1825 - awarded MA from Glasgow University

1832 - worked as a professor of natural philosophy in Edinburgh

1834 - designed and built six large steam carriages which ran for a short time between Glasgow and Paisley

1838 - became a manager at Caird's engine works in Greenock

1841 - invited to write the section on shipbuilding for the Encyclopaedia Britannica

1844 - moved to London as editor of the Railway Chronicle

1847 - along with his partners, took over the old Fairbairn shipyard at Millwall

1849 - elected FRS

1850 - designed the yacht, Titania, for Robert Stevenson which went on to be defeated by the America to inaugurate the America's Cup

1851 - asked to tender for two big steamerrs for the Australian Royal Mail Co

1856 - the Millwall shipyard failed

1859 - held a small dinner party which led to the formation of the Institution of Naval Architects

1863 - opposed William Froude's theory of rolling

1868 - designed a train ferry for Lake Constance

1873 - designed the great rotunda for the Vienna exhibition.