The first gas
lighting
William Murdoch (sometimes
spelled "Murdock") was the first to utilize the flammability of gas for
the practical application of lighting. He worked for Matthew
Boulton and James
Watt at their Soho
Foundry steam engineworks in Birmingham England.
In the early 1790s, while overseeing the use of his company's steam
engines in tin mining in Cornwall, Murdoch began experimenting with
various types of gas, finally settling on coal-gas as the most effective.
He first lit his own house in Redruth, Cornwall in
1792. In 1798, he used gas to
light the main building of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in
a public display of gas lighting, the lights astonishing the local
population. One of the employees at the Soho Foundry, Samuel
Clegg, saw the potential of this new form of lighting. Clegg left his job
to set up his own gas lighting business, the Gas Lighting and Coke Company.
A "thermolampe" using gas
distilled from wood was
patented in 1799, whilst German inventor Friedrich Winzer (Frederick
Albert Winsor) was the first person to patent coal-gas lighting in 1804.
In 1801, Phillipe Lebon of Paris had
also used gas lights to illuminate his house and gardens, and was
considering how to light all of Paris. In 1820, Paris adopted gas street
lighting.
In 1804, Dr. Henry delivered a course of lectures on chemistry,
at Manchester, in which he
showed the mode of producing gas from coal, and the facility and advantage
of its use. Dr. Henry analyzed the composition and investigated the
properties of carburetted hydrogen gas. His experiments were numerous and
accurate and made upon a variety of substances; having obtained the gas
from wood, peat, different
kinds of coal, oil, wax, &c. he quantified the intensity of the light from
each source.
Josiah Pemberton, an inventor, had for some time been experimenting on the
nature of gas. A resident ofBirmingham, his attention may have been roused
by the exhibition at Soho. About 1806, he exhibited gas-lights in a
variety of forms and with great brilliance at the front of his manufactory
in Birmingham. In 1808 he constructed an apparatus, applicable to several
uses, for Benjamin Cooke, a
manufacturer of brass tubes,gilt toys,
and other articles.
In 1808, Murdoch presented to the
Royal Society a paper entitled
"Account of the Application of Gas from Coal to Economical Purposes"
wherein he described his successful application of coal-gas to lighting
the extensive establishment of Messrs. Phillips and Lea. For this paper he
was awarded Count Rumford's gold medal. Murdoch's
statements threw great light on the comparative advantage of gas and
candles and contained much useful information on the expenses of
production and management.
The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall
Mall, London on January 28,
1807 byFrederick Albert Winsor. In
1812, Parliament granted
a charter to the London and WestminsterGas Light and Coke Company, and the
first gas company in the world came into being. Less than two years later,
on December 31, 1813, the Westminster
Bridge was lit by gas.
As artificial lighting became more common, desire grew for it to become
readily available to the public. This was in part because towns became
much safer places to travel around after gas lamps were installed in the
streets, reducing crime rates. In 1809, accordingly, the first application
was made to Parliament to incorporate a company in order to accelerate the
process, but failed to pass. In 1810, however, the application was renewed
by the same parties, and though some opposition was encountered and
considerable expense incurred, the bill passed, but not without great
alterations; and the London and Westminster Chartered Gas-Light and Coke
Company was established. By 1816, Samuel Clegg obtained the patent for his
horizontal rotative retort, his
apparatus for purifying coal-gas with cream
of lime, and for his rotative gas
meter and self-acting governor.
