As Scotland gave to the world the knowledge of the art of logarithms,
the steam engine, the electric telegraph, the wireless telegraph,
illuminating gas, the knowledge of chloroform, and many other
important inventions, it was to be expected that the inventive faculty
of her sons would not fail when transplanted to this country.
Hugh Orr (1717-98), born in Lochwinnoch, inventor of a machine for
dressing flax, took a patriotic part in the war of the Revolution by
casting guns and shot for the Continental Army, besides doing much to
encourage rope-making and spinning. His son, Robert, invented an
improved method of making scythes and was the first manufacturer of
iron shovels in New England. William Longstreet (1759-1814), a New
Jersey Scot, invented and patented an improvement in cotton-gins
called the "breast-roller," also a portable steam saw-mill. As early
as 1790 he was at work on the problem of the application of steam
power to the propulsion of boats, but lack of funds prevented
operations until 1807, the same year in which Fulton launched his
steamboat. His son, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870), became
President of South Carolina College. Robert Fulton (1765-1815), of
Ayrshire origin through Ulster, was, as every one knows, the first to
successfully apply steam to navigation. Hugh Maxwell (1777-1860),
publisher and newspaper editor, of Scottish descent, invented the
"printer's roller" (patented in 1817), cast his own types and engraved
his own woodcuts. Henry Burden (1791-1871), born in Dunblane, inventor
of an improved plow and the first cultivator, was also the first to
invent and make the hook-headed railroad spike "which has since proved
itself a most important factor in railroad building in the United
States." His "cigar boat" although not a commercial success was the
fore-runner of the "whale-back" steamers now in use on the Great
Lakes. William Orr (1808-91), manufacturer and inventor, born in
Belfast of Ulster Scot parentage, was the first to manufacture
merchantable printing paper with wood fibre in it, and made several
other improvements and discoveries along similar lines. Cyrus Hall
McCormick (1809-84), inventor of the reaping machine, was descended
from James McCormick, one of the signers of the address of the city
and garrison of Londonderry presented to William III. after the siege
in 1689. Of his invention the French Academy of Sciences declared
that by its means he had "done more for the cause of agriculture than
any other living man." James Blair (1804-84), born in Perth, Scotland,
was the inventor of the roller for printing calico; and Robert M.
Dalzell (1793-1873) was inventor of the "elevator system" in handling
and storing grain. Samuel Colt (1814-62), inventor of the Colt
revolver, and founder of the great arms factory at Hartford, Conn.,
was of Scots ancestry on both sides. He was also the first to lay a
submarine electric cable (in 1843) connecting New York city with
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