Edinburgh's historical reputation

Edinburgh City Region inspired the telephone, the decimal point, electromagnetic theory, modern economics, the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica and a host of other innovations that changed the world.

The Scottish Enlightenment was centred on the Inspiring Capital's coffee houses and drawing rooms, while the famous University of Edinburgh, founded by Royal Charter in 1582, attracted some of the world's greatest minds to the city. They include James Simpson, who pioneered the use of chloroform in midwifery and surgery, and Charles Darwin, who pioneered the theory of evolution.

The Bank of Scotland, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1695, and The Royal Bank of Scotland, founded by Royal Charter in 1727, pioneered a host of financial services innovations including the overdraft and mortgage, helping to establish Edinburgh as a leading financial capital by the end of the 20th century.

Construction of the Forth Rail Bridge, the world's first major steel bridge, began in 1883 and was completed in 1892. The 2.5 kilometre bridge, the largest listed structure in Scotland, links South Queensferry in Edinburgh with North Queensferry in Fife.

Edinburgh City Region continues to make history today with innovations including:

• The world's first versatile, teachable assembly robot (1969);
• The world's first genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccine (1978);
• The world's first ‘camera-on-a-chip’ (1991);
• The world’s first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell (1996);
• The world's smallest television screen (2001);
• The world's most gender aware robot (2003);
• The world's first pure brain stem cells (2005);
• The world's first fully portable video laryngoscope (2005);
• The world's first silent building-mountable wind turbine (2007);
• The world's first commercially available bionic hand (2007);
• The world's first commercial-scale wave farm machine (2008);
• The world's first powered bionic finger (2009);
• The world's first on demand in-train entertainment system (2010);
• The world's first hologram of a protein structure (2011). 

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