.

The artwork

This print collects 40 inventions and discoveries made by Scots and people living in Scotland.

c14th Golf – Unknown • 1614 Logarithims – John Napier • 1694 Bank Of England – William Paterson • 1750 Discovering the properties of Carbon dioxide – Joseph Black • 1775 S-Trap (first modern toilet) – Alexander Cumming • 1776 Modern economics – Adam Smith • 1777 Grand piano – John Broadwood • 1779 Modern swing plough – James Small • 1781 Steam engine – James Watt • 1785 Geology (shown: the Hutton Section in Holyrood Park) – James Hutton • 1786 Statistical line charts, bar charts and pie charts – William Playfair • 1816 Macadam road – John Loudon McAdam • 1817 Kaleidoscope – David Brewster • 1824 Mackintosh raincoat – Charles Macintosh • 1827 Screw propellor – Robert Wilson • 1831 Identifying the nucleus in living cells – Robert Brown • 1839 Digestive biscuit – Alexander Grant • 1841 Electric Clock – Alexander Bain • 1847 Pioneering the use of surgical anaesthesia with chloroform – James Young Simpson • 1848 Determining the value of absolute zero – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin* • 1853 Hypodermic syringe – Alexander Wood • 1861 Colour photography (shown: the first colour photograph) – James Clerk Maxwell • 1861 Theory of electromagnetism – James Clerk Maxwell • 1864 Devising the diagrammatic system of representing chemical bonds – Alexander Crum Brown • 1869 Pedal bike – Kirkpatrick Macmillan & Thomas McCall • 1876 Telephone (shown: Bell's first phone) – Alexander Graham Bell • 1880 Development of criminal fingerprinting – Henry Faulds • 1887 Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle • 1888 Horsehead Nebula – Williamina Fleming • 1888 Pneumatic tyre – Robert William Thomson & John Boyd Dunlop • 1892 Vacuum flask – James Dewar • 1893 Toaster – Alan MacMasters • 1920 Peter Pan – J M Barrie • 1922 BBC (shown: their motto) – John Reith • 1926 Television (shown: Baird's Televisor) – John Logie Baird • 1928 Penicillin – Alexander Fleming • 1935 Pioneer in development of radar – Robert Watson-Watt • 1980 Development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scanner – John Mallard • 1996 The first cloned mammal (Dolly the Sheep) – Ian Wilmut* & Keith Campbell* • 1998 Pelamis wave energy device – Richard Yemm.
* working in Scotland

Product details

• Paper size A3, 420x297mm
• 350gsm smooth white board
• Printed in Scotland on FSC® Mixed Sources paper