John Loudon Macadam 1756-1836 Old Road Maker
Born in Ayr. He emigrated to America in 1770 but was a loyalist and returned to Britain in 1783. His professional interests were varied, involving coke and tar and also supplying the navy with food. He developed an interest in road engineering but did not have a professional post in the field until he was sixty, in 1816, at Bristol. His idea of a road consisting of a drained bed with a layer of small stones on top, to be bonded by pressure of traffic, was soon enthusiastically adopted.