While in Scotland I read “How the Scots Invented the Modern World” by Arthur Herman and learned a lot more about history.  A selection from that book summarizes the Scottish contribution:

1. “The Scots did not invent technology, any more than they invented science or capitalism or the ideas of progress and liberty.  But just as in these other cases, the version of technology we live with most closely resembles the one that Scots such as James Watt organized and perfected.  It rests on certain basic principles that the Scottish Enlightenment enshrined:  common sense, experience as our best source of knowledge, and arriving at scientific laws by testing general hypotheses through individual experiment and trial and error.”
   

John Knox and the Scottish reformers strongly believed that everyone should be able to read the Bible.  This led to a system of schools in local Presbyteries, and an appreciation for scholarship.  Edinburgh became a center of education, innovation and thought.  Adam Smith, Edward Hume, Francis Hutcheson, and a long list of others developed the fields of political economy, philosophy, science and medicine in an explosion referred to as the Scottish Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The book details how much this influenced the world, and especially the United States.  The phrase ‘common sense’ later famous as the title of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, came from this philosophy as did many other philosophic and scientific innovations.  For this period, Edinburgh and Glasgow were the centers of education, drawing students from London and the continent.  Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania among others were heavily influenced by this period.  Walking through the old town of Edinburgh one sees statues of these greats and plaques on walls of courtyards and buildings that were important foci of this era.