Panel stitched by:
Pans People
Susan Findlay
Frances Glynn
Avril Harris
Stitched in:
Prestonpans, Longniddry
A blacksmith born in 1812 at Keir in Dumfries and Galloway, Kirkpatrick Macmillan invented the machine that his countryman, Sir Chris Hoy, cycled to Olympic glory. A plaque on the smiddy wall at Courthill records that ‘[h]e builded better than he knew’. In 1839, Macmillan made a wooden prototype with iron-rimmed wheels, something a blacksmith will have been skilled at, and a steerable front wheel. But crucially the back wheel could be powered by pedals connected to it by rigid rods, following the principles laid down by James Watt. Macmillan’s relative, James Johnston, set out in the 1890s ‘to prove that to my native country of Dumfries belongs the honour of being the birthplace of the invention of the bicycle’. Such an upfront statement invites scepticism but this should all be ignored. Like James Small, Kirkpartick Macmillan was clearly a talented inventor, one of a long line of Scots who added to the enjoyment and convenience of all. And how else can Sir Chris Hoy’s phenomenal, natural, intuitive talent be explained? Bicycles are part of Scotland’s heritage, then and now.
Panel stitched by:
Pans People
Susan Findlay
Frances Glynn
Avril Harris
Stitched in:
Prestonpans, Longniddry