A Freemason has come top in an international poll that ran for more than a week in one of Scotland's national newspapers - The Scotsman. Voters were asked to name the top Scottish inventor and 17 names were listed (see below). It was possible to vote for individuals not listed but unsurprisingly 14 of the 17 inventors will has some artefacts associated with them, their life and work displayed at a new exhibition called the Discoveries Gallery at the National Museums of Scotland.
People were able to cast their vote by e-mail, post, mobile text or through the newspaper's online polling system. It would be interesting to know how many votes were cast for each inventor but The Scotsman had declined to reveal the actual figures.
The winner was Brother Sir Alexander Fleming (1881 - 1955). The article reporting the result of the poll is reproduced in full below and we hope to add more information as it becomes available.
Brother Sir Alexander Fleming, the man who harnessed the power of penicillin, has been voted Scotland's greatest inventor after a poll in The Scotsman. Fleming won by a clear margin from James Clerk Maxwell, the eminent physicist, with telecoms pioneer Alexander Graham Bell in third place. Mike Gilson, editor of The Scotsman, says: "We are delighted that so many readers took the time to take part in the poll - as well as those we originally listed, another 15 different suggestions were made, which reinforces the incredible wealth of inventiveness that Scotland has given to the world."
National Museums of Scotland director Dr Gordon Rintoul was delighted when the inventors' poll was launched - and today, in conjunction with the national museums, we offer a readers' guide to seeing some key artefacts linked with our greatest inventors. "I think this was a terrific series and very much needed," says Dr Rintoul. "I don't think in Scotland we have really made enough of the incredible number of inventions and innovations made by Scots. I think people from across Scotland don't realise what we have here. The national museums have one of the best science and technology collections in Europe and a lot of that stems from our great tradition of inventors and innovators."
Sir Alexander Fleming presented the museum with his Nobel medal and the museum recently acquired an original sample of penicillin mould, signed on the back by the man who became one of the first science superstars. Dr Rintoul says: "I think it is amazing that something like that sample still exists. But if I have to have a favourite object I would say it is the Fleming medal, because penicillin and antibiotics have had such a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of so many."
The Nobel medal is not on display at the moment, but will form part of a new exhibition called the Discoveries Gallery, which is part of the £46 million Royal Museum project. Dr Rintoul hopes the new exhibition will encourage pride in Scotland's history of innovation and inspire a whole new generation of young scientists. "People may have heard of James Watt but may not know of James Goodfellow, who invented the automated cash machine, or Sir James Black, who invented beta blockers. You can read about these things in books or see things on television but seeing the real physical item brings things home in a much more meaningful fashion. "That is what we are aiming to do with the Discoveries Gallery. If you can see Bell's telephone or Fleming's Nobel medal, it will have more impact. We need to move away from the idea of Scotland being known for tartan and whisky and acknowledge the impact Scots have had on the world."
Dr Rintoul says one of the public's favourite items on show at the museums is Dolly the Sheep. The first mammal cloned from an adult cell was acquired in 2003 and can now be seen in a rotating glass case alongside a working model of James Watt's original steam engine. As a discovery that changed the course of science Dolly was already world-famous, but even museum staff were slightly surprised by how many visitors began appearing at the information desk and asking: "Where's Dolly?" "I suppose it is rather funny how a sheep can become a star," says Dr Rintoul. "But the buzz across the world when Dolly came into our care was amazing. We had Japanese tourists photographing each other in front of the case." While Dolly might be the most famous and one of the most recent examples of ground- breaking Scottish inventions, you do not have to look far to find more. As well as the Roslin sheep and Watt's steam engine, the museums' collection includes the world's first colour television, the first commercially available telephone and a section of the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic, all engineered, designed and implemented by Scots.
When the Discoveries Gallery opens, visitors will be able to see Baird's television, Dunlop's tyre and Bell's telephone in one place. The Scotsman, in conjunction with the museums, has compiled a guide to the inventors featured in its collection - and added some others to be found elsewhere in Scotland. We hope you will follow the trail and enjoy finding out more about Scotland's greatest inventors.
1 Dolly the Sheep, Ian Wilmut Rotating serenely in her glass tank, the world's most famous sheep can be found in the Connect Gallery, on the ground floor of the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street. The sheep, the first to be cloned from an adult cell, can also be seen on YouTube. She has become the museum's most popular exhibit.
2 Boulton and Watt steam engine, James Watt Right next to Dolly is the massive Boulton and Watt steam engine, the second oldest steam engine in the world, which crushed barley and pumped water for more than 100 years at a London brewery. Today it runs on compressed air rather than steam, but the mechanism built in 1786 still works like a dream and is switched on seven times every day. The museum also owns a very rare cistern barometer, made by Watt when he was an instrument-maker in Glasgow and displayed in the Instruments of Science Gallery, while a letter-copying device which he patented which is kept in the Innovators Gallery.
3 Televisor, John Logie Baird The mechanical television developed by John Logie Baird was superseded by electronic television. But Baird's designs were commercially available in the 1930s. In the Art and Industry Gallery, on the ground floor of the Chambers Street museum, you can see a 1930s Televisor, which used spinning disks to relay images. In the Innovators Gallery you can see an early glass cathode-ray tube made by Baird. The world's first colour television, also made by Baird, will go on display in the Discoveries Gallery.
4 Nobel Medal, Penicillin sample, Sir Alexander Fleming. The Nobel Prize-winner gave his medal, awarded in 1945, to the National Museum of Scotland. Fleming became a celebrity towards the end of his life and gave samples of his life-saving mould to people - including Marlene Dietrich, who told him penicillin had saved the lives of two members of her family. This sample was presented to an unknown person during Fleming's tour of Spain, when matadors knelt down in the sand to pay tribute to the man who saved so many lives. It will be part of the display in the new Discoveries Gallery.
5 Mirror Galvanometer, Lord Kelvin The inventor of the Kelvin scale was one of the founders of thermodynamics. But, in his lifetime, he became better known for his work that enabled the laying of a telegraph wire across the Atlantic. Kelvin invented a mirror galvanometer, which magnified the weak signal that made it across the ocean floor and allowed it to be read. The device, along with a length of the original cable laid across the seabed, can be found in the Innovators Gallery.
6 Theoretical models, James Clerk Maxwell The discoveries of Edinburgh-born scientist James Clerk Maxwell are in the realm of theoretical physics and mathematics but they laid the foundation for a huge number of modern inventions, including the microwave oven and the mobile phone. In the Instruments of Science Gallery you can see a three-dimensional plaster model that he used to demonstrate the thermodynamics of water, and a brass dynamical tap, which helped him understand the nature of the rings of Saturn. More innovative items, including most notably the world's first colour photograph, can be found at 14 India Street, Edinburgh, which is James Clerk Maxwell's birthplace.
7 Shale oil product display, James 'Paraffin' Young James "Paraffin" Young transformed the landscape of West Lothian when he discovered a multitude of uses for shale oil. In the Workshop of the World Gallery of NMS you can find a contemporary wooden display case featuring a huge array of oils, lubricants and candles produced by the Broxburn works.
8 Bell Telephone, Alexander Graham Bell The world's first commercially available telephone, manufactured by the Bell company in the United States, is one of the prize exhibits of the Communicate Gallery (which is currently closed for refurbishment). Bell's telephone had only one speaker, which the user had to swap between ear and mouth.
9 Gas meter, William Murdoch As well as pioneering the use of gas lighting in homes and factories, William Murdoch, who worked for James Watt, also invented the gas meter. An early example of a gas meter, from about 1900, can be seen alongside a model of an early steam engine he designed. The first domestic house to be lit by gas was Abbotsford, the home of the novelist Sir Walter Scott, in the Borders.
10 Tyre, John Boyd Dunlop An early pneumatic tyre manufactured by Dunlop in Belfast is part of the collection of the National Museum of Scotland. In a very fragile condition it is not at present on display, but may form part of the planned Discoveries Gallery.
11 Radar, Robert Watson Watt. The Museum of Flight, in East Fortune, East Lothian, has a radar room packed with early radar equipment from the Second World War. Robert Watson Watt was the first to create a working radar, leading historian AJP Taylor to say the war could not have been won without him. The equipment in East Lothian, viewable on Wednesdays, is not connected with Watson Watt but comes from his era.
12 Chloroform, Sir James Young Simpson. Sir James Young Simpson, pioneer of chloroform, donated a sedan chair, which belonged to his predecessor, to the Museum of Scotland; it can be seen in the Spirit of the Age gallery. To see more items connected with Simpson, it is worth taking a trip to the Surgeons Hall Museum, in Hill Square, Edinburgh. Here you can see the flamboyant doctor's hat, his sparkling shoe buckles, his wooden medical box and the forceps he invented, as well as a photograph of the drawing room at 15 Queen Street in the Capital where he held his notorious ether parties.
13 Bicycle, Kirkpatrick Macmillan. The Museum of Transport in Glasgow has a bicycle made by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, the enterprising blacksmith who first had the catalytic notion of fixing pedals to the wheels of a hobby horse. There is also an example at the Science Museum in London.
14 Ultrasound, Ian Donald. An early ultrasound device designed by the Glasgow gynaecologist Ian Donald is on display at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, as part of its exhibition "A Healing Passion, Medicine in Glasgow Past and Present".
Whilst we encourage all Freemasons, especially Scottish Freemasons, to visit the exhibition to learn about the extend of contributions made by inventors of our tiny country (Scotland) to the betterment of humankind but we do wonder whether any of the inventors, any of the exhibits, any of the publicity blurb will refer to those who were Freemasons and to what extent it is thought that their membership of that ancient and honorable society encouraged, supported and even financed their various endevours. [Don't hold your breath - Ed.]