The Scottish physician and inventor Neil Arnott was born on May 15th 1788. Arnott, was born in the n

The Scottish physician and inventor Neil Arnott was born on May 15th 1788.

Arnott, was born in the north-east Scottish town of Arbroath, he  would become a very highly-regarded physician and show an inventiveness unusual for his era.

Misfortunes compelled the father, Alexander, to give up his farm and settle first at Blair and afterwards in Aberdeen. Neil was taught by his mother Ann, and at the parish school of Lunan, and in November 1798 entered Aberdeen grammar school. In 1801 he was entered as a student in the Marischal College, with a small bursary, where he remained during four sessions, and was especially interested by the lectures of Patrick Copland on natural philosophy. He graduated M.A. in 1805, and at once commenced the study of medicine in Aberdeen. He supported himself partly by acting as shop-assistant to a chemist.

By the age of 19 young Neil was a fully fledged surgeon and made two visits to China as surgeon for the British East India Company and then settled in London where his reputation would grow and grow.

He gave lectures at the Philomathic Institution and published these as Elements of physics. Arnott was one of the founders of the University of London, 1836. Within a few years he was made physician to the French and Spanish embassies, and in 1837 he became physician extraordinary to the Queen. He was elected to the Fellow of the Royal Society in 1838. He was a strong advocate of scientific, as opposed to purely classical, education.

Doctor Arnott gifted 2,000 pounds to each of the four universities of Scotland and to the University of London, to promote its study in the experimental and practical form.Of his inventions they included, a  Smokeless Fire-place, Chimney-valves, and “Other Means, Old and New of obtaining Healthful warmth and ventilation”  But is the final invention I find most interesting, he gave us the first form of waterbed. Dr Arnott’s Hydrostatic Bed, as it was known, had been created to help invalids avoid bedsores. A bath of water covered with rubber-impregnated canvas, and a lighter bedding on top, it worked a treat. The modest Arnott, however, didn’t choose to patent the idea, amazingly the waterbed was not actually patented until 1968 by an American furniture designer Charles Prior Hall, but oor Dr Arnott definitely came up with the idea first. 

And so we have another first from a Scot, the waterbed!