[10] Producing colours for textile printing required extensive chemical knowledge coupled with technical expertise.

Each colour and its varying degrees of brightness had to withstand the different fixing processes and this was particularly difficult when printing Turkey Red.

However, these political privileges were removed by the Reform Act in 1832, and the burgesses' ancient exclusive trading rights through their Guilds were abolished in 1846.

Thereafter a burgess became a title which gave social standing to the office and usually carried with it a role which involved charitable activities in a Guild, as it does today.

[14] Macadam's burgess ticket is dated 25 August 1815, allowing him entry into the Weaver's Guild and thus permitted him to carry out business on his own, (his father John McAdam is given as 'deceased' on it).

[20] Alexander was in turn the eldest son of an earlier burgess John McAdam, tanner, of Glasgow.

[21] The various types of new complex chemical processes and inventions involved in Macadam's factory for the manufacturing and printing of cotton, calico, and linen textiles excited his sons and they soon became interested in the new field of chemistry.

This meant that they largely did not follow their previous generations in business but went on to play a leading scientific and academic role in developing chemical innovation and knowledge.