“I have great hopes that some active mechanic or chemist will, in the end, hit on a plan to produce light for large factories, and other purposes, at a much less expence, by the above or similar means, than is at present produced from oil.”
Soon afterwards, Mr. SAMUEL CLEGG[14] of Manchester, Engineer, communicated an account of his method of lighting up manufactories with gas-light to the Society of Arts, for which he received the silver medal.
[14] This gentleman is at present engineer to the Gas-Light Company.
Since that time, the application of gas-light has spread rapidly, and numerous manufactories and other establishments have been lighted by coal-gas.
In France, the application of gas-lights to economical purposes, was pointed out long before it was publicly introduced into this country. M. LE BON had a house fitted up in Paris, in the winter of 1802, so as to be entirely illuminated by gas-lights, which was seen by thousands with admiration; and had a _brevet d’invention_ (patent) granted to him by the French government, for the art of producing light from wood, ignited in close vessels.
Many other attempts have been made to derive advantage from the different ingredients of coal; but they are too obscure to merit particular enumeration.
In the year 1808, Mr. MURDOCH presented to the Royal Society his account of the application of gas-light, and was complimented with Count ROMFORD’s medal for the same.
The following statement is taken from Mr. MURDOCH’s paper.
“The whole of the rooms of the cotton mill of Mr. LEE, at Manchester, which is I believe the most extensive in the United Kingdom, as well as its counting-houses and store-rooms, and the adjacent dwelling house of Mr. LEE, are lighted with the gas from coal. The total quantity of light used during the hours of burning has been ascertained, by a comparison of shadows, (_see page 23_) to be about equal to the light which 2500 mould candles, of six to the pound, would give; each of the candles with which the comparison was made consuming at the rate of 4-10ths of an ounce (175 grains) of tallow per hour.
“The gas-burners are of two kinds: the one is upon the principle of the Argand lamp, and resembles it in appearance; the other is a small curved tube with a conical end, having three circular apertures or perforations, of about a thirtieth of an inch in diameter, one at the point of the cone, and two lateral ones, through which the gas issues, forming three divergent jets of flame, somewhat like a fleur-de-lis. The shape and general appearance of this tube has procured it, among the workmen, the name of the cockspur burner.