Baird of the Telly, unknown to me no longer. === Tooth pullers have looked the same for a long time now. Unsettling. But form follows function. Rather than go into dental adventures here, let there be a separate thread and let another start it.
Bless. I love it when Americans think they invented stuff. Televisions, telephones, hot dogs, apple pie, Budweiser..... (Although, to be fair, you did adapt many of these things by making them worse.) Your schoolbooks are funny.
not know@105. I did not. Considering myself a reasonably good thing-knower; I'll weather ensuing criticism. If I had taken education anywhere near Scotland, things would be different. I knew about Machineel and wager you did not sir. Reflect a moment before choosing a war-of-trivia opponent.
I already liked your wee poem. 'Tis enough. Should not be enabling paleo-English any more than already am.
Yes, I do think of you as a good thing-knower. Outside of the US, I think Baird is pretty much common knowledge - certainly in Europe and Australia. It says a lot about the US that even a leading thing-knower such as your good self didn't know about him. The tree? No, I did not. As I say, it's not a war-of-trivia issue: it's that I'm interested that an excellent thing-knower such as yourself would not know about Baird because of what it says about the US. I think if you asked the average person in the street in Britain who invented the TV, he or she would be able to tell you that it was Baird, and many would be able to add that Americans erroneously think that some American (they may or may not know the name) invented it.
Well then take Scottish pride in Watt, Rankine, Stirling. Maxwell. James effing Clerk Maxwell! Told us how the world works. Really. You want A.G. Bell? Take him. Several more in the big leagues. Many more in the middle leagues. A small place, Scotland, but with strong showing in innovation. Balanced by lyricism of Burns and (oh I reckon) there are others. With the Beeb, a Scottish innovation, telling us all what's what. But waving that Baird flag? Seems as paleo-English does to me. quaint but not compelling.
It is the national pastime. We cannot legally allow foreigners to labour under the misapprehension that they invented things that Scotland invented. Also, deep-frying. Probably. I think the strong showing in innovation comes from the cold, wet weather. Not much else to do, other than sit at home and invent stuff.
Frying -> Portugal -> tempura (Japan) Notion that climate relates to innovation may hold promise. Perhaps someone else would attack it . I could say that nearest to equator, folks seem to have developed technology enough for their proximate needs and then shifted into 'park'. At higher latitude, we read from Joseph Needham (British) that Chinese technology went further but also shifted into 'park'. Needham was acutely frustrated by this. Mid-latitude technology action elsewhere was muddled by migrations, genocides and relocations of resources. High-latitude technology action developed housing, marine blubber harvest, and also shifted into 'park'. I cannot detect a latitudinal pattern. I would not focus on Scotland, or any other small place.
For that helpful comment, I can only say arigato/obrigado*. Lee Kuan Yew, founder of modern Singapore: "Air conditioning was a most important invention for us, perhaps one of the signal inventions of history. It changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics. Without air conditioning you can work only in the cool early-morning hours or at dusk. The first thing I did upon becoming prime minister was to install air conditioners in buildings where the civil service worked. This was key to public efficiency." Have you read much of Needham? Interesting man, and fascinating writings. The Needham Institute was founded in the gardens of my Cambridge college, while I was there. As one of the few students of Chinese at the the college, I was of course invited to the opening. However, I was 18 and irresponsible, and free booze was on offer, so my main memory of the event is getting very very drunk with Germaine Greer. I did go into the institute regularly after that, though. It was an excellent place. There were so many factors at play in the innovations of Scotland and Northern England - timing, mineral deposits, population, education, the regulatory environment, transport, and so on - that it would be hard to pin it down to one thing. *Urban myth, apparently.
Was I mistaken in thinking the humble Macintosh and the ubiqitous tarmacadam were also milestones of Scottish inventions?
You were very much not mistaken. Assuming that you mean the coat and not the computer beloved of goateed graphic designers and other such free thinkers. Also, penicillin, tubular steel, pneumatic T Y R E S, carbon brushes, screw propellers, haggis*, military special forces, adhesive postage stamps, sectarian soccer violence, logarithms, fingerprinting, resentment of the English**, roller printing, Buckfast, economics, the eternal glory that is the Scotch pie, animal cloning, the tractor beam***.... I could go on. *Some credit may be due to the Syrians on this one. Not sure what it's called in Arabic, but Syrian deep-fried haggis balls are one of life's great pleasures if you live in Sydney. **No, America, you did not invent this. *** I kid you not.
You see what I mean? I offer a an inch of of question and receive a mile of answer. Where else could you get deals like this?
