Dundee pioneer deserves greater spotlight

Sir, – May I suggest that the new Dundee railway station should honour a Dundee genius on its facade – James Bowman Lindsay.

JBL lived until his death in 1862 in South Union Street, almost on the site of the new station.

He was a lecturer at the Watt Institute, a forerunner of Abertay University.

His technological innovations, although not developed until long after his death, included electric lighting, submarine telegraphy and electric arc welding.

In 1835, JBL demonstrated continuous electric light at a lecture in Dundee and predicted that it would be safer than gaslighting in the mills and in homes.

In 1854 he patented a method of wireless telegraphy through water, with an encoding system earlier than Morse code, and demonstrated his techniques to the Admiralty.

JBL was a true polymath.

From 1828 until his death, he worked on a comparative dictionary in 53 languages, and was deeply involved in the religious and moral debates of his time.

In 1858, Lindsay published a set of astronomical tables, his “chronoastrolabe”.

JBL refused a post at the British Museum so that he could care for his aged mother in Dundee.

He was not completely without recognition in his lifetime as, in 1858, Queen Victoria granted him pension.

However, today, JBL seems to have been almost completely forgotten in Dundee, although his biography is on the City Council website.

Placing his name on the façade of the new railway station may stimulate people to enquire and remember the technological advances made in Dundee during the 19th Century.

Peter Lawrie.

The Esplanade, Broughty Ferry.