The Treeflights blog

Two chaps with a passion for trees in dotcom startup drama

Monday, August 14, 2006

The Industrial Global Warmer



Theres been a lot of talk about how the U.K is responsible for such a small percentage of global emmissons that investment in renewables (such as windpower) makes no sense- The savings being in an order of 1% of 1% of global totals. But that is to forget the part that Britain has played in Global warming, because, ITS ALL OUR FAULT.

Oh Yes. Heard of the industrial revolution? That was us. Steam engine? Woops. Actually I blame the Scots for inventing virtually every machine that used coal. Of course, if we hadn’t started it, some other enterprising culture would have. But as a politically stable, properous country that has stripped the world of it’s resources for hundreds of years, we must take the lead in radically altering our attitude.

A short list of Scots Inventors and inventions

• A steam car (steam engine): William Murdoch (1754-1839)
• Macadam roads: John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836)
• Driving on the left: Determined by a Scottish-inspired Act of Parliament in 1772
Civil Engineering Innovations
Bridges
• Bridge design: Thomas Telford (1757-1834) & John Rennie (1761-1821)
• Suspension bridge improvements: Sir Samuel Brown (1776-1852)
• Tubular steel: Sir William Fairbairn (1789-1874)
Canals & Docks
• Canal design: Thomas Telford (1757-1834)
• Dock design: John Rennie (1761-1821)
• The patent slip for docking vessels: Thomas Morton (1781-1832)
• Crane design: James Bremner (1784-1856)
Lighthouses
• Lighthouse design: Robert Stevenson (1772-1850)
• The Drummond Light: Thomas Drummond (1797-1840)
Power Innovations
• Steam engine improvements: James Watt (1736-1819)
• Coal-gas lighting: William Murdock (1754-1839)
• The Stirling heat engine: Rev. Robert Stirling (1790-1878)
Shipbuilding Innovations
• The steamship paddle wheel: Patrick Miller (1731-1815)
• The steam boat: William Symington (1763-1831)
• Europe's first passenger steamboat: Henry Bell (1767-1830)
• The first iron-hulled steamship: Sir William Fairbairn (1789-1874)
Other Scottish shipbuilding firsts:
• The first all-steel ship
• The first steel ship to cross the Atlantic
• The first paddle steamer to cross the Atlantic
• The first ship to cross the Atlantic in less than a week
• The first all-welded ship
• The first merchant ship to run on oil
• The first set of triple-expansion engines for a twin-screw steamer
• The first ship to be fitted with two engines
• The first steam whaler
Heavy Industry Innovations
• The carronade cannon: Robert Melville (1723-1809)
• Making cast steel from wrought iron: David Mushet (1772-1847)
• Wrought iron sash bars for glass houses: John C. Loudon (1783-1865)
• The hot blast oven: James Beaumont Neilson (1792-1865)
• The steam hammer: James Nasmyth (1808-1890)
• Wire rope: Robert Stirling Newall (1812-1889)
• Steam engine improvements: William Mcnaught (1831-1881)
• The Fairlie, a Narrow gauge, double-bogey railway engine: Robert Francis Fairlie (1831-1885)

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