8
A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE
by Messrs. Boulton, Watt, and Co., in 1805. The whole of the work was done under thedirections of Mr. Murdoch, who was then connected with that establishment. This was thefirst order they had executed. It was attended by many difficulties, and occupied nearlytwo years. The arrangements of some parts of the apparatus were very defective. It wasnecessary to fix siphons (more properly tar-wells) along the whole line of pipes, to collectthe tar which was condensed in them. The gas was not purified; the lime process beingthen unknown. Numerous as were the defects, they were not greater nor more numerousthan might have been expected. The practised head, and eye, and hand of the present daycan never be so put back as to be made to feel, or to understand, what it was to begin a jobof work where everything was new and untried, where there were neither drawings, norpatterns, nor previous knowledge.
The retort first used was similar in shape to that shown at page 6, Fig. 2. It was madelarge enough to contain 15 cwt. of coal, but without the opening at the bottom. The coalwas introduced by means of a cage, lifted by a small crane, which also served to withdrawthe coke. The working of this retort, both as to its size and shape, was soon found to bevery wasteful as well as inconvenient. It was succeeded by the others already described.
The following account of the apparatus erected at Messrs. Phillips and Lee’s was writtenby Mr. Murdoch, and read before the Royal Society on the 25th of February, 1S05. It isentitled, “ An Account of the Application of the Gas from Coal to economical purposes, byMr. William Murdoch, communicated by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.”
“The facts and results intended to be communicated in this paper are founded upon observationsmade during the present winter at the cotton manufactory of Messrs. Phillips and Lee, at Man-chester, where the light obtained by the combustion of the gas from coal is used upon a very largescale; the apparatus for its production and application having been prepared by me at the works ofMessrs. Boulton, Watt, and Co., at Soho.
“The whole of the rooms at this cotton-mill, which is, I believe, the most extensive in the UnitedKingdom, as well as its counting-house 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 burn-ing has been ascertained, by a comparison of shadows, to be about equal to the light which 2000mould candles of six in the pound would give; each of the candles with which the comparison wasmade, consuming at the rate of four-tenths of an ounce (175 grains) of tallow per hour.
“The quantity of light is necessarily liable to some variation, from the difficulty of adjusting allthe flames so as to be perfectly equal at all times; but the admirable precision and exactness withwhich the business of this mill is conducted, afforded as excellent an opportunity of making the com-parative trials I had in view, as is perhaps likely to be ever obtained in general practice; and, theexperiments being made upon so large a scale, and for a considerable period of time, may, I think,be assumed as a sufficiently accurate standard for determining the advantages to be expected fromthe use of the gaslights under favourable circumstances.
“ It is not my intention in the present paper to enter into a particular description of the apparatusemployed for producing the gas; but I may observe generally, that the coal is distilled in large ironretorts, which, during the winter season, are kept constantly at work, except during the intervals ofcharging; and that the gas, as it rises from them, is conveyed by iron pipes into large reservoirs, orgasometers, where it is washed and purified, previous to its being conveyed through other pipes,called mains, to the mills.