History of Scotland

Our ongoing history of Scotland that chronicles the events in Scotland over the past million years with a special focus on the last thousand as you might expect. We have also digitised a copy of Patrick Tytler's History of Scotland which is an eccentric but wonderfully written history of the the mediaeval years in Scotland. The project of chronicling Scotland's history is ongoing, as is the process of organising and structuring and linking the pages together.

James Lind

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James Lind / Medical Pioneers

Name : Lind
Born : 1716
Died : 1794
Category : Medical Pioneers
Finest Moment : Promotion of citrus fruits as a means of preventing scurvy at sea

Before the end of the 18th century, the biggest killer of seamen was not shipwreck, nor enemy guns, but the gradual onset of the symptoms of scurvy, due to a dietary lack of ascorbic acid or vitamin C. This is easily obtained from fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly the juice of lemons and limes; items not easily obtained on long, slow sea voyages. Scurvy showed itself as bleeding gums, degenerated muscles, swollen joints, tender skin, loose teeth, and wounds failing to heal properly.

Born in Edinburgh in 1716, Lind served as a naval surgeon (1739-48) before taking a medical degree at Edinburgh University. Lind was of course very aware of scurvy, and also that two centuries earlier the Dutch had recommended the use of citrus fruits and juices on long voyages. Lind refreshed this knowledge, writing A Treatise on Scurvy in 1754. Later, working as a physician at the Haslar Hospital for Royal Navy personnel at Gosport (1758-94), Lind also published On the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen (1757).

His recommendations were finally adopted by the Royal Navy in 1795, the year after his death. Scurvy virtually disappeared overnight. For many years, the practice of eating limes by seamen of the Royal Navy gave rise to their nickname of 'limeys', a small price to pay for good health on board ship. Lind also researched into delousing procedures, the use of hospital ships in ports, and, in 1761, arranged for the shipboard distillation of seawater for drinking purposes.

He died at Gosport, on 13 July 1794.

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James Macpherson

Name : Macpherson
Born : 1736
Died : 1796
Category : Poets
Finest Moment : Publication of The Poems of Ossian (1773)

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James Matheson

Name : Matheson
Born : 1796
Died : 1898
Category : Other
Finest Moment : Founding the great trading company of Jardine Matheson in the late 1820's.

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James Matthew Barrie

Name : Barrie
Born : 1860
Died : 1937
Category : Writers
Finest Moment : Publication in 1904 of Peter Pan

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James Maxton

Member of the group known as Red Clydesiders and recognised as an outstandingly principled Scottish politician who finally moved away from the moderate Labour policies of the 1930s.

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James Nasmyth

James Nasmyth / Engineers

Name : Nasmyth
Born : 1808
Died : 1890
Category : Engineers
Finest Moment : Invention of the steam hammer

Born 19 August 1808 in Edinburgh, the son of the artist Alexander Nasmyth, James was educated at Edinburgh High School and the School of Arts. In 1829 he became an assistant to Henry Maudsley in London, working in the Lambeth Engine Works. He had obviously been interested since his schooldays in engineering, particularly steam engines, building successful steam engine models while at school.

Two years later, in 1831, he set up his own engineering workshop in Edinburgh, then moved to Manchester the next year. He finally opened the Bridgwater Foundry at Paticroft in 1837, close to the junction of the Bridgewater Canal with the newly opened Liverpool and Manchester Railway. This was in the very heart of the Industrial Revolution, going full blast.

Nasmyth's special focus was on the design and manufacture of machine tools, in addition to which he manufactured a variety of other machines; hydraulic presses, pumps, over 100 steam locomotives and various high-pressure steam engines. He is known mainly for his invention of the steam hammer. This made possible the forging of large machine parts, including the drive shaft for Brunel's vessel the SS Great Britain, originally designed with huge paddle wheels. (It eventually used screw propellers, but Nasmyth's steam hammer was seized on as a valuable tool for the Industrial Revolution.) br>At his factory in Paticroft, he improved efficiency by introducing a prototype assembly line. This was also brought in to undermine the power of the craft unions, Nasmyth being an implacable foe of restrictive labour practices.

Aged 48, he retired from engineering to pursue his hobby of astronomy, building his own reflecting telescopes. He was the first astronomer to observe solar flares, and published a key paper on the surface of the moon in 1874.

He died in London, on 7 May, 1890.

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