Happy thingy

[soup]

Nah he invented a television system which nobody uses (indeed even the BBC in its early days used Marconi's system). As further homework Google Philo Farnworth (Did he beat Marconi to the punch? More likely a case of reading each others papers hearing of ideas etc.).

No, he invented Macadam but that was too dusty for motorised traffic so tar was added this tarred version of Macadam was called Tarmacadam more commonly referred to as Tarmac, patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley

You mean the earl of Merchisto(u)n (I regularly pass Napier university which has his old house [Merhiston castle/tower] in the grounds). I remember at school, pre or very early calculator time, spending hours doing logs (with no 'Bones' to help).

I am too young to actually remember Christmas day as a normal working day however mum told me about this Christmas = normal day and how she still got pressies on Christmas but it wasn't treated as a big deal, Christmas still does not have the "gay abandon" of New year.

Was looking for the rebuttal of the T-cloth version of "here's tae us..." but can't find it.

? ORIGINAL T-CLOTH VERSION ? (Inspired by a poem attributed to Burns)

Wha's Like Us - Damn Few And They're A' Deid

The average Englishman, in the home he calls his castle, slips into his national costume, a shabby raincoat, patented by chemist Charles Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland. En route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.

He drives an English car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop of Dreghorn, Scotland, arrives at the station and boards a train, the forerunner of which was a steam engine, invented by James Watt of Greenock, Scotland. He then pours himself a cup of coffee from a thermos flask, the latter invented by Dewar, a Scotsman from Kincardine- on-Forth.

At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by James Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland.

During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, blacksmith of Dumfries, Scotland.

He watches the news on his television, an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the U.S. Navy, founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.

He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot, King James VI, who authorised its translation.

Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots. He could take to drink, but the Scots make the best in the world. He could take a rifle and end it all but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick of Pitfours, Scotland.

If he escapes death, he might then find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, which was discovered by Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland, and given an anaesthetic, which was discovered by Sir James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland.

Out of the anaesthetic, he would find no comfort in learning he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.

Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask "Wha?s Like Us".

[soup]

I like Pringles. Have never bought coffee at a Starbucks (indeed have never bought from any Coffee(ish) chain.

[Nightjar]

On 30/11/2013 09:46, soup wrote: ...

I would have thought the trench coat, claimed to have been invented by both Burberry and Aquascutum, more typically traditionally English, although Barbour must be a contender.

As mentioned earlier, more probably using the system devised by Edgar Purnell Hooley. Unless it had been surfaced using the system devised by John Metcalf, although a second Scot, Thomas Telford might have been the builder.

Which owe more to the work of Charles Goodyear than to the simple invention of the bicycle tyre by Dunlop.

Who refused to permit his patent to be applied to locomotives.

Invented, ten years earlier, by Adolf Ferdinand Weinhold. As with many inventions, it is the person who made a success of selling it who is better remembered.

More usually attributed to Rowland Hill.

Or possibly by Elisha Gray. Bell however got to the patent office a few hours earlier than Gray.

The safety bicycle was invented by John Kemp Starley. Macmillan was simply one of several early experimenters and whether he actually invented a mechanically propelled velocipede or it was a story to discredit the French invention of one is disputed.

The Baird mechanical system has nothing to do with modern televison and, in any case, it was invented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow.

The US Navy was founded on 13 October 1775. John Paul Jones joined on 7 December 1775.

Henry VIII authorised the first translation into English. BTW, relevant to the bit that followed, he also owned a breech loading hunting gun.

Not the easiest weapon to use on yourself, but I suppose few Scots have invented hand guns.

While he discovered it, he did nothing with the discovery. It took an Australian, a German Jew and an Englishman to make penicillin into a useful medicine, a decade later.

Hardly. He was the first to use chloroform, but ether had been in general use for some time before that and it replaced chloroform again, once the mortality rate of chloroform was appreciated.

Colin Bignell