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Scottish Inventions

Based on the clues, name these Scottish inventions and discoveries.
Inventions made in Scotland or by Scottish people overseas
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 20, 2014
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First submittedMay 9, 2014
Times taken8,910
Average score60.0%
Rating3.84
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Clue
Answer
Hitting a ball into a hole
Golf
Major improvements by James Watt to this
Steam Engine
Device for talking at a distance
Telephone
Way to make someone act like a chicken
Hypnotism
The "dismal science" of capitalism
Economics
Temperature unit that starts at absolute zero
Kelvin
Mirrored cylinder that you look through to see cool patterns
Kaleidoscope
Method of sending documents electronically
Fax Machine
Stereotypical Canadian sport
Curling
Way to inject medicine
Hypodermic Needle
Miracle antibiotic
Penicillin
Device that replaces human interaction
Television
Use of this gas as an anaethestic
Chloroform
Rubberized raincoat
Mackintosh
Use of these as a forensic tool
Fingerprints
+1
Level 64
May 20, 2014
I think hypnosis should be acceptable for hypnotism.
+1
Level ∞
May 20, 2014
That will work now.
+14
Level 22
May 20, 2014
The clue for TV is "device that replaces human interaction"... This is really just an opinion, and sort of factually misleading. A better clue would be something more fact-based.
+5
Level 75
Dec 5, 2020
Yeah quite a few trying-to-be-funny clues here, not convinced they landed.
+1
Level 79
Apr 21, 2023
They didn't.
+1
Level 82
Jan 17, 2024
Terrible clue. I was thinking it must be something to do with AI.
+1
Level 77
May 20, 2014
Penisilin? Or some other less than correct spellings to be accepted, please?
+1
Level 88
Aug 4, 2018
If it's illing you should see a doctor.
+1
Level 52
Apr 15, 2021
i cant tell if its a joke or not
+1
Level 78
May 20, 2014
I put in steam trains, locomotives... something else besides steam engine should be accepted
+2
Level 67
Sep 5, 2014
Trains came along after Watt, so he could hardly have improved them. The steam engine was used in mining before Watt improved it.
+1
Level 88
Aug 4, 2018
Why? That's what he's known for in every middle school.
+6
Level 75
Jun 3, 2014
Don't understand why curling is considered a stereotypical Canadian sport. I tried hockey, lacrosse, soccer, hunting, fishing - even baseball before I started going through every winter Olympic sport I could think of, and finally got curling. I always thought that was Scottish anyway, so again, don't understand the Canadian stereotype thing.
+2
Level 82
Nov 30, 2014
I got it after guessing hockey and lacrosse.
+6
Level 62
Nov 30, 2014
As a Canadian, I would absolutely agree. Hockey is the stereotypical Canadian sport, no questions asked.
+1
Level 82
Nov 30, 2014
But can there only be one stereotypical sport per country at a time?
+1
Level 46
Nov 30, 2014
I think the stereotype may come from the fact that Canada has one the most gold medals in curling during winter Olympic games.
+1
Level 43
Jun 19, 2014
Philo T. Farnsworth invented television. He was from Idaho and Utah. Unless this is referring to "television signals", or to the people who stole Farnsworth's ideas and claimed them for their own.
+5
Level 45
Jul 23, 2014
John Logie Baird from Scotland was the first person to demonstrate television, Farnsworth just improved on it a few years later.
+3
Level 82
Nov 30, 2014
It really depends on how you define television. A similar problem arises when you try to determine who invented computers.
+2
Level 85
Nov 30, 2014
"Device for talking at a distance" Shouting?
+1
Level 70
Nov 30, 2014
that's not a device though
+2
Level 74
Sep 30, 2015
Megaphone
+1
Level 84
Jun 6, 2018
Cupped hands? Yes, I thought megaphone at first.
+1
Level 83
Dec 1, 2014
"Way to make someone act like a chicken" I tried Chicken Dance and Klondike Bar before I figured it out...
+1
Level 63
Dec 3, 2014
I like to think Philipp Reis invented the telephone because he was born where I was born and the telephone is devinitely a great device. Obviously it's hard to say who actually came up with the idea first since many worked on such a device. But of course Alexander Graham Bell got the first patent for it.
+1
Level 17
Dec 3, 2014
Please accept hypnotizing for hypnotism. Great quiz!
+2
Level 67
Jun 4, 2016
Ivan Vučetić, a Croatian born Argentinian created the first method of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file, associating these fingerprints to the anthropometric system of Alphonse Bertillon, who had created, in 1879, a system to identify individuals by anthropometric photographs and associated quantitative descriptions. In 1892, after studying Galton's pattern types, Vucetich set up the world's first fingerprint bureau. So basically, he was the first to practicali use it.

Henry Faulds made great contributions to the field, but he never used the method in practice, and there were others who contributed before him, such as William James Herschel. In my opinion, you should remove fingerprinting from the list.

+2
Level 84
Mar 5, 2017
Quizmaster, in the clue, the "s" is misplaced in the word "anaesthetic".
+1
Level 41
Jul 14, 2018
Well the television wasn't invented by John Baird his design was never actually used, the real inventor of the television was the American Philio Farnsworth who 1927 demonstrated the worlds first electronic television. Alexander Graham bell stole the idea for the telephone from Antonio Meucci. Although tbf to the Scottish they did invent thadhesive stamps, the Australian national anthem, the Bank of England, bicycle pedals, the breach-loading rifle, Bovril, the cell nucleus, the cloud chamber, cornflour, a cure for malaria, the decimal point, the Encyclopædia Britannica, fountain pens, genetic fingerprinting, insulin, the lawnmower, lime cordial, logarithms, lorries, marmalade, matches, motor insurance, paraffin, piano pedals, radar, the reflecting telescope, savings banks, the screw propeller, the speedometer, the steam hammer, raincoats, tarmac, teleprinters, tubular steel, typhoid vaccines, ultrasound scanners, the United. So not bad really.
+1
Level 71
Mar 8, 2019
and the US Navy
+2
Level 83
Nov 26, 2018
And there was me thinking that Golf was invented by Bullroarer Took.
+1
Level 34
Sep 1, 2019
Wow - we have so much to thank SCOTLAND for including whisky and iron bru:-)
+1
Level 71
Sep 1, 2019
Fleming didn't invent the drug penicillin. That was done by a team headed by Howard Florey, and Fleming had nothing to do with it.
+5
Level 62
Apr 22, 2020
Fleming discovered penicillin. To say he had nothing to do with it is pretty strange.
+4
Level 95
Mar 1, 2020
The clue for television should be changed to something more specific to the actual answer. It isn't factually accurate and it could refer to any number of things.
+3
Level 62
Apr 22, 2020
I agree. It's currently the second-least guessed answer at 24%. It's a pretty poor clue if over three-quarters of people can't guess a prominent object that almost everyone has owned.
+2
Level 86
Jan 7, 2021
So weird that only 24% of people have heard of a television. How stupid we must all be!
+1
Level 87
Nov 19, 2021
As if a Scot invented hypnotism! Maybe the stereotypical “look into my eyes” swinging a silver watch in front of them, but humans have moved between states of consciousness for tens of thousands of years. Are you 100% certain that no shaman, druid or witch doctor achieved similar results long before Scotland ever existed?
+1
Level 87
Nov 19, 2021
Best description of TV I’ve ever read though…
+1
Level 71
Sep 30, 2022
Franz Mesmer, an 18th century German, is typically credited as being the father of modern hypnotism.
+2
Level 79
Apr 21, 2023
These clues are pretty terrible, sorry. The TV one... seriously? That's just silly and cringy.
+1
Level 69
Jan 9, 2024
Loved the quiz. Never realized how many things were invented or improved by Scots.

Could the answer to "way to inject medicine" be simply "hypodermic"? It seems odd to accept "needle" by itself but not this.

+1
Level 78
Mar 6, 2024
Some quirky clues there. Not one for those without a sense of humour. It's like you have to decipher the clue to get the question, and then get the answer to the question. I enjoyed it but missed 2.