D       Be notified of updates to The Capital Scot		About Capital Scot Search this Site Site Map FAQ Notices Subscribers (Links) ICRA Checked

Wha's Like Us?

Damn Few And They're A' Died!

Scottish Inventors and Inventions

The average Englishman in the home he call his castle slips into his national costume, a shabby raincoat, patented by Chemist Charles Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland.

En-route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.

He drives an English car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop, Veterinary Surgeon of Dreghorn, Scotland.

At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers, Bookseller and Printer of Dundee, Scotland.

During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Blacksmith of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

He watches the news on television, an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the U.S. Navy founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.

Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots.

He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible, only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot, King James VI, who authorized its translation.

He could take to drink but the Scots make the best in the world.

He could take a rifle and end it all, but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.

If he escaped death, he could find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland, and given chloroform, an anesthetic discovered by Sir James Young Simpson, Obstetrician and Gynecologist of Bathgate, Scotland.

Out of the anesthetic he would find no comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.

Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask:

"Wha's Like Us?"

---

The Originator

Who invented that?  It was T. Anderson Cairns.

Tom Anderson Cairns was born in 1930 in Rutherglen, Scotland.  He trained in Glasgow as a Physiotherapist and subsequently joined the Royal Air Force.  Tom spent 10 years in the RAF and had the time of his life.  He travelled extensively and revelled in the distinctiveness of peoples throughout the world, including even, those from England(!).  Tom was an outgoing, sociable man who enjoyed the art of conversation; normally over a whisky or two! Throughout his life, Tom pursued his interests in photography, Scottish history and football(!).  In 1979, while he was working as a physiotherapist in Glasgow, Tom published his famous prose wha's us?

For the next 15 years, Tom supplied postcards, greetings cards, tote bags and other Scottish mementoes to Scots throughout the world.  Tom enjoyed a very special relationship with his customers with whom he regularly corresponded over a number of years.  Sadly, after a short illness, Tom passed away in 1994, leaving 3 grown up children and 6 grandchildren.  In keeping with his wishes, his family continue to supply wha's like us? products.  The products are, understandably, as popular today as they were some 20 years ago.

Wha's like us?

Damn Few And They're A' Died!

This article (© 2005) and photographs (© 2005) about T. Anderson Cairns courtesy of T. Anderson Cairns' son-in law, Andrew Turnbull of www.whaslikeus.org.

---

Memberships
Member of                      of the FOSI

Awards
                    

Accessibility