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Folk Fae Fife The Fife Science Festival |
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Many scientists and innovators do not fall strictly into the other main categories of science featured on this website, but their disciplines are indeed scientific in practice. As such, on this page you will find photographers, civil engineers, inventors, ornithologists, surveyors and an admiral whose work relied upon scientific method and principles. |
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Calotype photograph by Adamson and Hill, Fish wives baiting lines. This is a typical scene championed by the partnership, with action and local figures in Fife. |
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· 1809-1870, born in St Andrews |
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Hired by painter David Octavius Hill to photograph Scottish clergymen for Hill then to paint, the pioneering four-year partnership of Adamson and Hill used the calotype process to photograph some of the most important Scotsmen of their time. They were noted for their “action” photography & Fife subjects. |
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· 26 Apr 1821 – 14 Jan 1848, St Andrews |
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· 1776 – 1861, Culross |
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His early work with Thomas Telford led him to be one of the most important and early mining engineers and land surveyors in Scotland. His “A General View of the Coal Trade in Scotland” (1808) was a full survey of Scottish colleries. He tried to prevent women and children working in the Earl of Mar’s Alloa mines. |
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The Fife cartographer, surveyor & civil engineer worked mainly in Ireland & Scotland. His work on the Antrim Coast Road was heralded by the David Orr of the Institution of Civil Engineers as "an immeasurable legacy to the people of the Glens of Antrim...[Bald] created one of the finest tourist routes in the world". |
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· 1789–1857, Burntisland |
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Bruce was a judge and politician, but he is credited for inventing the pendulum clock in collaboration with Christiaan Huygens. It was vastly superior to verge clocks and used gravity to measure time. Pendulum clocks were the main timekeepers until the 1930s. Bruce was a founding member of the Royal Society. |
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Born in Auchterhouse, Bell’s career was as a minister at Carmyllie, but time at his father’s Angus farm led him to invent a modern marvel—horse-powered reaping machine in 1828. Demand for his invention spread rapidly. He purposely did not patent the idea and never profited from it. |
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· 12 May 1799 – 22 April 1869, University of St Andrews alumnus |
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· 1629-1681, Culross |
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Adamson was a physician and lecturer in St Andrews, but he gained fame for his chemical experiments with the calotype (1841) and the collodion (1851) processes of photography. He is known as the father of Scottish photography. His brother Robert (q.v.) was also a photographer. |
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· Living, Balmullo |
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Greenwood was the Director of the British Trust for Ornithology from 1988 to 2007 and was awarded an MBE for his services to conservation in 2007. Under his directorship BTO Scotland was developed in Stirling. |
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· 14 Dec 1775 – 31 Oct 1860, Culross |
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This engineer is known for proposing worldwide standard time zones, Canada's postage stamp, extensive surveying and map making, and engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. He engineered the ALL RED LINE and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada. |
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· 7 Jan 1827 – 22 July 1915, Kirkcaldy |
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Bruce was an innovator in coal mining, introducing undersea mining into the Upper Hirst seam with use of new drainage technology. His work gained acclaim, prompting King James VI to visit and to venture into Bruce’s tunnel which led out into the Firth of Forth. James VI accused Bruce of treason when he discovered he was surrounded by water until Bruce produced a boat and proved the king was quite safe. He built Culross Palace. |
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· 1629-1681, Carnock & Culross |
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Cochrane invented a new convoy lamp to guide naval ships in formation and designed a new galley. As an engineer, he and Marc Isambard Brunel patented a tunneling shield in 1818 that Brunel later used to build the Thames Tunnel. His exploits inspired novels, e.g. Horatio Hornblower & Jack Aubrey. |
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E-mail: folkfaefife@st-andrews.ac.uk |
