World Changing Scottish Folk! Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Logie Baird

Born 1888 in Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland, this engineer who was the first person to demonstrate a working television, in the form of a mechanical system, in 1926 to some scientists in the U.K. He then, in 1928, transmitted the first transatlantic television broadcast. Guglielmo Marconi, an inventor born in Italy, best known for his development of a practical radiotelegraph system, the nearest he got to being "Celtic" was having an Irish mother.
Walter Bruch, a German, famous in the early 1960s, for inventing the PAL color television system. As far as is known he had no Scots family connections!
Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, a consulting electrical engineer born in Edinburgh. He was one of the first to explore radiography. He also was involved in some ideas of television by cathode rays.

Answer: Alexander Fleming

A Scottish pharmacologist/biologist and Nobel Prize winner, he was born in 1881 on a farm near Darvel, East Ayrshire. He discovered penicillin in 1928.
Howard Walter Florey, an Australian born pharmacologist and Ernst Boris Chain, a German-born British biochemist both shared in 1945, the Nobel Prize along with Flemming for their role in the extraction of penicillin.
Norman George Heatley, an English born scientist was in the team of Oxford scientists who worked with Florey and Chain in helping develop the self-same drug!

Answer: John Napier

Also known as the 8th Laird of Merchistoun, born 1550 in Edinburgh. He was a physicist and mathematician, also a keen astronomer and astrologer. He invented logarithms and popularized the decimal point. Napier University in Edinburgh is named after him! He died in 1617 and was buried in St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh.
William Bourne, an English mathematician who created an idea for an early submarine amongst other things.
John Dee, mathematician of Welsh descent who straddled the worlds of science and magic! He had many talents! He was also a consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.
Gemma Frisius, born in Friesland (in the modern day Netherlands) an instrument maker and mathematician also a cartographer! He improved mathematical instruments and used mathematics to improve navigation and surveying!

Answer: William Paterson

He was born 1658 in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. He made his fortune with foreign trade in London and he was the chief projector of the plan to establish the Bank of England" (known as the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street"), which was created in 1694 with a capital of £1.2 million! He was a director of the bank from 1694 to 1695. Nowadays, this bank sets interest rates, a function formerly performed by the government.
George Watson, born in Edinburgh, was one of Scotland's most famous accountants of his era. He became chief accountant to the Bank of Scotland in 1695.
William Boyd, also known as Lord Kilmarnock, was a Scottish earl. He is famous because he backed the Jacobites in the Battle of Culloden in the 1745 uprising as a result, he was taken to London and beheaded in 1746! His actions ensured the loss of the ancient family titles, lands and riches. Quite the opposite of founding a bank!
Henry Duncan, born 1774 at Lochrutton, founded the first savings bank in the Dumfries region! He believed deeply in the dignity of the ordinary man and the poor. It was his wish to do something of real value for the underprivileged and poor, and this led to the birth of the humble savings bank!

Answer: Alexander Graham Bell

Born 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland, he was a scientist and inventor who emigrated to Canada at the age of 23. He researched communication machines. In 1876 he patented apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically which we now know as the telephone.
William Brodie, born 1741 and better known as 'Deacon Brodie', a Scottish cabinet-maker who led a double life as a thief at night and a respectable businessman in day-light! He stole from rich daytime clients for whom he made cabinets. To pay for his night life he gleaned their security mechanisms and where they hid their cash. This included two mistresses and a gambling habit! I guess he did not change the world ...
Antonio Meucci was an Italian inventor of the first telephone prototype of which Bell was accused of stealing! There was never any evidence for this claim.
Charles Sumner Tainter was an American engineer and inventor. He worked with Bell. He developed and patented the "Graphophone", from which the "Dictaphone" was developed.

Answer: Sir David Brewster

Born in 1781 in Jedburgh, this highly acclaimed man was considered a gifted child and well respected for his intelligence by his contemporaries. He invented the kaleidoscope in 1816 which entertained and delighted people from all walks of life.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh is a Scottish architect famous for his contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement.
Charles Stewart Parnell was a well known as an Irish Nationalist politician.
Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish poet and historical novelist.

Answer: William Murdoch

He was born in 1754 near Cumnock, Ayrshire and became an engineer and inventor.
He also experimented in chemistry and made a number of discoveries. Thanks to him, coal gas light was first used in 1802 in a building he worked in. He never made any money from this invention as sadly he never obtained a patent!
He worked in a company making steam engines, owned by James Watt, a Scottish inventor and engineer of the industrial revolution and his partner Matthew Boulton, an English engineer and manufacturer.
William Fairbairn, a Scottish engineer who developed the use of tubular steel in construction.

Answer: Sandford Flemming

Born in 1827 Kirkcaldy, Scotland. An engineer and inventor who at the age of 17 years, emigrated with his older brother to Canada. Whilst in Ireland he missed a train because its printed timetable showed p.m. instead of a.m.! He proposed a 24-hour clock for the entire world, he then linked it to the meridian of GMT. At first his idea was rejected, but eventually the world used it! He was knighted a 'Sir' by Queen Victoria.
Ian Fleming is the English author of the "James Bond" series of books.
Alexander Flemming was the Scot who discovered penicillin.
Michael Fleming, a modern day American author of many books!
NB: The name Fleming is also spelled Flemming. I have found the names of the four people mentioned in this section are spelled either way depending on various, individual articles.

Answer: Henry Faulds

Born in the Scottish town of Beith in 1843, this scientist is best known for his work on forensic fingerprinting. It was first put to the test when his hospital was broken into and someone he knew was accused of the deed, he proved that that person could not have been the culprit by examining fingerprints at the crime scene with the prints of the suspect, which were found to be different!

Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, was also involved in the development of fingerprinting but it is said that this was only after he had a letter from Faulds requesting some research help.
James Marsh, an English chemist who developed a method for detecting arsenic poisoning named the "Marsh Test"!
Joseph Bell, a one time Scottish lecturer at the medical school in Edinburgh, is considered to be a pioneer in forensic pathology and of whom the character Sherlock Holmes was apparently based.

Answer: Catherine Spence

She was born in 1825 in Melrose in the Scottish Borders. In 1839, at the age of 14 she emigrated with her parents to Australia. She was Australia's first female political candidate and first female journalist. She was a writer and campaigned for women's suffrage. She wrote the first legal studies textbooks published in Australia and her novels contained social comments. By all accounts a lady ahead of her time!
Her first major novel was named "Clara Morison"!
She died before her final book, an autobiography, was finished. Another writer by the name of 'Jeanne F. Young' completed it on her behalf!
Colleen McCulloch is a famous authoress who wrote many great novels, the most famous being "The Thorn Birds"!