Best lesser-known Scottish inventor

R W THOMSON: Signs outside Stonehaven proudly proclaim: "Birthplace of R W Thomson, inventor of the pneumatic tyre".

What about the self-filling fountain pen, demonstrated at the Great Exhibition in 1851? Or aerial wheels for carriages, hydraulic dock, electrical detonator, machinery for sugar refining or Thomson road steamers that drew four fully loaded coal wagons around Edinburgh. A serial inventor, his final inspiration – for elastic belts, seats and cushions – was patented by his wife after his death.

SIR JOHN LESLIE: The Largo-born mathematician and physicist invented the hygrometer for measuring humidity. This was instrumental in creating the first artificial ice in 1810 by using an air pump to freeze water. Credited with many instruments including the pyroscope, atmometer and aethrioscope, and an apparatus called Leslie's Cube, which is concerned with radiant heat, not ice.

ALEXANDER BAIN: As an apprentice clockmaker he invented the electric clock in Wick. It was powered by an electromagnet propelling a pendulum. Working in London he patented his device in 1841, improving it with further patents. In 1843, 32 years before Bell's telephone rang, he invented a practicable fax machine, but his greatest achievement was the high-speed chemical telegraph.

THOMAS DRUMMOND: We couldn't put Edinburgh-born Drummond in the limelight if he hadn't invented it. Limelight – an intense white light achieved by burning lime in an oxygenated flame – was produced as an aid to his work as an Ordnance Surveyor. It achieved widespread use as stage lighting after its introduction at Covent Garden Theatre in 1837. When superseded by electric arc lighting we were left with the word, the metaphor and a Charlie Chaplin film.

JAMES CHALMERS: Chalmers, who put his stamp on posterity – native of Arbroath, bookseller and publisher in Dundee, advocate of postal reform – invented the adhesive postage stamp around 1834 and recommended using different coloured stamps for different weights. He announced his eureka moment thus: "By Gum! Yi cannae lick it – well actually, yi can!" When the universal Penny Post was introduced in 1840 Chalmers received no credit for his invention.