SERVICE ABOVE SELF


OCTOBER 2019: ISSUE 126


When Melvyn Bragg featured an episode of In our Time on Erasmus Darwin and the 18th century Scientific Lunar Societ y of Birmingham (sometimes called The Looney Society) you might have thought it could not be bettered. Well, at the meeting on the 15th September, member George McIntosh did so by producing a virtuoso performance on the S cottish contribution to the realm of science and engineering over the last centuries. Some names might have been more familiar than others but all have put the name of Scotland on that scientific map. From James Watt (a Greenock man) best known for the steam engine, or rather converting reciprocal motion into circular motion to Lord Kelvin on thermodynamics to John Logie Baird for the television (claimed by the Americans), to Alexander Graeme Bell for the concept of the phone; these are all familiar names. Your fridge and toaster owe their existence to the work of Joseph Black (1728-1799) and Alan MacMasters (1865-1927) and when it comes to travel we also have that covered with Thomas Telford (the Colossus of Roads) to James (Paraffin) Young for paraffin/ kerosene used by aircraft. George touched on the work of James Clerk Maxwell and the electromagnetic radiat ion equat ions which were fundamental to Einstein’s own work some years later. No doubt George is keeping the equations for another time! There were at times a few glazed eyes as joules, watts, mass, weight and absolute zero were mentioned, but the c omp a ny we n t h ome k n owi n g substantially more than when they came in. Maybe the Open University can look forward to getting many new applications!


James Watt


John Logie Baird


Alexander Graham Bell


Thomas Telford


10


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12