Robert Wilson Memorial

 East Lothian Coastline  Comments Off on Robert Wilson Memorial
Apr 132024
 

Castle Gate, Dunbar, EH42 1HX

Robert Wilson (1803 - 1882) - John Gray Centre

A black painted ship propeller opposite Victoria Harbour has been unveiled in 2003 as a memorial to a Dubar-born maritime inventor, Robert Wilson, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth. Robert Wilson was born at the Shore of Dunbar, following the death of his father, difficult circumstances meant the family moved inland. However, Wilson’s passion for the sea and ships remained strong and he worked on maritime propulsion since his teenage years, supported by the Lauderdales in Dunbar.

By the 1820s, he demonstrated working models of rotary propellers in Leith Harbour, and winning a prize from Highland Society and the Scottish Society of Arts in 1832.  As his inventions were not widely adopted yet, he earned his living as Works Manager of the Bridgewater Foundry (in Patricroft, Lancaster) later becoming the managing partner. Wilson secured over 30 patents for engineering advances, both for the technology behind Nasmyth’s steam hammers, as well as some in propellers. While he did not receive the wide recognition – Francis Petit Smith reaped most of the rewards – his work was accepted by the navy and in 1880 he was awarded 500 pounds to licence his double action screw propeller to drive torpedoes.

Robert Wilson: https://www.johngraycentre.org/people/engineers-and-inventors/robert-wilson-1803-1882/

Dunbar Harbour and Battery

 East Lothian Coastline  Comments Off on Dunbar Harbour and Battery
Apr 132024
 

Dunbar, EH42 1HY

File:Piles of Coloured Creels at Victoria Harbour Dunbar (geograph 5747129).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Jennifer Petrie

Dunbar Harbour is an important shellfish harbour as well as mooring for pleasure and rowing boats, and was in the past a key maritime commercial hub at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. The Harbour is made up of three distinct parts: The Old Harbour (sometimes called Cromwell Harbour) is dating from 1547 to the East and is protected by a 920ft sea-wall terminating short of Lamar Island, a rocky outcrop which long sheltered the prior natural anchorage. The New or Victoria Harbour in the West dating from 1842; and Broad Haven, the old entryway to from the sea, now sheltered water between the two Harbours. In the past, the harbours here were also protected by one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, the Dunbar Castle, ruins of which are to the north of Victoria Harbour. 

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Source: Phillip Capper

Dunbar Harbour is also known as the home to the second oldest Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) station in the UK, constructed in 1901 and continuing a service dating from 1808. The Harbour complex has a number of engineering features such as:  The Ordnance Survey Tidal Gauge built in 1913 as part of a network of stations used to establish the ‘Mean Sea Level’ to measure all land heights in the UK; a 19th century two-leaf bascule bridge that spans from the Victoria Harbours Quay to the Lamar Island; and Dunbar Battery, a built in 1781 on Lamar Island, to protect the town from privateers. The battery’s structures were converted into a hospital for infectious diseases in 1874, though closing in 1906, until being re-opened as a World War I hospital in 1914. More than a century later, in 2017, the battery has been repurposed as an outdoor arts venue.

Dunbar Battery: https://dunbarbattery.org.uk/
Dunbar Harbour Trust: https://dunbarharbourtrust.co.uk/
Dunbar RNLI Station: https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/dunbar-lifeboat-station

John Muir’s Birthplace

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Apr 132024
 

126 High Street, Dunbar, EH42 1JJ

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Source: Kim Traynor 
Historic image with the house on the left, picture from 1842 from book Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir via wikipedia

John Muir, the pioneering naturalist and preservationist, was born on 21 April 1838 in the house at 126 High Street in Dunbar. His family moved to US when he was 11 years old and following eclectic studies at the University of Wisconsin, Muir dedicated his life to exploring, describing and advocating for the protection of wildness. He was instrumental in the protection of the Yosemite National Park in US, as well as other areas of outstanding natural beauty in the American West. He is noted for advancing the “preservationist” principles to wilderness protection, eschewing any human “use” of natural environment, in contrast to the “milder” conservationist movement, where more exploitative activities are permitted, as long as some of the area is preserved.

Picture of John Muir, an older man with a long beard, sitting on a rock at a lake surrounded by pinte trees, staring into the distance with his hat next to him on the rock.
John Muir, picture taken around 1902 from wikipedia

Muir was a prolific writer and published books describing his time in the wild as well as botanical and geological theories. He was well known in his time, and with his “celebrity” status, he spent time in the wild with the US President Theodore Roosevelt as well as scientists, artists and philanthropists. In his honour, his birthplace is now a museum dedicated to interpreting his life and work, and is also the staring point of the John Muir Way, a walking route connecting Scotland’s East and West coast (Dunbar-Helensburgh). The John Muir Country Park, a conservation area dedicated to local coastal flora and fauna is located to the North of Dunbar.

Track of the John Muir Way from the Sierra Club
John Muir Country park, picture from Visit Scotland

John Muir’s Birthplace https://www.jmbt.org.uk/
John Muir’s Way https://johnmuirway.org/

Dunbar Townhouse, Museum and Gallery

 East Lothian Coastline  Comments Off on Dunbar Townhouse, Museum and Gallery
Apr 132024
 

High Street, Dunbar, EH42 1ER

Category:Dunbar Town House - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Kim Traynor

The 16th century Town House on Dunbar’s High Street is one of the oldest buildings and most distinctive buildings in town, with its witch’s hat tower, hosting a clock, a bell and sun dials. Inside, the collection spans portraits of every town provost since 1833, as well as historic heraldic panels and a set of ceremonial robes used by local government past and present. The Town House is also home to Scotland’s oldest functioning council chamber, debates in which included the infamous East Lothian witch trials. There is also a jail with an original iron door and a debtor’s cell, with prisoners’ graffiti in the fireplace.

The Town House Gallery hosts regular thematic exhibitions and Dunbar and District History Society created a local history display within the Town House. In addition to the standing collection, the Society can provide further information from the comprehensive local history archive and research room. The Town House is the centre of the local tourist information service, and there have even been reports of haunting!

The historic Dolphin Inn was recently renovated and its owners are working with Dunbar’s historic society to make a dedicated trail on the history of Dunbar which will follow soon.

Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery https://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/210593/museums/11878/museums_in_east_lothian/3

The Nucleus Portraits

 Edinburgh Women in STEM  Comments Off on The Nucleus Portraits
Mar 022024
 

The Nucleus Building, Thomas Bayes Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FG

A multi-storey modern building with columns of glass windows over a white first level with columns and a covered walkway.

We hope you enjoyed the Edinburgh Women in STEM trail. 

There are many other women who made significant contributions to science connected with Edinburgh, for example, Edinburgh-born chemist and mathematician Annie Hutton Numbers (1897 – 1988), or mathematician Marion Gray (1902 – 1979).

‘Edinburgh Alumnae: a celebration’ is a collection of eight photographic portraits of women who studied at the University of Edinburgh. The introductory plaque reads: ‘As we celebrate the opening of the first building of the campus’ second century, we present here a gallery of notable women who studied and worked at the University of Edinburgh. They represent some of those few women whose talents and determination – and their passion for their subject – led them to success, despite in many cases the circumstances and prejudices of their time’.

Gallery with sign reading Edinburgh Alumnae: a celebration. Eight black and white portraits of women with information cards under them are on a beige wall.

List of portraits:

  • Molly Fergusson
  • Charlotte Auerbach
  • Christina Miller
  • Chrystal Macmillan
  • Honor Fell
  • Marion Ross
  • Sophia Jex-Blake
  • Mary Brück

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Noreen Murray

 Edinburgh Women in STEM  Comments Off on Noreen Murray
Mar 022024
 

Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library, Thomas Bayes Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FG

A multi-storey modern building with wooden panelling, numerous glass windows, and a sign over the door reading “The Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library”.

Noreen Murray, or Lady Murray (1935 – 2011) was a molecular geneticist who pioneered genetic engineering. She held a personal chair in molecular genetics at the University of Edinburgh and was president of the Genetical Society and vice president of the Royal Society. Murray published many notable papers during her lifetime, most of which were single-author publications. She worked with her husband, Sir Kenneth Murray, to develop a vaccine against hepatitis B, which became the first genetically engineered vaccine approved for human use. Murray was noted for being attentive to the careers of women around her and became a mentor to them, encouraging other women in STEM to excel. She was awarded a CBE, among various other accolades, and the Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library in King’s Buildings was named in her honour. There is a memorial tree across from the library entrance in the grassy area. Also on the King’s Buildings campus, the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh, a charity founded by Noreen and her husband, Kenneth.

A sepia head-and-shoulders photo (circa 1950s or 1960s) of a smiling woman with light curls under a dark hat, wearing a dark coat with a white polka dot collar.
An image taken through a microscope with a blue background and three red and orange viruses. To the left there is an injection vial reading ‘hepatitis B vaccine’.

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Christina Miller

 Edinburgh Women in STEM  Comments Off on Christina Miller
Mar 022024
 

Christina Miller Building, 75 James Dewar Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3BG

A modern building constructed of brick at the bottom and grey and turquoise panelling higher up. There is a stone path leading to glass door. At the start of the path is a short blue sign reading “Christina Miller Building”.

Christina Miller (1899 – 2001) was a Scottish chemist and the first female chemist to be elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Miller suffered from various childhood illnesses which caused severe damage to her hearing, and as a result many career pathways were closed to her. However, she decided to study chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University. She graduated with a special distinction, the class medal and the Vans Dunlop Scholarship. Miller went on to pursue a PhD, and her work was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Post-PhD, Miller obtained the first ever sample of pure phosphorus trioxide and became so successful in her field that she obtained a Doctor of Science (DSc) before the age of 30.  She was one of the first women to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1949. Her vast contributions to chemistry are honoured by the Christina Miller Building in the King’s Buildings at the University of Edinburgh.

Old black and white photo of a woman with short dark hair and dark eyes wearing a graduation gown and holding a diploma.

Christina Miller, graduation photo, 1920s
Old black and white photo of a dark-haired woman in a white lab coat working a chemistry lab full of glass equipment visible in the light from a large window.

Christina Miller in the chemistry lab, 1930s

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Marion Ross

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Feb 292024
 

Marion Ross Road, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3DL

A short white street sign on two legs that says Marion Ross Road. The sign is in front of a paved brick circle and trees.

Marion Ross (1903 – 1994) was a Scottish physicist and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. She published pioneering work in x-ray crystallography and made significant contributions to fluid dynamics. During the Second World War, Ross led a Rosyth-based team in the Admiralty who were working on underwater acoustics. After the war she returned to Edinburgh as a lecturer and became one of the first women admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Ross was awarded a Readership Emeritus by the University of Edinburgh in recognition of her extensive contributions to physics, and both a physics prize and a road in Edinburgh’s King’s Buildings are named after her.

A black and white photo (circa 1940s-1950s) of a dark-haired, strong-featured woman, wearing a suit and skirt and sitting in a chair as part of a group photo.

Marion Ross, cropped from group photo
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Scientific diagram (black and white) of a 3d cuboid with circles and interconnecting lines drawn on it. It is labelled with ‘mirror plane’ and ‘spinel block’.

Crystal Structure of Beta Alumina, diagram from one of Ross’s publications, 1937
Beavers & Ross, 1937, via Semantic Scholar.org

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Mary Brück

 Edinburgh Women in STEM  Comments Off on Mary Brück
Feb 292024
 

Mary Brück Building, Colin Maclaurin Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3DW

A grey, modern building with glass doors, a blue sign reading “Mary Brück Building” and a grey sign for “Brücks Street Kitchen”.

Mary Brück Building, King’s Buildings, University of Edinburgh

Mary Brück (1925 – 2008) was an Irish astronomer and astrophysicist who studied an undergraduate degree in physics at the University College Dublin. She went on to study a postgraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh and was awarded a PhD in 1950. Brück was appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland and became a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University, publishing her research widely across various journals and research fields. Upon her retirement, Brück began to research the history of science, specifically the work of women in astronomy, helping to share previously unknown histories of women in science. The Mary Brück building in King’s Buildings is named in honour of her contributions to astronomy and her endeavours to enhance our understanding of the history of science. 

A woman, dressed in a wool suit jacket with dark wavy hair, looking through a telescope.

Mary Brück with telescope. 1954
University of Edinburgh/Royal Observatory Edinburgh
Two images: One of a large number of bright stars in outer space. The second image shows a three-story stone tower with a decorative green and grey dome at the top.

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Mary Fergusson

 Edinburgh Women in STEM  Comments Off on Mary Fergusson
Feb 292024
 

Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JL

A brown stone building with light brown wooden doors and ‘Engineering’ carved in the stone above them.

Mary (Molly) Fergusson (1914 – 1997) was a British civil engineer, the first woman awarded a fellowship of the Institution of Civil Engineers. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1936 and went on to work at Blyth and Blyth of Edinburgh. She was personally responsible for a number of engineering projects, including bridges, paper mills and water purification works. She became a partner in Blyth and Blyth in 1948, the first woman to achieve this position in a civil engineering consultancy. She encouraged women into engineering profession, establishing a bursary and working with the Women’s Engineering Society, as well as other organisations. She is remembered by this plaque at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering building.

A dark red circular plaque with white lettering that reads “The University of Edinburgh in honour of Mary (Molly) Fergusson 1914-1997, graduate of the university, first woman fellow of the institution of civil engineers.”
An old black and white photo showing the head and shoulders of an older woman with short light hair and glasses, wearing a dark suit jacket.

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