Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/331

 ton, and about 1779 he was sent to Cornwall to look after the numerous pumping-engines erected by the firm in that county. He proved an invaluable help to Watt, and the references to him in the Soho correspondence are very numerous. He lived at Redruth, and is stated by Smiles to have returned to Soho in 1798; but in a patent which he took out on 25 Aug. 1799 he is described as 'of Redruth.' The specification of this patent, which was executed a month afterwards, was witnessed by Gregory Watt, James Watt's son, the declaration being made before a master-extraordinary in chancery who carried on business in Birmingham. According to documents at Soho, he signed an agreement on 30 March 1800 to act as an engineer and superintendent of the Soho foundry for a period of five years. He was, however, constantly despatched to different parts of the country, and he frequently visited Cornwall after he ceased to reside there permanently. His connection with Boulton & Watt's firm continued until 1830, when he practically retired, and died on 15 Nov. 1839, within sight of the Soho foundry, at his house at Sycamore Hill, which he built for himself in 1816. He was buried in Handsworth Church, where there is a bust of him by Chantrey.

Murdock married Miss Paynter, daughter of a mine captain residing at Redruth, and had two sons, William (1788-1831) and John (1790-1862) ; the former was employed by Boulton & Watt. Mrs. Murdock died in 1790, at the early age of twenty-four.

Murdock's unambitious career was entirely devoted to the interests of his employers, and his fame has been somewhat over-shadowed by the great names of Boulton & Watt. About 1792, while residing at Redruth, he commenced making experiments on the illuminating properties of gases produced by distilling coal, wood, peat, &c. (Phil. Trans. 1808, p. 124). He lighted up his house at Redruth, and Mr. Francis Trevithick wrote in 1872: 'Those still live who saw the gas-pipes conveying gas from the retort in the little yard to near the ceiling of the room, just over the table. A hole for the pipe was made in the window-frame' (Life of Trevithick, i. 64). The house is still standing, and a commemorative tablet was recently placed upon it by Mr. Richard Tangye of Birmingham. The year 1792 has been fixed upon as the date when gas-lighting was first introduced, and the centenary of that event was celebrated in 1892, but it seems certain that 1792 is much too early. Among the documents preserved at Soho are two letters from Thomas Wilson (Boulton & Watt's agent in Cornwall), dated 27 Jan. and 29 Jan. 1808, in which he gives the results of his attempts to obtain evidence for the purpose of opposing the Gas Light and Coke Company's Bill before the House of Commons. Murdock's mother-in-law, then still resident at Redruth, told Wilson that 'the gas was never set fire to' at Murdock's house 'at a greater distance than the length of a gun-barrel fixed to the retort.' The only certain piece of evidence which Wilson could obtain was that Murdock had shown some experiments at Neath Abbey Iron Works in November 1795 and February 1796, when gas was made in 'an iron retort with an iron tube of from three to four feet in length, and through which the gas from coal then used in the retort issued, and at the end thereof was set fire to, and gave a strong and beautiful light, which continued burning a considerable time.' This date agrees very closely with a statement made by James Watt the younger in his evidence before a parliamentary committee in 1809, when he said that Murdock commnnicated to him in 1794 or 1795 the results of some experiments with coal-gas. In his letter of 29 Jan. Wilson says : 'It is strange how all who have seen it disagree on one point or the other. . . On the whole I am afraid we shall be able to do little satisfactory.' These facts, now published for the first time, show that up to the date when he left Cornwall Murdock had done much less to advance the art of gas-lighting than is generally supposed.

Upon his return to Soho about 1799 he put up an apparatus, which was, however, only of an experimental character, for the purpose of demonstrating the capabilities of the new method of obtaining light. James Watt was doubtless interested in Murdock's experiments, as he had been at work for some time, in conjunction with Dr. Beddoes, the founder of the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol, in investigating the curative properties of oxygen and hydrogen gases when inhaled. In 1795 Watt issued a tract, illustrated with plates, describing the various retorts and purifiers manufactured by Boulton & Watt for preparing oxygen and hydrogen (cf. Considerations on the Medicinal Use and on the Production of Factitious Airs, pt. i. by Thomas Beddoes, M.D. ; pt. ii. by James Watt, engineer. Bristol, 1795). The question of taking out a patent was then considered ; but it was decided to await the result of certain litigation then pending, as it was somewhat doubtful whether a valid patent could be obtained. The experiments were accordingly suspended until about the end of 1801, when Gregory Watt wrote to his father from