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NOTES
1. A daughter of Hugh Eadie, Shipowner, Kincardine, she died on 18th March 1852 – Clackmannan Advertiser, 27/03/1852.
2. The first recorded meeting of the managers of the U.P. congregation took place on 1st March 1852. Arrangements were made to provide a library for the minister and on 5th April Thomas Dewar and William Norrie were appointed to catalogue the books which were to be the property of the congregation. When on 4th February 1855 the “Body of managers was reconstituted to consist of thirteen member” among those elected were Thomas Dewar and Robert Maule. – Minutes, 1852f.
3. The report of a complimentary dinner to Mr Adam, M.P., on November 15th , 1851, is typical of the references made to the catering in the Unicorn Hotel. “The large room was tastefully decorated. The viands, wines and fruits for the occasion did great credit to Mr Dewar by whom the dinner was served.” This comment is typical of those which followed an account of similar occasions held at The Unicorn Inn.
4. Mr Thomas Dewar had a private gas works for the lighting of the Inn long before the Gas Works – i.e. the plant of the Kincardine Gas Company – were in operation. – Alloa Advertiser, September 10th 1898.
5. The Subscription School was non-denominational and was attended by the children of parents, many of whom were not members of the Established Church and who wished to opt out of the Parish Church School. Subscription Schools were fairly common in nineteenth century Scotland. There were 450 in 1857. Some were provided by enlightened employers for the children of their employees, though not exclusively so; and others, as in Clackmannan, by the workers where at each of the three pits there was a Subscription School. The academic success of the school depended entirely on the teacher, and among teachers at that time there was a great range of knowledge and ability from those who were little more than literate to those who were quite scholarly. Mr Hogg was the teacher in 1852. By 1855 Alexander Dewar had become the teacher. In August of that year when the pupils were examined by the Presbytery “in the presence of the directors and many parents, the pupils acquitted themselves so well that it was clear that in Mr Dewar the directors had secured an intelligent, energetic and efficient teacher. Mr Dewar has only been one session in charge of the school but the way in which he performed his duties augurs well for the future prosperity of the institution.” – Clackmannan Advertiser, August 18th, 1855.
On November 6th, 1858, the Alloa Advertiser intimated that “Mr Dow of Culross has entered upon his duties of teacher in The Subscription School in consequence of Mr Dewar, the former teacher, intending to follow the medical profession.” Was Mr Dow ill equipped to teach mathematics and less knowledgeable than young James Dewar – which led naturally to the young lad’s acquiring a distaste for the local school? One recalls how young Thomas Carlyle’s teacher, Sandy Beattie, in Ecclefechan, was unable to teach his pupil Latin and Thomas had to repair to his minister for instruction in that subject; and how Dr Adams of Cambridge said of Samuel Johnson – now a university student – “I was his nominal tutor; but he was above my mark”. All three: Dewar, Carlyle and Johnson were men of genius.
6. On 26th September 1857, The Alloa Advertiser carried a long advertisement giving details of the accommodation furnishings, etc. In addition to the usual business of an inn and hotel to which was added catering for special functions, The Unicorn was also the place where coaches running between Dunfermline and Falkirk changed horses. The new proprietor, Mr Clark, tried to develop the tourist trade, pointing out in his advertisement (q.v. in subsequent copies of the newspaper) the many places of interest which were easily accessible to visitors. Also 1858: May 15th – Sale of Furniture and horses, etc., at Unicorn Inn; July 31st – Sale of growing crop; August 14th – Houses in Kilbagie Street, Police Station; November 27th – Large stock of salt belonging to the late Mr T. Dewar
7. Dr Kirk taught Hindustani because of the number of pupils who aspired to service – government or mercantile – in the Far East. – The Dollar Magazine.
8. Cf. ‘The Report’ in The Alloa Advertiser.
9. For this section cf. The Edinburgh Veterinary College Council Minutes 1866-1870. J. G. McKenrick. “The Story of My Life” and William Dick (1793-1866) in The Veterinary Review, Vol. IV.
10. The Records of The Royal Society of Edinburgh and J. G. McKendrick, “The Story of My Life”.
11. After graduating M.D. Alexander Dewar became a doctor in Melrose. On the departure of Dr I. G. Smith, the Medical Officer, to London, he was elected at a meeting of The Parochial Board on 10th February 1869, as Medical Officer at Melrose. On May 26th 1875 he resigned in order to become Physician at the Waverley Hydropathic Establishment which in these days was a very popular institution. It was extended in 1876 to meet “the greatly increasing number of visitors”. Socially he continued to cultivate his boyhood interest in curling and was, in 1873, President of the Melrose Curling Club (Border Advertiser). Like his brothers, Ebenezer and Hugh, who emigrated to Australia, to Sydney and Melbourne respectively. Alexander eventually made his home in that continent. He died at Crown Terrace, Sydney on 14th February 1906. Ebenezer, more than any of the others, retained his connection with his native town and during the last thirteen years of his life he remitted annually a sum of money to his friends in Kincardine to provide coals for the most necessitous members of the community. After his death, on 19th July 1898, that benefaction was continued by his widow. Robert Menzies carried on a successful drapery business in Kincardine and it was with him that James made his home after the sale of the Unicorn Hotel. On 17th January 1860 Robert married Eliza Scott the youngest daughter of Mr William Thomson, Charlotte Villa, Sciennes Hill, Edinburgh. Thomas, the oldest brother, went into the wine and spirit trade in Edinburgh.
12. Highland and Agricultural Society – Directors’ Meeting 1873f.
13. In earlier years there had been widespread dishonesty practiced by many suppliers of chemical manures. In an advertisement in 1860 the Kilbagie Chemical Manure Company referred to “the heartless swindle of manure companies selling trash and worse under the name of chemical manures”. The scientists of the Highland and Agricultural Society played a notable part in stamping out such dishonesty and in ensuring that farmers were supplied with a product which would give their soil what it required”.
14. He concluded his letter with this sentence, “I still trust, however, that the Society will ultimately see that this office of Chemist will never be properly filled except by one thoroughly trained in scientific research and this, the making him a real agricultural chemist will depend on the means placed at his disposal for applying his scientific knowledge to agriculture.” – Nature, Vol. XII.
15. Interestingly enough Dr J. G. McKendrick the friend and collaborator of his early years was to marry James Dewar’s sister-in-law in 1867.
16. John Fuller, a wealthy and somewhat eccentric M.P. endowed the Fullerian Chair of Chemistry at The Royal Institution in February 1833. The first occupant of the Chair was Michael Faraday at salary of £100 per annum.
17. The Royal Institution was founded in 1799 by Benjamin Thomson, Count Rumford, not only to provide facilities for scientific research but even more to encourage scientists, by giving popular lectures, to communicate to the reasonably intelligent non-specialist members of society what they, as scientists, were doing.
18. In his book, Fifty Years at The Royal Institution, Mr Ralph Cory records two incidents which are worth mentioning. Sir James, he says, had a very attractive and active personality even on to what we call old age. “Coming into the Library one day he found Dr Forbes reading. ‘Hullo! how are you?’ Dewar exclaimed, ‘Oh, as well as can be expected at my age,’ Forbes replied. ‘At your age,’ said Dewar, ‘how old are you?’ ‘Well, I’ll soon be seventy’ said Forbes. ‘Seventy!’ exclaimed Dewar giving him a slap on the back that nearly made him collapse. ‘You’re only a boy! Look at me – I’m eighty!’ – and out he went humming a tune. ‘Sir James Dewar was a close friend of Sir James Crichtone-Browne. One day, after being upstairs with Dewar, Crichtone-Browne said to me ‘You know, Corry, Sir James is getting old and I have to watch him closely’. A little later, Sir James Dewar came out of his office and said of Crichtone-Browne almost exactly what he had said of Dewar.”
19. Fleming’s book on Ripples and Waves is an interesting example of one lecturer’s course of addresses to a juvenile audience.
21. One recalls the delighted amazement of the explorers on first seeing the Pacific Ocean enshrined in Keats’ sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”: “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies, When some new planet swims into his ken: Or like stout Cortez – when, with eagle eyes, He stared at the Pacific, and all his men, Look’d at each other with a wild surmise, Silent, upon a peak in Darien.”
22. ‘And let it be also remarked that without the means of making high vacua the incandescent lamp, which for long was such a boon to familes on winter nights, would have been impossible.” – Fifty Years of Electricity, Ambrose Fleming.
23. It is interesting to observe that when, in 1921, the past presidents of The Society were invited to the celebration of another anniversary dinner as guests of honour the oldest was Sir James Dewar who had been elected to membership almost fifty-one years previously.
24. Sir James Sivewright purchased the Estate of Tulliallan from the Marquis of Lansdowne in the spring of 1901.
25. King Edward had undergone what was then regarded as a serious operation – for appendicitis.
26. Cudbear – an agent used in dyeing. This purple or violet powder came from various species of lichen and it was valuable in dyeing ruby and maroon shades as well as a variety of browns. In his speech the Lord Provost mentioned that he was a director of George McIntosh and Company which was associated with The Hurlet and Campsie Alum Company. It had been established in 1784 by a Highlander who brought his workforce from the north and as none of them could speak English there was no danger of their betraying trade secrets. He ruled his small squad of workers with military discipline and every man had to be indoors by 8 p.m. or else was fined 1/- for being late. The members of the conference also visited the Nobel Explosives Factory with which Sir James had a twenty-year connection – Glasgow Herald, July 5/6/7, 1888.
27. Biography of Sir William Crookes – E. E. Fournier d’Albe, and The Minutes of the Metropolitan Water Board.
28. This remains a subject for scientific research. As late as October 1987 Dr Alex Mueller, Switzerland, was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering a new ceramic material which can conduct electricity with no resistance. The new material is based upon oxygen and copper capable of conducting an electric current without resistance at –238 degrees Centigrade, i.e. 12 degrees Centigrade higher than anything previously known.
30. Dr Alan McFadyan, who was Director of the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine, wrote, “The fact that life can continue to exist under such conditions (-252 degrees Centigrade) affords new ground for reflection as to whether after all life is dependent for its continuance on chemical reactions. We as biologists follow with the keenest interest Professor Dewar’s heroic attempts to reach the absolute zero of temperature… He has already placed in our hands an agent of investigation from the effectiveness of which we who are working on the subject at least hope to gain a little further insight into the great mystery of life itself.” – February 1901.
31. Among the seeds used were: pea, vegetable marrow, mustard, barley.
32. Letter to W. C. Robertson Austen.
33. Speaking at a later conference in 1908, The President of the Board of Trade, Mr Winston Churchill, reiterated that internationally agreed standards were of vital importance and said, “they must be definitely fixed in value, they must be permanent and be a universal system acceptable to all”.
34. A regular and generous donor to the cold temperature research in which Sir James was particularly interested was his nephew, Dr Thomas Dewar, Dunblane.
35. Sir Frederick Abel, ordinance chemist at Woolwich and the Government’s chief authority on all matters dealing with explosives.
36. Cunning means knowledge in this context.
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