Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame 2011 Inductees (2)
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James Young (1811-1883) engineer, shale oil pioneer and founder of the petrochemical industry
James Young pioneered the exploitation of shale oil, an industry that by the 1900s employed 4,000 people in Scotland. He is the "Father of the Modern Petrochemical Industry".. …
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Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), engineer and scientist, designer of the electric telegraph
William Thomson's combined genius as a theoretical scientist/mathematician and as a hands-on engineer/inventor may be unparalleled anywhere in the world…
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Percy Sinclair Pilcher (1867-1899), engineer and aviation pioneer whose work predated and informed the work of the Wright brothers
Pilcher's flights during the summer of 1895 near the River Clyde at Cardross inaugurated our conquest of the air. At his death, four years before the Wright brothers' success, he had built a powered aircraft which flew when replicated in 2003.…
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William Douglas Weir, 1st Viscount Weir (1877-1959), engineer and industrialist who held key posts in two world wars and created the National Grid
William Weir set up the United Kingdom electrical supply and distribution system, led the development of the British aircraft industry and established the RAF. He was one of the most influential engineers to hold office within the British government.…
