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Let’s hear it for another award-winning Scottish engineering firm . . . this time it’s the turn of RWG (Repair & Overhauls) of Dyce.
Industry body Scottish Engineering has given a top trophy to the company after it successfully diversified in the wake of the oil and gas downturn.
A joint venture between oil services organisation Wood Group and German corporation Siemens, RWG was voted tops for being the “manufacturing company that has done most to promote the industry in the past year”.
Scottish Engineering also flagged up RWG’s diversification in both the marine engine overhaul and the aerospace sectors, as well as pointing out a new apprenticeship scheme has played an important in the company’s growth.
Of course, Scots have long been pioneers when it comes to pushing forward engineering. And, while we all know about TVs, telephones and Tarmacadam, there are a few surprising innovations that may not be on your radar.
Flushing toilet
No, we’re not winding you up when we tell you it was a Scottish watchmaker, Alexander Cummings, who first patented a design of the flush toilet back in 1775. His USP was the S-trap, which uses standing water to prevent odours emanating from sewer pipes.
Bicycle
Being used to working with horses, it’s not surprising Dumfriesshire blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan harnessed the idea of taking the design of a kid’s hobby horse and transmogrifying it into a basic pedal cycle. Neigh bother!
Vacuum flask
Scottish physicist, chemist and all-round renaissance man Sir James Dewar created a flask in 1892. Unfortunately, while he enjoyed hot tea on his walks, his brilliant mind failed to get a patent and he never made a penny.
Dolly the sheep
We wouldn’t normally associate a woolly sheep with engineering but Dolly is no ordinary sheep – she was the world’s most famous clone. Created from a single cell at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, she was born in 1996. Engineered to allow research into genetic diseases, her creation remains contentious. Bah humbug!
Canals
The Ellesmere, Shrewsbury and Caledonian canals were all the work of Thomas Telford, another pioneering engineer hailing from Dumfriesshire. The canals were important for transport and to this day remain important arteries.
Propeller
Something as simple as a rotating screw for forward thrust wasn’t so simple before it had been imagined by Scotsman James Watt. He was the first to apply the mechanism to a boat’s steam engine in 1770, making waves that transformed the shipping industry. Water way to go!
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