Scottish inventions and discoveries solely to the subject, as well as scores of websites listing Scottish inventions and discoveries with varying degrees of science. Even before the Industrial Revolution, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wide range of spheres. Some of the most significant products of Scottish ingenuity include James Watt's steam engine, improving on that of Thomas Newcomen, the bicycle, macadamisation (not to be confused with tarmac or tarmacadam), Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the first practical telephone, John Logie Baird's invention of television, Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and insulin. The following is a list of
Necessity is the mother of invention inuentour of all goodnesse", in his book "Toxophilus". In 1608, George Chapman, in his two-part play "The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron", used a very similar phrase: "The great Mother, Of all productions (graue Necessity)". But, the earliest actual usage of the proverb "Necessity is the mother of invention" is sometimes ascribed to Richard Franck, who used it in his book "Northern Memoirs", calculated for the meridian of Scotland (1658). Commonly misattributed due to Benjamin Jowett's popular idiomatic translation (1871) of "Plato's Republic", Book II, 369c as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of