

MURDOCK. 89 



so obtained, he perfected his apparatus and made a public exhibi- 

 tion of it by lighting up the front of Boulton and Watt's manufac- 

 tory at Soho, on the occasion of the general illumination for the 

 peace of Aniirns, in 1802. He subsequently lighted up some cotton 

 mills at Manchester, beginning with Messrs. Phillips and Lee's, and 

 published a paper on the subject in the ' Philosophical Transactions' 

 of 1808, for which the Royal Society presented him with the Rum- 

 ford gold medal. 



In 1798 Murdock returned to take up his permanent residence at 

 Soho, superintending the machinery there, and occasionally the 

 erection of engines at a distance, among which may be mentioned 

 those of the New River Head, Lambeth, Chelsea, Southwark, East 

 London, West Middlesex, and other waterworks. In the following 

 year he took out a patent for improvements in boring cylinders and 

 in the manufacture of steam casings ; this patent also included the 

 double D slide valve and a rotary engine. Amongst other inven- 

 tions and discoveries of Murdock's are : a plan for boring stone 

 pipes for water, and cutting columns out of solid blocks of stone 

 (for which he took a patent in 1810) ; a pneumatic lift working by 

 compressed air; and a cast iron cement, which he was led to dis- 

 cover by the accidental observance of some iron borings and sal- 

 ammoniac, which had got mixed in his tool-chest and rusted a 

 sword blade nearly through. He also made use of compressed air 

 to ring the bells in his house ; a plan which so pleased Sir Walter 

 Scott, to whom it had been described, that he had his house at 

 Abbotsford fitted up in a similar manner. Murdock likewise dis- 

 covered a substitute for isinglass, and when in London for the 

 purpose of explaining to the brewers the nature of his discovery, 

 occupied very handsome apartments. Being, however, at all times 

 absorbed in whatever subject he had in hand, he little respected the 

 splendour of his drawing-room, but proceeded with his experiments 

 as if in the laboratory at Soho, quite unconscious of the mischief he 

 was doing. This resulted in his abrupt dismissal from the apart- 

 ments by the enraged landlady, who one morning, on calling in to 

 receive orders, was horrified at seeing all her magnificent paper- 

 hangings covered with wet fish skins hung up to dry, and actually 

 caught him in the act of pinning up a cod's skin to undergo the 

 same process. 



In the year 1815, while Mr. Murdock was fitting up an apparatus 

 of his own invention for heating the water of the baths at Leaming- 

 ton, a ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above the ankle, 

 nearly severing it in two. This severe accident laid him up for a 

 long time, and he never entirely recovered from the effects of it. 

 During the latter years of his life Murdock's faculties, both cor- 

 pereal and mental, experienced a gradual decay, causing him to 

 live in complete retirement. He died in 1839, aged eighty-five 

 years, and his remains were buried in Handsworth Church, near to 

 of Boulton and James Watt. 



